The Destruction Caused By Wildfires In California
April 13th, 2009. Published under Nature. No Comments.
A fire is no laughing matter. Whether it is caused by a faulty gas pipe, a candle left unattended, a flaw in the construction of a fireplace, or a campfire that was not extinguished properly, fires have caused numerous deaths and caused billions of dollars in repairs. Due to the ever growing population of America, developers have hired construction companies to build on the outskirts of major metropolitan cities. In California, the population of Los Angeles County alone is in excess of 10 million people. New homes have been built in areas where the summer days get very hot and when you combine the hot summer days with strong winds and very dry foliage, and you’ve got a recipe for disaster.
These wildfires do not occur randomly. It is found that four out of five times, a wildfire is caused by a person. That might be a shocking statistic, but most wildfires start because people fail to properly extinguish their campfires or dump their lit cigarette in places they should not be disposing them. Still, others are caused by arsonists to satisfy their insatiable thirst for anarchy or for the sight of fire. In February 2009, residents of Australia will never forget the deadliest fire they have ever had in their state of Victoria, which killed over 180 people and a countless number of animals, injured others, and destroyed homes. The cause of the fire is unknown, but officials have brought in some people believed to be the perpetrators of this horrendous incident.
In the United States alone, wildfires consume an average of 1.2 million acres of land annually. During the hot summer months, firefighters in California are ready to pounce on the nearest fire, and they will attempt to quench the fire before it gets worse. Sometimes, the weather conditions does not help the situation at all and add fuel to the fire. The infamous Santa Ana winds that come from the northeast or east are often very hot and dry and assist the fires in spreading throughout the land even more. Often times, these fires get so massive they become a conflagration, capable of creating its own weather and influencing the weather pattern in nearby areas.
Every year, brave firefighters die in the struggle to contain these fires. They wear their gear and put on their helmet knowing that they might not return home that night to their family, friends, and other loved ones. If being attentive and responsible means saving lives and preventing destruction and havoc across the land, then it is time for people to start paying for attention when they are handling fire.
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