Explained: What is making California’s wildfires so deadly?

California is on fire, again.

The Oak fire, which started on Friday near the town of Midpines, California, has burned out of control, growing into one of California’s biggest blazes of the year, forcing thousands of residents to flee remote mountain communities.

The severity of the fire prompted California governor, Gavin Newsom, to declare a state of emergency for the area, allowing for the deployment of thousands of emergency personnel.

According to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or Cal Fire, some 2,000 firefighters were battling the Oak Fire, along with aircraft and bulldozers, facing tough conditions that included steep terrain and spiking temperatures.

Despite the tireless efforts of the firefighters, the blaze has already consumed more than 15,600 acres (6,313 hectares) and remains zero per cent contained as of Sunday. The fire, a few dozen miles southwest of Yosemite National Park’s southern edges, threatens the world’s oldest and largest trees at the Park.

An AFP report quoting officials said that the ‘explosive’ blaze had left ashes, gutted vehicles and twisted remains of properties in its wake. Over 10 properties had also been destroyed and thousands more were threatened.

Fearing the worst, more than 6,000 people had already evacuated the area in search for safer land.

Daniel Patterson, a spokesman for the Sierra National Forest, was quoted as telling Fox News, “The fire is moving quickly. This fire was throwing embers out in front of itself for up to two miles yesterday. These are exceptional fire conditions.”

Not the first

The fire that broke out on Friday isn’t the first time that California is battling a massive blaze.

Fire is a natural part of California’s landscape, but in the recent years they have become more catastrophic.

According to Cal Fire records, eight of the state’s 10 largest fires on record, and 12 of the top 20 have happened within the past five years.

The Dixie fire of 2021 and 2020’s August fire complex stand out for their size. The Dixie fire in July 2021 near a Pacific Gas & Electric Co power station is considered the second largest recorded wildfire in state history. It blazed through more than 463,000 acres and caused untold damage.

The 2020 August Complex fire started in August 2020 started as more than 30 separate, lightning-caused fires in the Mendocino National Forest. The fire displaced tens of thousands of people. It burned more than 1,032,000 acres and 8,200 structures before being contained in November 2020.

The total area burned by fires each year and the average size of fires is up as well, according to Keith Weber, a remote sensing ecologist at Idaho State University and the principal investigator of the Historic Fires Database, a project of NASA’s Earth Science Applied Sciences program. The database shows that about three percent of the state’s land surfaces burned between 1970-1980; from 2010-2020 it was 11 per cent.

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Why is California burning so much?

Experts provide key reasons that is making California wildfires so catastrophic.

The very first reason is the weather and climate change.

Park Williams, a bioclimatologist at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, in a New York Times report had explained, “Fire, in some ways, is a very simple thing. As long as stuff is dry enough and there’s a spark, then that stuff will burn.”

California gets most of its moisture in the fall and winter. Its vegetation then spends much of the summer slowly drying out because of a lack of rainfall and warmer temperatures. That vegetation then serves as kindling for fires.

Experts note that climate change has played a significant role in shaping the number and intensity of these fires. In recent years, California’s climate has gotten hotter. Drier conditions mean less snowpack in the Sierras, less runoff in the spring, and less moisture for vegetation. These conditions have made it especially easy for massive wildland fires to ignite and quickly burn through parched vegetation.

Another explanation for the deadly wildfires is the strong Santa Ana winds. These strong extremely dry downslope winds that originate from cool, dry high-pressure air masses in the Great Basin fan the region’s deadliest wildfires.

Development has also made wildfires more dangerous. As more of California is developed, communities have been pushed deeper into high fire hazard zones, which means more humans are living in areas that naturally burn. More people in those spots means an increased possibility of ignitions, and more properties and lives in the way of flames when the landscapes do catch on fire.

The larger number of people can be blamed for the wildfires in California. Nina Oakley, an assistant research professor of atmospheric science at the Desert Research Institute, was quoted as saying, “Many of these large fires that you’re seeing in Southern California and impacting the areas where people are living are human-caused.”

Another peculiar reason for the increasing wildfires in California is the overgrowth of invasive grasses. They pop up a year or two after a fire burns through, displacing native plants and reducing the amount of time between big fires. Out in the desert, the grasses fill in the space between native plants, carrying fire long distances and enabling big burns that are otherwise uncharacteristic of the area.

California’s fires are disruptive long after they are put out, displacing homeowners and even entire communities for months or years.

With inputs from agencies

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