Nandita Chowdhury- How do wildfires impact across the western U.S?

A wildfire is an unexpected, large, and destructive fire that burns over a wilderness or rural area such as forest, grassland, prairie, brushland or land sown to crops. They can cause injuries or death to people and animals. Unlike other types of fires, it spreads very quickly across wide areas, changes direction suddenly, and can overcome large obstacles like rivers and roads. They have great destructive power.

Although the immediate causes that give rise to wildfires can be very varied, in all of them the same assumptions are made, that is, the existence of large masses of vegetation in concurrence with more or less prolonged periods of drought. The solar heat causes dehydration in the plants, which recover the lost water from the substrate. However, when the soil moisture drops below 30%, the plants are unable to obtain water from the soil, which gradually dries them up. This process initiates the emission into the atmosphere of ethylene, a chemical compound present in vegetation and extremely combustible. But then, a double phenomenon occurs, both the plants and the air that surrounds them turns out to be easily flammable and multiplies the risk of fire. And if you add to these conditions the existence of periods of high temperatures and strong or moderate winds, the probability that a simple spark causes a fire becomes significant. On the other hand, regardless of whether the physical conditions are more or less favorable to a fire, it should be stated that, in the majority of cases, it is not natural causes that cause the fire, but human action, either intentionally or not.