They showed cities, oil-fields and even fishing fleets as giant conflagrations against the blackness of the night.

ECONOMIST: Going, going, nearly gone

Other earth buildings are roofless shells, destroyed by conflict, while others bear the scars of earthquakes and conflagrations.

BBC: The Hakka earth buildings of Fujian

These catastrophic conflagrations cost lives--23 firefighters last year--degrade air and water quality, jeopardize federally protected wildlife species and endanger local communities.

FORBES: Fact and Comment

But if credit swaps were not a primary cause of the past year's conflagrations, they were, in certain respects, an accelerant.

ECONOMIST: Credit derivatives

Rather than reforming the economy, Mr Yeltsin and his government are likely to spend the next few weeks trying to keep political brushfires from becoming conflagrations.

ECONOMIST: Russia��s nightmare

At strategic points, Mr. Platt underscores the historical links between the American and Chinese conflagrations, reminding the reader of intersections between a pair of conflicts that have typically been treated separately.

WSJ: Book Review: Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom

All of the conflicts in this tinderbox, which controls shipping lanes from the Indian Ocean into the Red Sea, can potentially give rise to regional, and indeed global conflagrations between competing regional actors and global powers.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Condi��s African holiday

There are lots of lawyers and compliance employees at major firms such as Wells Fargo, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan, and UBS, who spend much of their day putting out small customer complaint brush fires to avoid larger conflagrations.

FORBES: Failure To Report Email Customer Complaints About Unauthorized Trades Gets Broker Fined and Suspended