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Essays on Wildfire in California
Essays on Wildfire in California
Essays on Wildfire in California
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Recommended: Essays on Wildfire in California
A series of wildfires detrimentally affected California this summer of 2016 having destroyed an abundance of people’s homes and leaving them subjected to evacuation orders, but particularly the Chimney fire which has been burning since August 13, and is currently only 35% contained since reported on August 23. The cause of the majority of wildfires have been shown to be caused by human errors such as campfires, smoking, and debris burning according to several statistics and charts provided by the Los Angeles Times graphics. There have been six major wildfires during this summer that were all reported to have started on the month of August which were the (recent to oldest): Chimney fire, Blue Cut fire, Clayton fire, Rey fire, Soberanes fire, and Cedar fire. Approximately 300,000 acres were destroyed by the blaze of these rapidly expanding wildfires. The Chimney fire in San Luis Obispo …show more content…
Firefighters believed they had gained control over the Chimney fire but strong winds soon came in and began to expand it once again. Lucas Spelman, the California Fire Captain, stated that the Chimney fire is different than the rest of the wildfires occurring due to the fact that it is burning over a larger area that has created a dramatic difference in firefighting conditions. Furthermore, on the western side of the fire, where the fire was closer to the ocean, high humidity on Monday, August 22, 2016 the moisture in the air trapped the smoke making visibility a major concern for the firefighters. However, on the eastern side, firefighters were dealing with the exact opposite situation that was occurring on the western side. Those differences do not only make the firefighter’s job much harder but it also means that getting it under control before it causes more damage will require more
It is so sad to see the horror of forest fires and how they corrupt our beautiful land. So much damage comes out of what started so small. At least 603 square miles of land were burned in the early stages of the Arizona fire only a couple of years ago (BBC 2). In a Colorado fire 2.3 million acres had been burned (BBC 3). That land could have been saved if the use of prescribed burns had been in the area.
The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire not only affected the city of New York, but also the rest of the country. It forever changed the way our country would look at safety regulations in factories and buildings. The fire proved to America what can and will happen if we over-look safety regulations and over-crowd buildings. Unfortunately, 146 lives are taken before we fully understand this concept.
constructing direct fire line in the canyon during the late morning and early afternoon hours. Later in the afternoon the crew was attempting to control spot fires located east of the Chewuch river. Within minutes of doing the objective they were cut off from the escape route when flames rushed up the river drainage. The area was enduring a lengthy drought and moisture levels in larger fuels were dangerously low.
Wildfires started as an annual and seasonal occurrence in the south western region of California since the early 1930’s in part because of the hot dry summers and the hot dry turbulent Santa Ana winds that blow in from the desert during the fall months. Now it has become a yearlong event (Mckay, 2010). These conditions greatly contribute to the “fire season” throughout this area. This set of circumstances in conjunction with downed power lines and humans that ignited fires took place in October of 2007. This led to a series of fires that burned more than 500,000 acres, destroyed 1,500 homes, killed 9, injured 85, and forced the successful evacuation of around 500,000 people out of harm’s way.
Policies regarding the handling of wildland fires continue to change and evolve as new information is learned each fire season. Attitudes have changed between complete wildland fire suppression to no suppression at all. We now seem to have reached a balance between the two schools of thought and fall somewhere in the middle.
fires in the first week of October, on Saturday night, October 7, a blaze broke
In 1973, one of the most influential reports to ever come out of the fire service was created. This report would change the fire service forever and still to this day have a great impact on the way things are done in the fire service. One of the most impacted sectors within the fire service is the way firefighters perceive and implement fire prevention strategies and techniques. This report was called “America Burning” and was published by the National Commission on Fire Prevention and Control. The report was sent directly to the president of the United States of America, who at the current time was Richard
Fires kill plants and trees leaving wildlife without homes and food. Large fires cause lots of smoke and air pollution.
Prescribed fires are used to clean up the dead plants that will produce harmful fuels after a wildfire. The problem with these fires are even though these fires are supposed to be controlled, they can get out of hand. May 20, 2016, a prescribed fire in Minnesota escaped and burned more than what was planned and continued unstopped for a few days. Firefighters finally were able to put a stop to it. This has increased in the United States quite a bit this year. The acres burned by escaped fires are forty-six percent above normal. Unlike what many think, prescribed fires are not always watched. Sometimes, they will be left for a couple days with no one checking on them. How do they expect to keep them controlled when no one wants to control them?
Thesis: Politicians are proposing sweeping changes in bills, which have caused great controversy, in efforts to correct the problems that the Forest Service has
Allergens in the air also affect pollution, as carbon dioxide levels cause plants to produce more pollen (Climate Change, 2007). Smoke pollution from wildfires worsens the air quality and is harmful to breathe in. Wildfire smoke contains ozone-forming pollutants, particulates, and air toxics (California’s drought, 2015). The drought increases dry, hot, and windy weather, which intensifies the severity of wildfires. According to the CDC, the drought also increases the risk of catching fungal infections, or valley fever (Live Science Staff, 2012).
U.S. Department of Agriculture. Smoke exposure at prescribed burns: a study on the effects of smoke exposure on firefighters at prescribed burns. Portland: Forest Service, 1995.
The problem of Coal fires is not limited to Centralia, Pennsylvania, however. It is a problem that has caused major difficulties both in other areas of the United States (like Colorado) and also other parts of the world. In Indonesia, for instance, a series of forest fires in 1982 ignited a series of coal fires, 106 of which the government was able to extinguish, leaving 159 that are still raging to this very day. (Amos) A coal fire in Jharia, India, that had already caused the government to relocate the town’s population, destroyed a riverbank, unleashing a rush of water in the underground mines that drowned 78 coal workers. By some estimates, fires that rage in the northern coal belt of China burn something like 200 million tons of coal each year. (Krajick)
Fire at any level can be devastating, yet the effects that wildfires have on every worldwide country really has left its mark on the land. As written by world renowned wild fire spokesperson Smokey the Bear, “Every year, wildfires sweeps through parts of the United States setting wilderness and homes ablaze. On average these raging infernos destroy about four to five million acres of land a year. But in 2012, wildfire burned more than 9.3 million acres, an area about the size of Massachusetts and Connecticut combined” (U.S. Wildfires). Destroying homes, crops, towns and of course forests. Yet the effects of these fires can be seen from a negative perspective as well as some positive. Plus there are natural causes as well as manmade that makes these destructive fires erupt and become almost unstoppable in seconds.
The Forest fire is occurring very frequently nowadays, reasons for it are a heavy increase in global warming and an increase in temperature.