California Wildfire Season

What is Wildfire Season?

The California wildfire season is a time of  year in California where there are multiple wildfires that burn down acres of land. The wildfire season specifically starts around the fall . The wildfires take place in the cities of California such as Weed and  Foresthill. The first wildfire to start the season this year was recorded on September 2nd 2022 (NortherOfficia). Some of  the people involved are firefighters, government officials, and climate change experts. One of the reasons that the wildfires have started is because of global warming. Global warming causes the ground to become dryer and that allows the forests and other areas to be prone to wildfires. One fire happened for a different reason. It was caused by mosquitos, and it spread because some of the mosquitos had caught fire! The mosquito fire  burned down over 76,000 acers of land and destroyed 78 buildings in Foresthill! The mosquito fire was recorded  near the start of the season on September 6th 2022.

How To Prepare For Wildfires

The first step in how to prepare for wildfires is to create an evacuation plan. To create an evacuation plan,  you would need to plan what to do incase you, your family, or friends are separated. Then,  coordinate a plan with schools, work , and your community incase there is a wildfire or if evacuations were ordered (“Busy… Now”). You could also plan a route to one of your local shelters. The second step in preparing for wildfires is to build an emergency first aid kit. Some things you would need are a gallon of water for each family member per day, non perishable food, a flashlight, a portable radio, medication, supplies for pets, tools, personal hygiene, chargers, and many more items. Then,  the third step is to find out how your local officials would contact you in case of an emergency. You would need to find out how you can get the important information about the wildfire. Lastly,  the final step is to know what not to do when there is a wildfire. Some of the many things that you should not do during a wildfire are driving through dry brush, and making bonfires/campfires.

Wildfires VS Hurricanes

Wildfires and hurricanes are both deadly natural disasters, and they also occur in various parts of the country and world. They both use wind to help them travel and they both start with hot air. Wildfires use wind to carry their flames further into the forest, while hurricanes use wind to power them and keep them going. Hurricanes are made of mostly water, and wildfires are made of mostly fire. Hurricanes used to be a major threat about 10 years ago. Now, they are not as much of a threat as they used to be (Hurricanes…2015…Contrast). While wildfires have seen a steady rise over the last 2-3 years. Which one do you think is worse: wildfires or hurricanes?

How People Cause Wildfires

There are many ways that wildfires can start,  but over 85% of wildfires start by people! There are multiple ways people can cause wildfires.   Sometimes it is an accident,  and sometimes it is not. Many ways people cause wildfires are by campfires,  burning of debris, equipment malfunctions, and discarded cigarettes, People also commit intentional acts of arson which is when they purposely start a wildfire. If you commit arson,  you can be fined up to 150,000 dollars and 5-10 years in prison. Experts also use controlled burning which is when they start wildfires by dropping a small ball that creates a chemical reaction to start a fire, but these fires are under control. These fires also do not cause major damage they help prevent server wildfires that could possibly burn more land.

Problems and Ways To Solve Them

Some of the problems with wildfires are deforestation, dehydration, and animals being forced out of their homes due to wildfires. Some solutions people have tried to stop wildfires are by doing controlled fires, “thinning” forests to make them more open, and prescribed burns. One way to stop deforestation is planting new trees. This will allow the forests to grow back after a wildfire. One of the ways experts have tried to help animals that have been forced out of their homes due to wildfires is by relocating the animals into other forests around the area that were not affected by the wildfires. Some solutions to solve dehydration is by watering the environment. Some ways expats and firefighters do that is by carrying buckets of water with helicopters and dumping the buckets over the dehydrated land.

                                                            Works Cited

“Busy Wildfire Season Predictid, Time to Prepare is Now.” American Red Cross. Web. Jun. 2022.

Nixon, Andrew. “ Northern California Wildfires: Where to Find Updates on Air Quality,                        

Evacuations, and Offical Information.” Capradio. Oct 22. 2022. Web. Nov 16 2022.

“California Wildfires History & Statistics” Frontline Wildfires Defense. 10 Nov. 2022. Web. 17 

Nov 2022.

O’Conner, Cozen. “Hurricanes vs Wildfires – 2015’s Dramatic Contrast.” August 20. 2015. Nov

28 2022.