POSTED 1 NOVEMBER 2007
California's burning: 2007 edition
Last week's fires in Southern California grew with astonishing intensity, fanned
by near-record Santa Ana winds. An estimated 518,000 acres -- an area larger
than New York City -- was scorched, along with more than 2,800 structures. At
least seven people were dead, and about one-half million evacuated at the height
of the flames. The economic cost has long since passed $1 billion.
Brandi Aurelio in the remains of her home in Lake Arrowhead, Calif., Oct. 28, 2007. AP Photo/Jeff Chiu
The 2007 fire season was nearly as destructive as 2003, when the largest fires in the history of Southern California obliterated 3,500 houses. Wildfires and burning houses have also taken center stage in Central California and the Northern Rockies, where a construction boom is fueling a frenzy of concern about the wisdom of living in beautiful places where fire is practically inevitable.
Satellites show smoke from wildfires in Southern California
spreading over the Pacific Ocean. Fires are outlined in red. Photo:
October
22: NASA/MODIS
Rapid Response
The focus of concern about western wildfires occurs at the wildland urban interface (WUI), where houses are built on large lots on land dominated by trees, shrubs or grasses. The WUI is booming: From Maine to Montana to California, people are pouring foundations in the wilds: In California alone, 5.1 million people live in the WUI, says Volker Radeloff, a forest ecologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who studies California. Nationally, 38 percent of houses are in the WUI, he adds, although much of this land does not face wildfires in today's climate.
Santa Clarita neighborhood in Los Angeles County, October
21, 2007. Photo from Wikipedia
The 2007 fires showed the predictable risk of development in fire-prone areas, Radeloff says. "When [Gov.] Arnold Schwarzenegger said this was a tragedy, he was right. But when he said the big problem was the wind, he was wrong. No, this is a man-made problem."
We got to wondering about some specifics:
Is global warming making Western fires more severe?
Is global warming fueling the wildland fire crisis?
Megan Anderson, project assistant; Terry Devitt, editor; S.V. Medaris, designer/illustrator; David Tenenbaum, feature writer; Amy Toburen, content development executive
