California on fire

Published in

Palo Alto Shapers

8 min readDec 6, 2020

Thousands of football field sized lands were burning in California, with some of them even becoming gigafires in the first week of October (1). While California — the entire Western United States for that matter — has already been experiencing an increase in burnt land over the last six decades, fires in 2020 set up a new record, having burnt more than 4 million acres — a size that is equal to 20 times the size of New York City (2), (3).

Orange skies from the 2020 wildfire. Source: cnet4

This article not only explains reasons that cause fires, but will give you valuable information about what you can do to prevent fires.

What causes wildfires?

For a wildfire to occur there must be a combination of factors present, such as a dry climate, heat, high winds, and significant ignitable brush. California’s natural ecosystems provide all of these elements in abundance, which make the state one of the most flammable places on Earth (4), (5).

Wildfires are destructive forces that can result from natural causes (lightning), human-caused accidents (cigarettes and campfires), or deliberate acts of arson (5). Most of the wildfires in California are caused by human activity according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Figure 1). Nonetheless, fire is a natural phenomenon, and many ecosystems benefit from periodic fires as it clears out overgrown vegetation and dead organic material, keeps forests healthy, and returns nutrients to soil (6), (7).

Figure 1: Causes of California wildfires

Megafires

Megafires, however, are not normal, and to understand better why California has been facing it through the past 20 years, we need to explore how the state was built up, the Californian ecosystem, and other factors that might impact the existence of megafires (8), (9).

The atmosphere and land change naturally, but the way we interact with both continue to change, shaping the frequency and severity of wildfires in California (10). Different factors cause megafires, such as the Californian ecosystem and fire suppression, climate change, and urban development in the wildland-urban interface.

California ecosystem and fire suppression

Landscapes in California are some of the most diverse in the US, from chaparral-laced hills to coastal redwood forests, from granite domes of the High Sierra to deserts of the south (10). For millions of years, small-sized fires were a regular feature of the landscape, diminishing vegetation and stimulating regeneration. Hence, many of California’s ecosystems are fire-adapted — and some native plant and tree species like giant sequoias, oaks, pines, and chaparral need fires to reproduce, germinate, and establish themselves, as their seeds are covered in pitch, which must be melted by fire for seeds to be released (5), (6).

In 1849, when California started to be populated by missionaries and people coming from different parts of the globe, forests were replaced for infrastructure and settlements. In order to keep the fire away from the constructions, it got suppressed (7). Now, more than one century has passed of widespread and systematic fire suppression, deforestation and settlement. Literally, that means we have a lot of vegetation left over to burn (7).

Climate change

Climate change acts as a catalyst to the megafires that every year devours everything in its way. According to a study published by Williams and Abatzoglou in 2019 in the journal Earth’s Future, California’s annual burned area has increased more than fivefold since 1972, and which the authors attribute in part to a warming climate (11), (Figure 2). The authors claim that the total annual area burned during summer fires is rising fastest, and the climate fingerprint becomes clearer in the increase of areas burned in the fall as well (11). California’s climate has changed considerably over the past several decades (12). The state’s five warmest years on record occurred in 2014–2018 (13). Over the past century, state-wide warming occurred during all 12 months, with most pronounced warming in the late summer and early autumn (14). This has increased the possibility and magnitude of drought, decreased snowpack, and increased forest mortality (15), (16). The combination of rising temperatures, declining snowpack and precipitation deficits have extended California’s fire season (17).

Urban development in the wildland-urban interface

Housing costs in California have risen sharply over the last years. To find relief, Californians have been moving to areas in which housing is more affordable. These places often lie next to wildlands, such as forests, where fires are more common and are more difficult to fight (18). Housing in this so-called “wildland-urban-interface” (WUI) has exploded, and now every third house is built in them (19). Though humans cause 95% of all fires in these “wildland-urban-interfaces”, protecting these WUI communities doesn’t belong to CalWild’s priorities (20), (21).

