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Wildfires Research Paper

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Wildfires have played an important role in shaping history. They have shaped private islands and public areas. Even though wildfires have destroyed thousands of acres of land and killed millions of people, humans still start these furies of fire either on accident or on purpose. Also, many times people have started controlled burns which people use for different reasons. Sometimes, wildfires are not as bad as some people may think. Even if someone is caught in a wildfire, preparing and getting out is not hard at all. Humans may not always be ready for a wildfire, but they do know how to stop one.

Wildfires are misunderstood by some people, some think they only happen on purpose, others think that wildfires happen very rarely, but …show more content…

But that's not true at all. Firefighters sometimes start a wildfire on purpose, which is called a controlled burn. The controlled burning started in 1995 by the US Forest service. Controlled burns are wildfires that have their speed, intensity, and location of the wildfire. These wildfires are controlled by removing or adding fuel. Controlled burns happen to eliminate flammable fuels like dry leaves so a real wildfire doesn’t happen, restore the health in the ecosystem, recycle nutrients and to prepare an area for planting or new vegetation. Controlled burns don’t happen very often, which means they aren't bad for the air.If a controlled burn is hard to control or a wildfire has started, Firefighters may do something called “Back Burning”. Back burning is used to eliminate fuels for the fire in the direction it's going. For example, if a wildfire is heading north, then fire fighters will make a back burn north of that fire. When firefighters back burn, they make small fires to make it harder for the main fire to get more fuel and easier to put it out. Back burns are used in combination with controlled burns to limit an area to that controlled burn. The US Forest service decides when and how to do controlled burns by finding out what vegetation needs to and doesn’t need to be burnt,what intensity the fire has to be at, considering the history of burning in the area,determining the time of day to start the burn,and finding the quality of the moisture and the fuels in the area. Controlled burns are very safe. Very much planning goes into controlled burns, so it will be very hard to lose control, but it still happens. So controlled burns are a lot more useful than people

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