Jorge De La Cruz

Victor Bueno

Wildfires
The Problem
Trees and wildlife are always in fear of being destroyed. But mostly, they
have to live in fear of the one thing that can eradicate them forever. That thing is
fire. In California, not only is wildlife being destroyed, but homes are too. Homes
that provide shelter to the families living in them. According to the article, Losses
from Northern California wildfires top $3 billion; 14,000 homes destroyed or
damaged, More than 40 people died in the fires, and Jones office said more than
14,000 homes were damaged or destroyed. As you can see, these fires are becoming
an enormous problem to life itself. On top of this, stated in this source as well,
there have been many other losses, including:
10,016 residential properties that are partial losses
4,712 residential properties that are total losses

Over 3,200 personal auto losses

153 farm or agriculture equipment losses
People are losing everything because of these fires. And not just homes, jobs, and
businesses. These merciless fires are also taking the one thing we cant replace;
people.
In the article, California wildfires by the mind-numbing numbers: 21 dead,
3,500 structures gutted, 122,000 acres, it states that, Mind-numbing Northern
California wildfires have taken a tragic toll on the areas beloved wine country and its
surrounding towns, killing at least 15 people and reducing hundreds of homes and
businesses to nothing but rubble and ash since starting to rage Sunday night. Wildfires
are taking human lives.
These people that woke up for the day, probably thinking that it was going to
be a fine one, end up losing their whole lives because of these raging fire. Imagine
being a friend, beloved, or family member of one of these people. As we can
imagine, firefighters are trying to fight these fires in order to finally stop them from
wiping out even more life. Fires are relentless though, and they are growing so
much that even NASA satellites are capturing photos of these fires, as stated in the
same source mentioned before. Humans know the problem, and humans are also
looking for solutions to this problem. But as irony would have it, the majority of
these fires, fires that can eradicate all kind of life, are caused by humans. Careless
humans.

The Evidence
One of the most surprising facts about wildfires is that 90% of all wildfires
are caused by humans. Humans start wildfires when they leave campfires
unattended, throw away cigarettes onto the ground, or intentionally set fire to the
forest. Only 10% of wildfires are actually cause naturally, either by lightning or lava,
the rest are caused by human negligence for life. We can see the aftermath of these
travesties by using the recent giant California wildfire. In the recent wildfire 245,000
acres were burned to ashes, and more than 8,400 buildings and homes have been
destroyed, as well as being estimated to cost $3.3 billion in damages.

What We Can Do
 There is many various ways that we can stop wildfires. Currently, most
wildfires are stopped by brave firefighters who dig trenches around the fire, thus
removing its fuel and stopping it from advancing. Firefighters also suppress
wildfires by releasing water onto them from plane or helicopter. Although these
methods are great, we should be more concerned with stopping wildfires before
they happen. Wildfire awareness is essential in a time of raging destructive
wildfires. If as much as 90% of all wildfires are caused by humans, it is possible to
stop most of them from happening if people were aware of the consequences.
More people need to be aware and courteous to the environment if we want to
stop wildfires. The best way to do this is by having awareness meetings and
assemblies at schools and other public places, as well as PSAs and awareness
flyers.
We believe that if more people were to be aware of their consequences, and
how simple negligence can lead to mass devastation, we would be able to stop
wildfires. If people learned to not:
Leave campfires unattended
Throw away cigarettes into open ground
Burn debris
Play with matches
Intentionally start fires
Then 90% less wildfires would happen. 90% less of the environment would
be burned to ashes, 90% less of buildings would be destroyed, and 90% less people
would die. If people were to be aware of the dangers of wildfires, than we could
prevent so much death and destruction of our beautiful natural ecosystems, and
even ourselves.
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