California Wildfires

Comments focus on wildfires in California and similar regions, debating causes such as poor forest management, lack of controlled burns, climate change, and prevention policies.

➡️ Stable 0.6x Politics & Society
3,537
Comments
18
Years Active
5
Top Authors
#2725
Topic ID

Activity Over Time

2009
3
2010
3
2011
5
2012
3
2013
18
2014
7
2015
41
2016
62
2017
60
2018
199
2019
414
2020
718
2021
515
2022
263
2023
492
2024
263
2025
459
2026
12

Keywords

e.g propublica.org technologyreview.com PGE GDP auburn.edu HN BELLS en.m GPS fires california burns climate weather forest humidity climate change controlled damage

Sample Comments

dredmorbius Oct 3, 2020 View on HN

Similarly: https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/09/17/1008473/wildfire...

rhodozelia May 8, 2021 View on HN

Check out the forest fires in California and Oregon recently, Fire is a fast way to change a lot of land!

benihana Sep 30, 2015 View on HN

Californians and wild fires come to mind

jartelt Aug 11, 2021 View on HN

It's similar in California. In the years leading up to the big Santa Cruz mountain fire in 2020, the scientists and forest rangers were aware of the increasing amount of fuel building up in the forest there. They simply weren't able to do the controlled burns they wanted because of a lack of weather windows for controlled burns. That area is also close to silicon valley so there are extra air quality requirements for the burns.

unsrsly Oct 6, 2020 View on HN

Fire burning through grass and vineyards has been a feature of the latest fire season in northern CA. Given how dry and hot the climate is, only dirt is a sure thing. However with high enough winds, embers can carry long distances and cross fire breaks. For example in 2017, the Tubbs fire crossed highway 101. But I still agree that living close to trees is worse.

preinheimer Nov 21, 2022 View on HN

Maybe happening more often with the wildfires these days

lazide Sep 7, 2025 View on HN

Ask California and all the wildfires.

beowulfey Apr 6, 2024 View on HN

I count fires as a form of weather in CA, would probably apply to the PNW too

pokstad Aug 31, 2021 View on HN

You’re missing something here. Fires can start on private and state land and then spread to national forests. Also, more and more Californians are moving away from the coast into rural suburbs due to cost of living. Additionally, due to COVID lockdowns, more people are camping than ever. Fires aren’t started by climate change, they’re started by humans.

prostoalex May 8, 2021 View on HN

> Wildfires and earthquakes are the only problems not self inflictedMassive wildfires (vs small distributed fires) are the result of the policy framework that (a) prohibits preventative controlled burns (b) requires immediate containment of any new fire. The old (more flammable) undergrowth never has a chance to burn off and free up the space for (less flammable) new generation.As a result CA is one of the most polluting states in the nation as far as co2 emissions <a href="https:/