Is there a way we can prevent them from occurring in the first place, or is it inevitable during the summer months?
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Wildfires get out of control for a few reasons:
1) too much fuel load. You get years of leaf litter, fallen trees and branches, and it just builds up to the point where when it does catch fire, it gets uncontrollable very quickly.
2) a lot of the bigger trees have evolved to use fire as a way to indicate to them the best time to germinate, as there will be less competition for sunlight in a burnt area. As such, they have also co-evolved mechanisms that mean that their leaves and extremities burn fast and hot, leaving the trunks and heartwood relatively undamaged, so fires spread extremely fast and far when these trees catch fire.
3) by the time its burning at its peak, any water will evaporate before it can douse anything effectively.
There are ways to manage areas most at risk.
1) clearing the land, but this has a whole bunch of cost and ecological factors, so it’s used as a last resort more often than not.
2) control burns in cooler months. Do this regularly and in a controlled manner to manage fuel loads and ecological regeneration and it’ll be a far more effective way of managing wildfires than pretty much anything.
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