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Vanessa Yazzie
Dr. Derek Mallia
ATMO-1010
December 9, 2017
Wildfires in Western U.S

Wildfires have unquestionably been an obstacle in America. The history of wildfires are

interesting because it helps us understand the dangers that could arise. The trend in wildfires are

intensity increasing in many aspects. Increasing wildfires could be dangerous and even

impossible to put out. Different factors come into play when approaching wildfires. Researchers

are still investigating and keeping various records of the fires. Looking back on past evidence

could help us identify problems with continuous fires. Where are the most severe and largest

wildfires that take place in America?

When investigating where wildfires mostly occur, we need to take into consideration that fires

start for multiple reasons. The two biggest reasons how wildfires start are naturally caused by

nature or by humans. According to the National Park Service, As many as 90 percent of

wildland fires in the United States are caused by humans. Some human-caused fires result from

campfires left unattended, the burning of debris, negligently discarded cigarettes and intentional

acts of arson. The remaining 10 percent are started by lightning or lava. It is interesting to read

that humans could be the ones starting the majority of the wildfires. When considering that we

all share this plant, and expect to resource from it.

Nature can cause some intensive wildfires throughout history. The most common nature caused

wildfire is by lighting. According to Nix, Lightning randomly strikes the earth an average of

100 times each second or 3 billion times every year and has caused some of the most notable
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wildland fire disasters in the western United States. When a lightning strikes in an area with dry

shrubs, and receives little rain it cause the whole area to light and burn.

The most common area that dry lighting, occurs is in the westerly part of the United States. The

western states tend to have more forest, national parks, mountains and bare land. The west states

are much bigger than the east. They tend to have more space creating larger wildfires. Looking

back into history the trends of wildfires have increased tremendously. There are three types of

fire spread types that can occur. Ground fires are trees roots, plants and coal that burns from

under the ground, and can burn through the surface. The leads us to surface fires it starts on the

ground, then starts to ignite the tree branches and other plants. The last type of wildfire is called

crown fires. Crown fires tend to burn through the top layer of trees. They are considered the most

dangerous and hardest to contain.

The most current wildfires that we are fighting is in southern California called Thomas. It is

claimed it could be the most massive wildfire weve had in a long time. According to Gabbert,

The 132,000-acre Thomas Fire is far from being contained. Over the last two days it has been

spreading to the west, almost enveloping the city of Ojai and growing closer to Carpinteria as it

burns near the Pacific Ocean. The forecast have stated that they are experiencing the most

server winds and have no signs of it raining. No deaths have been reported but the states largest

wildfire continues to actively grow, burning more than 200 square miles and damaging more

than 400 buildings. This wildfire had cost many hardships and terrible losses. The wildfire will

continue to destroy everything in its path, until the winds calm down.
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According to Garret, the red line on the map of the Thomas Fire was the perimeter at 11 p.m.
PST December 7, 2017. The white line was the perimeter about 24 hours before.

Fighting wildfires can be threating and risky for everyone involved. The weather forecast

releases a fire weather watch, informing viewers to be alarmed to possible fire danger in the area.

The red flag warning is issued when there is a high probability that the fire is near. Battling

wildfires are organized and handled with careful procedures. Authorities start out with mapping

the surrounding areas and blocking them off. They look at all approaches to put the fire out, and

where they are going to station trained firefighters. The most common firefighters are Hotshots

and Smokejumpers. Hotshots work in small personal teams to prevent the fire from spreading.

Smokejumpers are trained to jump out of planes to small remote areas, to put the fires out to

prevent larger areas from burning. While the crew is working on the ground, helicopters are used

to put wildfires out from above. They use large tanks called air tankers to drop thousands of
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gallons of water. You will often see red smoke coming from the plans, which is a chemical that

has fertilizer to slow and ease the blaze.

After getting the wildfire under control, the after math is devastating. The after math could affect

everyone. Resources are limited and reviving civilization back to normal is not an easy task.

People have their homes damaged, ranches burned and business are lost. Another loss is the

vegetation and wildlife. The soils in the ground are stripped from nutrients and total decaying in

returning of life forms. In Salt Lake City, the biggest challenge is the air quality. Since the

westerly states have the most wildfires, the pollution in the air gets pushed into the valley.

Causing the air to become polluted, thick, and contains ashes. It is a big issue for Salt Lake City

and surrounding areas, because they are surrounded by the Rocky Mountains. The valley is in a

fish bowl. The pollution gets trapped in the valley and is hard to eliminate. Residents take

precautions and start to wear masks, drive less, and stay indoors.

In conclusion, the wildfire trend has increasingly grown in size. The important understanding is

that we use past, and present concepts. Applying concepts to future wildfires could possibly

reduce damage and size. Advance technology could aid in experimenting with recreating

wildfires, and finding different techniques to handle the outbreak. We can say that wildfires are

dangerous to society, and could possibly eliminate human life

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Works Cited

"Wildland Fire: Wildfire Causes | U.S. National Park Service." National Parks Service. U.S.

Department of the Interior, n.d. Web. 09 Dec. 2017.

Nix, Steve. "An Explanation of Origin and Causes of Wildfire." ThoughtCo. N.p., 12 Aug. 2017.

Web. 09 Dec. 2017.

Gabbert, Author Bill. "Thomas Fire Continues to March to the West." Wildfire Today. N.p., n.d.

Web. 09 Dec. 2017.