Countryside aflame: Fire as a hazard in the rural Philippines, 1850–1950

Fire has shaped human evolution, social organisation, and technological development, yet modern fire science remains anchored in categories derived largely from Western experience: wildland fires, the wildland–urban interface, and urban conflagrations. These frameworks obscure a fourth, largely overlooked regime – village fire – rural settlements that lack the structural protections, materials, and services characteristic of urban areas. In the Philippines, where rural settlement dominated into the twentieth century, village fire was the principal way people encountered fire risk. Using evidence from the Historical Data Papers (1951), this study reconstructs a village fire regime marked by highly combustible construction, new technological sources of ignition, and the recurrent weaponisation of flame in conflict. Contrary to the urban ‘fire gap’, village fires did not decline but intensified, occasionally acting as catalysts for community renewal. Recognising village fire as a distinct category challenges Western-derived fire typologies and broadens the environmental history of fire.