Ft. McMurray 2 - Electric Boogaloo: Massive Peat Fires That Will Burn All Summer Long

[NickB79]

6. Winter does not put out peat fires

http://www.cnn.com/2016/05/11/americas/wildfire-resurrections/

Deep layers of peat can keep a fire going all the way through a snowy Canadian winter. That's because the ground gets warmer the deeper you go; it doesn't matter how much snow is on top of it.
Come spring, the weather gets warmer, drier and windier -- perfect conditions for resurrecting a wildfire.
It's happened plenty of times before. In mid-2014, seven fires in Canada's Northwest Territories ducked underground and resurfaced in 2015, Flannigan said.
Such fires kept burning through the winter, said Richard Olsen of the Northwest Territories' Environment and Natural Resources department.
They were "just breathing very slowly," he said.