Possible solutions

Like other natural and human-caused disasters, destructive wildfires affect economic activity. The impacts can be direct, where losses are the direct consequence, or indirect, where changes in business and consumer affect specific sectors (22). Every year, $2.5 billion are spent on CAL FIRE firefighting in California, and suppression costs reached $422 million in the last decade (23). California must begin work with fire, not just fight them. That means reversing a century of US fire suppression policies and relying far more on deliberate, prescribed burns to clear out the vegetation that builds up into giant piles of fuel (24). Here are some solutions available to help fighting wildfires:

Cultural and prescribed burning

Prescribed burning is an intentionally lit fire managed under specific conditions or prescriptions for social and ecological benefits. These are designed to burn at a low intensity and under favorable conditions so as not to grow out of control. It helps to renew the landscape and prevent larger, more destructive wildfires (25).

Managed wildfire

A managed wildfire is a fire ignited by an unplanned ignition (e.g. lightning) managed for ecological and social benefits under optimum conditions that don’t threaten structures or people (26).

Ecological thinning

The goal of ecologically-based thinning is to maintain or restore ecosystems emphasizing diversity and resiliency. The goal is to retain the oldest and largest trees because they are generally more fire resilient than small trees, provide important wildlife habitat, and are too often absent due to past logging practices. The thinning shouldn’t be done alone, but paired with prescribed burning (27).

Fluid acting as a preventive to fires

A new long-lasting fluid, environmentally safe substance that can prevent wildfires from spreading has been developed by scientists and engineers at Stanford University. The team says the treatment could give firefighters a valuable weapon in their battle against wildfires. The thick liquid tested by the Stanford University team was found to extend the life of the fire retardants without harming the environment. It could open up possibilities for firefighters to take preventive actions before fires even start. The testing found that the material provides complete fire protection even after half an inch of rainfall. Under the same conditions, commonly used fire retardants provided little or no protection from fire. The researchers continue to test the treatment with state transportation and fire officials. This includes one of the biggest high-risk areas for the start of wildfires: roadsides (28)

Drones shoot fireballs

Dirac Twindwell, an ecologist at the University of Nebraska argues the controlled burns don’t destroy enough, and more extreme fires are needed. Twindwell has developed a new tool to improve the odds in response to the issue he claims. A fireball igniters known as “dragon eggs” launched by drones. Plastic spheres the size of ping-pong balls are lobbed out of a two-pound unmanned aerial system, or miniature drone, to help the controlled fire burn. Twindwell says the use of drones enables fires to be managed more safely and cheaply. Woody plants are transforming the Great Plains’ grassland into a shrub ecosystem. But drones allow management of the extreme-intensity, controlled fires needed to clear the brush, allowing native grassland to return (29).

You, as an individual can also contribute to control fires, and here are some examples:

Bon fires: Make sure to check with the local fire authorities alert system before starting your own bonfire. Your bonfire should be surrounded by rocks and should not be more than 3feet high. One must make sure nothing flammable is around — 10 feet recommended distance. Irresponsible and unmanaged Bon fires lead to wildfires.
Gender reveal parties and fireworks: Make sure you check with local fire authorities to make sure that the firecracker is legal in your town/city. Be as far as you can from trees and dry grass. Avoid lighting fireworks during fire season in California.
Remove any dead wood and dry leaves from property — such things are fuel for wildfires. Freshly trimmed branches and leaves make the smoke thicker. Make sure you dispose of them completely.
Soak your property (leaves, trees) with water during the fire season.
If you want trees on your property- go for redwoods- they’re mostly fire-resistant.
Make sure your vehicle is not parked right next to dry leaves and other trees that can easily catch on fire with the combination of heat from exhaust and sun.
If you smoke, make sure your cigarette is completely put out. Lit cigarette butts on the ground with dry leaves around can cause fires as well.

Californian wildfires are a complex puzzle. In the era of information and data, we have access to their causes, their impacts, and solutions to them. Once new policies are applied, we need to keep in mind changes will not occur immediately. This year we had the chance to see how powerful mother nature when the sky turned orange on September 9th in the Bay Area.

To protect our land and prevent next years from setting new records, everyone needs to contribute.

This article was in collaboration with: Himanshu Ragtah and Pooja B Voladoddi

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