One traditional method is to douse existing fires with water and spray fire retardants. How they are stoppedįirefighters battle blazes by depriving them of one or more of the fire triangle fundamentals. Wildfires also occur around the world and in most of the 50 states. Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Washington, Colorado, Oregon, and California experience some of the worst conflagrations. ![]() Violent infernos are most common in the western states, where heat, drought, and frequent thunderstorms create ripe conditions. Lightning, burning campfires or cigarettes, and even the sun can all provide sufficient heat to spark a wildfire. Heat sources help spark the wildfire and bring fuel to temperatures hot enough to ignite. In Hawaii, Hurricane Dorian's winds helped feed the flames burning on Maui. California wildfires are often made worse by the hot, dry Santa Ana winds, which can carry a spark for miles. The most wildfire-prone state is California, which lost 2,569,386 acres of land to 7,396 wildfires in 2021.Īir supplies the oxygen a fire needs to burn. The greater an area's fuel load, the more intense the fire is likely to be. Firefighters call these three elements the fire triangle.įuel is any flammable material surrounding a fire, including trees, grasses, brush, even homes. Natural or man-made, three conditions must be present for a wildfire to burn: fuel, oxygen, and a heat source. That blaze burned nearly 97,000 acres in Southern California, killing three people and damaging an estimated $6 billion in property. With these ingredients, the only thing missing is a spark-in the form of lightning, arson, a downed power line, or a burning campfire or cigarette-to wreak havoc.įirefighters battle the Woolsey Fire in Malibu, California, on November 12, 2018. In these conditions, normally green vegetation becomes bone-dry, flammable fuel strong winds spread fire quickly and warm temperatures encourage combustion. Naturally occurring wildfires can spark during dry weather and droughts. The other 85 to 90 percent result from human causes, including unattended camp and debris fires, discarded cigarettes, and arson. Though they are classified by the Environmental Protection Agency as natural disasters, only 10 to 15 percent of wildfires occur on their own in nature. That’s why it’s critical to understand how wildfires get started, how to stop them, and what to do when they occur. At the same time, as the population in the United States rises and people increasingly move into rural and wilderness areas, more homes and other structures are likely to be placed in harm’s way. is expected to get hotter and drier with climate change, wildfire risk is generally expected to rise. history burned more than 10 million acres of land.īecause much of the U.S. In 2015, the largest wildfire season recorded in U.S. land each year since 2000, double the number of acres scorched by wildfires in the 1990s. An average of 72,400 wildfires cleared an average of 7 million acres of U.S. These rolling flames travel up to 14 miles an hour, which converts to about a four-minute-mile pace, and can overtake the average human in minutes.ĭestruction caused by wildfires in the United States has significantly increased in the last two decades. Wildfires can burn millions of acres of land at shockingly fast speeds, consuming everything in their paths. Hawaii is not historically known for wildfires, but-like many parts of the world-is seeing more intense fires because of climate change and mismanaged land. ![]() Some experts have also said invasive grasses not native to the island created more flammable conditions that fed the fire's flames. ![]() The fires that burned through the island were worsened by intense winds from a nearby hurricane and drought conditions. ![]() In the wake of Maui's deadly wildfires-where many died, and a historic town once known as the capital of Hawaii's monarchy was destroyed-residents and tourists are reeling from the damage.
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