Research on the Psychological Effects of Wildfires: A Bibliography

Leslie Wind, Ph.D., Boston College, and
Fran Norris, Ph.D., Dartmouth Medical School and NCPTSD

Full Bibliography with Abstracts (PDF- 300K)

In October, 2007, numerous wildfires raged throughout southern California, destroying an estimated 1,700 homes and causing nearly 500,000 people to evacuate temporarily (Associated Press, 2007). A number of studies of the psychological consequences of wildfires have been conducted over the past 25 years, beginning with the seminal studies of the 1983 Ash Wednesday bushfires in Australia. Altogether we found research related to 12 separate events occurring between 1983 and 2003, including wildfires in California, Florida, and Australia. We limited the scope of this bibliography to fires that damaged homes and neighborhoods. This scope excludes several important disasters that caused extensive loss of life and damage in particular settings, such as theatres, cafes, supper clubs, and discotheques, but includes some technological accidents that engendered massive fires in residential areas, such as in Enschede, The Netherlands, in 2000 and Toulouse, France, in 2001.

Although their number is not large, these studies span a range of sample types (children, adult survivor, rescue/recovery workers) and locations (United States, Europe, Australia). The consequences of most of the studies abstracted below were in the moderate range, meaning there was significant stress and distress, but modest prevalence of psychopathology. However, a few studies did find more severe effects, meaning that at least 25% of the study sample met the investigators' criteria for disorder, caseness, or clinically significant distress. McFarlane (1987), for example, documented severe effects of the Ash Wednesday Bushfire on children, as did Godeau et al. (2005) after the massive fire in Toulouse. On the basis of a large study of Enschede residents, Van Kamp and colleagues reported that at least 30% of those affected by the fireworks disaster experienced serious physical and mental health problems 2-3 weeks after the explosion. Van der Velden and colleagues (2006) found a substantial increase over time in the use of mental health services among Enschede residents. Several studies abstracted here present findings on risk factors for adverse outcomes. These findings are largely consistent with previous summaries of the literature on disasters (see Norris et al., 2002). There is some controversy regarding the role of peritraumatic dissociation during the fire as an important predictor of later mental health problems (Koopman et al., 1996; Marcelissen, 2006.

Associated Press (2007). California wildfires at a glance. Downloaded October 28, 2007 from Newsday.

Norris, F., Friedman, M., Watson, P., Byrne, C., Diaz, E., & Kaniasty, K. (2002). 60,000 disaster victims speak, Part I: An empirical review of the empirical literature, 1981 - 2001. Psychiatry, 65, 207-239.

Full Bibliography with Abstracts (PDF- 300k). This bibliography includes abstracts drawn from the PILOTS database.