Does burning harm birds or marine life?
There have been no documented burns where birds or marine life (including mammals) have been attracted to the fire or smoke and thereby killed or injured by the smoke, fire or oil itself. There are, of course, numerous examples of injury and death caused by floating oil alone. The combustion of that oil, however, actually helps to deter such injury by creating heat or a reduction in visibility that tends to keep birds and other animals away from the contained oil. In much the same way that free-swimming (i.e., non-planktonic) organisms seem to detect and stay away from potentially harmful (though short-duration) concentrations of dispersed oil, most birds and marine life know to stay away from fire and smoke. Most of the heat generated during burning (~98%) is radiated up and outward from a fire. What little heat is radiated and conducted back into the oil and surface water is used primarily to keep the oil at or above its fire point. The heat that is passed into the water below the sl
