Putting Out The Megafires

For the last century, people have thought that forest fires are a bad thing and should be prevented. However, that is sometimes not the case. After a forest fire has burned through an area, it usually regrows and thrives better than before. In the past 20 years, there has been a rise in the amount and size of megafires in the western United States. This is due to a couple factors such as drier and hotter weather. Also, the prevention of forest fires in the past has left these megafires an abundance of fuel to burn. These megafires are so intense that they cannot be stopped. Fire cyclones are created within these fires due to the massive air currents that are pushed by the heat. There is much debate over these firestorms. Since they cannot be stopped, most thought gone into how to prevent them. One side argues that they should not be stopped and should be burn out by themselves. This is very unsafe and probably not a good answer. The other side argues that they should just douse every fire that is created so that there is no chance that they’ll grow into a megafire. But this will just set up an even bigger fire for the future. Some people say that the best way to prevent them is to start control burning parts of these forests to prevent the really big fires from occurring. I believe that this is the correct way to deal with these fires. As long as they are controlled, they won’t cause very big problems.

http://audubonmagazine.org/features1107/globalwarming.html