Friday, August 14, 2026
Science

There's nothing 'wild' about most wildfires. Humans start them and have made them more dangerous

A wildfire needs a name long before anyone knows what caused it. When the pines of the Gironde in southwestern France caught fire in July, the fire was reported within hours under the name of the ground it was burning. By the time it had taken 40,000 hectares (99,000 acres), that name was fixed in e...

There's nothing 'wild' about most wildfires. Humans start them and have made them more dangerous
Image: Phys.org
A wildfire needs a name long before anyone knows what caused it. When the pines of the Gironde in southwestern France caught fire in July, the fire was reported within hours under the name of the ground it was burning. By the time it had taken 40,000 hectares (99,000 acres), that name was fixed in every bulletin in Europe.

Originally published at Phys.org

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