Record-breaking fires over the past decade suggest the western U.S. has entered a new era of megafires.
Fire itself is not the problem – it has been characteristic of the North American West for millennia. The problem is when fires, fueled by dry and overgrown forests, grow into giant blazes that move fast, fill the skies with smoke, and threaten homes and cities.
These are fires like the 2018 Camp Fire that destroyed Paradise, California, and killed 85 people. At one point, it was burning the equivalent of one football field per second. They are big fires, like those in California and Colorado in 2020, that destroyed thousands of homes and produced massive amounts of smoke that can kill thousands of people prematurely and contribute to climate change.
Three things in particular have increased the likelihood that megafires will occur: Warmer, drier conditions have turned trees, shrubs and grasses into dry fuel. A century of suppressing almost every fire has left more fuel to burn. And cities and homes encroaching on wildlands put more people in harm’s way and introduce ignition sources.
With almost the entire western U.S. in drought this year, portending another dangerous fire seas ..
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