[et_pb_section admin_label=”section”][et_pb_row admin_label=”row” make_fullwidth=”on” use_custom_width=”off” width_unit=”on” use_custom_gutter=”off” padding_mobile=”off” allow_player_pause=”off” parallax=”off” parallax_method=”off” make_equal=”off” parallax_1=”off” parallax_method_1=”off” parallax_2=”off” parallax_method_2=”off” column_padding_mobile=”on”][et_pb_column type=”2_3″][et_pb_post_title admin_label=”Post Title” title=”on” meta=”off” author=”off” date=”off” categories=”off” comments=”off” featured_image=”on” featured_placement=”background” parallax_effect=”off” parallax_method=”on” text_orientation=”center” text_color=”light” text_background=”on” text_bg_color=”rgba(0,0,0,0.56)” module_bg_color=”rgba(255,255,255,0)” title_all_caps=”off” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”] [\/et_pb_post_title][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]<\/p>\n
Fires are raging across California in what\u2019s been an early\u00a0and deadly start<\/a>\u00a0to this year\u2019s fire season. But the truth is: fire season never really stopped. \u201cWe\u2019re responding to wildland fires year round now,\u201d California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire) spokesman Scott McLean told\u00a0The Sacramento Bee<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n In ways big and small, wildfires are human-made disasters, which means it\u2019s up to us to stop them. To report this video, I spoke to\u00a0Mike Flannigan<\/a>, a wildfire expert at the University of Alberta in Canada. He told us about the ways humans are making fires worse. Then,\u00a0The<\/em>Verge<\/em>\u2019s video team went to see real-world proof by driving north toward the fires that have been\u00a0scorching the state<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n<\/div>\n They saw smoke rising up around Lake Berryessa from the County Fire, which burned through more than\u00a090,200 acres in Northern California before it was contained in mid-July<\/a>. Cal Fire traced the fire back to a spark\u00a0from an electric fence<\/a>\u00a0that had been installed incorrectly. It\u2019s a painful reminder that humans cause\u00a084 percent of the accidental fires in the US<\/a>.<\/p>\n But humans don\u2019t just make the sparks; we also put ourselves in harm\u2019s way. Some studies estimate that more than 40 percent of new houses\u00a0have popped up in fire-prone areas<\/a>. Fires are key to keeping ecosystems in the West healthy and preventing fuel from building up to dangerous levels. But the presence of people makes it harder for land managers to let controlled fires burn. \u201cAllowing fire back on the landscape in many ecosystems will help prevent some of these large, intense, catastrophic fires,\u201d Flannigan says. \u201cThe problem becomes if you have a landscape that has lots of human activity on it, it\u2019s difficult to allow fire to take its natural course.\u201d<\/p>\n We\u2019ve also created ideal conditions for catastrophic fires, and that\u2019s probably due to climate change. After all,\u00a0. And researchers project that\u00a0drought risk in California<\/a>\u00a0will only get worse as global temperatures rise.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019ve got fuel, you\u2019ve got conducive fire weather, you\u2019ve got ignition,\u201d Flannigan says. \u201cAs long as we got those three ingredients, we\u2019ll always have fire.\u201d But since fires are human-made disasters, that means we also have possible solutions. We can bury power lines, like\u00a0the<\/a>\u00a0ones<\/a>\u00a0linked to\u00a0the deadly fire siege in October 2017<\/a>; build fire breaks into communities; do more controlled burns; and, in the long term, cut back on the greenhouse gases we pump into the atmosphere, Flannigan says. \u201cEvery human-caused fire is preventable.\u201d<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text admin_label=”Re Blog ” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]<\/p>\n Re Blog from<\/strong><\/span>:-<\/p>\n\u201cEVERY HUMAN-CAUSED FIRE IS PREVENTABLE<\/span>.\u201d<\/q><\/strong><\/h4>\n
\u201cYOU\u2019VE GOT FUEL, YOU\u2019VE GOT CONDUCIVE FIRE WEATHER, YOU\u2019VE GOT IGNITION<\/strong><\/span>.\u201d<\/q><\/h4>\n<\/div>\n
Every human-caused fire is preventable\u2019<\/h2>\n