Environmental researchers reveal factors fueling wildfire risk
By Adrienne Law
Jan. 7, 2009 9:00 p.m.
Southern California wildfires have been occurring year-round and similar trends are expected in the upcoming year.
Environmental researchers have been finding valuable information about why fires appear to be on the rise.
UCLA researchers said fire seasons no longer exist in this region, citing the increasingly dry climate. A decade ago, when conditions were different, fires were more predictable.
Lately, bigger fires have been occurring normally and in shorter periods of time, mainly because of droughts, said Richard Halsey, director of the California Chaparral Institute.
Southern California’s dry vegetation, dry winds and low humidity favor the spread of fires, said Jon Keeley, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology.
“It’s kind of always been that way,” Halsey said. “In Southern California, unless it is after a rain, (it is a) pretty high fire hazard area.”
The good news for UCLA is that the campus is in an urban setting, making it less prone to natural fire disasters.
But if a fire happens in the surrounding areas like Bel Air or Westwood, students will definitely be affected, said Mike Stajura, UCLA doctoral student of community health sciences.
A major fire nearby would severely reduce air quality and cause heavy traffic in the streets around UCLA, he said.
During widespread wildfires, tiny particles can embed themselves in the lungs and cause wheezing, coughing and mucus production, especially for people with respiratory diseases like asthma, said Marc Riedl, an assistant professor of clinical immunology and allergy at the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine.
Fire danger in Southern California continues to mount as new communities are built around wild land, where they are vulnerable to fires. Better land development patterns are needed to prevent fires, environmental researchers said.
“We just have not prepared ourselves in where we put homes. We put homes in the face of danger,” Keeley said.
The vegetation surrounding a vulnerable community could easily catch embers, which cause fires, Keeley said, adding that palm trees and pine trees are dangerous plants because their leaves can catch embers.
Mega fires, or fires that spread at least 100,000 acres, are definitely not new, Halsey said.
Fires about a century ago resulted in fewer fatalities since residential areas were not in the mountains where the fires occurred, Keeley said.
Researchers are not the only ones who are actively learning about fires. Some residents are training to be well-equipped in an event of a fire.
Stajura is a member of both the Red Cross and the Community Emergency Response Team. The latter teaches its members on what to do in certain natural disasters.
He said groups like the ones he joined are helpful during emergencies.
Safety experts advise residents to evacuate their homes before a fire arrives rather than attempt to put the fire out, unless they have received adequate fire training, Keeley said.
“The average person will probably make a mistake and get killed,” he said.
In addition to residential environments in vulnerable areas, human error can cause of fire-related fatalities.
Safety and science researchers say that helping a community affected by a natural disaster takes more than individual action.
Many people think disaster response and disaster effects are based on individual preparation, but Stajura contends it is group support that matters.
“It is communities that burn, so communities should work together,” Keeley said.
