Development near natural areas puts more Californians in the path of wildfires
Wildland-urban interface areas grew 20 percent in the state from 1990 to 2010
By
Laurel Hamers
2:30pm, November 15, 2018
Noah Berger/Associated Press
In the past week, the Camp Fire has killed at least 56 people and leveled the Northern California town of Paradise. Another wildfire raging through the Los Angeles suburbs, the Woolsey Fire, has already destroyed more than 500 buildings and forced some 250,000 people to evacuate their homes.
Such disasters are likely to occur more frequently in the coming years, data from recent years suggest. That’s because urban development is creeping further into woodlands, prairies and other natural areas and putting more communities in the path of wildfires. The ongoing California fires have been fueled by drought and high winds, but it’s their proximity to people that has made them especially deadly and destructive — burning through areas where housing abuts grasslands or forests, or where natural vegetation is mixed in with homes.
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/development-near-natural-areas-puts-more-californians-path-wildfires
