CAMP FIRE- 2018 CALIFORNIA WILDFIRES
1) The
Camp Fire Wildfire in Butte County, Northern California started on 8 November,
2018, and was 100 % contained seventeen days later on 25 November, 2018.(census.gov)
Camp Fire is now deadliest in
California history- CNN.com
2) The
Camp Fire in Butte County, California, was named for the area it started in
which is Camp Creek Road. It is the most disastrous and lethal wildfire in
California’s history. It is toward the top of the list for the world’s
deadliest wildfires, and it ranks 6th deadliest in United States
history. This enormous fire was caused by electrical transmission lines owed by
Pacific Gas and Electricity located in the area of Pulga(fire.ca.gov). CAL FIRE
investigators thoroughly investigated the area of the fire’s origin to
determine cause. The fire started early in the morning of the 8th of
November near the community of Pulga in the county of Butte. With Red Flag
conditions in place, strong winds blowing, very dry vegetation and tinder, high
temps, and low humidity stimulated the wildfire and caused it to spread
exceptionally fast. The fire burned 153,336 acres, destroyed 18,804 structures,
and it is responsible for the evacuation of 52,000 people, caused 85 civilian
deaths, and injuries to several firefighters. It was determined that most of
the damage occurred in the first four hours of the wildfire. As the first
winter rains appeared, firefighters achieved 100 percent containment of the
Camp Fire Wildfire seventeen days later on the 25th of November.
CAMP FIRE DESTROYS PARADISE,
CALIFORNIA: PHOTOS-THE ATLANTIC
Creator: JOSH
EDELSON | Credit: AFP/Getty Images
3) The
actions that could have mitigated the Camp Fire in California are many.
Firstly, it was determined that Pacific Gas and Electricity has equipment that
was sparking or malfunctioning. PG&E is a California state regulated
electric company. Another possible mitigation is forest management.CAL FIRE,
the main firefighting agency in the state, stated that decades of policy that
discouraged controlled burns to reduce the fuel load. Some prescribed burns in
the state have been hindered by the concerns for air quality and by
environmental lawsuits(Forbes.com). Nearly half of California’s land is
government owned and managed by the U.S. Forest Service. Before 1990,
approximately 10-12 billion board-feet of timber was harvested from national
forests. In 2013, due to environmental policies, only 2.5 billion board-feet
was harvested. It is not difficult to see that there would be much larger
underbrush and timber available to fuel bigger wildfires. Another contributing
factor could be the rising prices of real estate in California’s cities. With
high priced real estate, and even higher taxes many people are moving outside
the city limits where they can afford a bigger house or acquire some land at a
lesser price than in the city. This savings in property and taxes makes a
commute into work well worth the time it takes to drive back and forth. With so
many wildfires taking place in the summer months, when the rains come in the
winter season, flooding is promoted by the lack of vegetation on the hillsides
in California. One way to mitigate the damage is to build houses and other
structures with fire resistant materials that can better withstand fires.
Understory burn as part of the Red
Salmon Complex Fire, September 3, 2020.
United States Forest Service via
Wikimedia Commons.
The link below shows a small part
of the devastation of Camp Fire Wildfire 2018.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2KACRDzG14
https://www.census.gov/topics/preparedness/events/wildfires/camp.html
https://www.fire.ca.gov/media/5121/campfire_cause.pdf
Eremita, Brianna;
Komshian, Karin; and Leza, Sedona, "Fire-Resilient Housing for Paradise,
California" (2019). Civil,
Environmental and Sustainable Engineering Senior Theses. 76.
https://scholarcommons.scu.edu/ceng_senior/76
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