Hundreds of man-made fires are burning again in remote areas of Indonesia, blackening vast areas of rain forest and sending pungent smoke across several countries.

Richland is located in the middle of what was once the Gull Prairie, an upland area relatively free of trees and maintained by natural and man-made fires.

There are also man-made fires that clear out the vegetation that affect the habitat as well.

In Brazil, settlers and farmers are beating back the jungle with man-made fires, transforming the wild into farm or pasture.

Brazilian scientists monitoring satellite pictures of the forest recently counted 6,000 man-made fires in a single day.

Officials said they suspected the blaze had started Saturday afternoon with a man-made fire in a canyon area, which was closed to campers, at the base of Mount Sedgwick.

Evidence of prehistoric, man-made fires exists on all five continents.

These man-made fires are commonly caused by power line failures, vehicle fires and collisions, sparks from machinery, arson, or campfires.

After four months, the man-made fires, set on the heavily forested islands of Borneo and Sumatra to clear land for crops, are spreading rather than shrinking.

The magnitude of the ozone, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide and methane released by man-made fires is also raising new questions about their contribution to the greenhouse effect.