America's Wildfire Problem

When someone says firefighting, you probably think of trucks, hoses, and buildings, but across the western United States, firefighting has a totally different meaning. Every summer, forests and grasslands erupt into flames and are combated primarily by hand crews with chainsaws, rakes, and more fire. Although wildland firefighting does involve water dropped from aircrafts and some small vehicles, the brunt of the fight is carried out by these crews digging lines in the dirt and burning off excess fuel. These crews dig fire lines, which are trenches that resemble a trail that removes all the flammable underbrush and reduces the line to pure soil. Additionally, firefighters use chainsaws to cut down trees in the line and sometimes start controlled, smaller fires that burn off huge amounts of fuel in front of the fire. Planes and helicopters are called in for major fires to support fire fighting efforts. These aircraft can dump lines of water or chemical retardant on the fire but come at a huge operating cost.

52% of the forest service budget goes into fire suppression, putting our natural resources and the jobs of non-fire employees at risk. Fire has been a natural part of the environment for millions of years, so the only reason we need to spend money on fighting them is in defending people and property. The reason cost gets so high for firefighting is because the policy for about 100 years has been to suppress fires as soon as they start. When fires are taken out of the environment, underbrush builds up, setting the stage for massive fires that get out of control. If the forest service committed more resources to clearing brush with saws and controlled fires in the off season, the blazes of summer could be avoided.

Fires may seem like a distant tragedy to us in the southeast when the news inevitably covers destruction in California, Colorado, or  Wyoming. But when drought strikes the forests of Georgia and Tennessee, they become a fuel stockpile waiting for a spark. In 2016, 40,000 acres of wilderness in Georgia burned and a devastating fire tore through Gatlinburg, Tennessee, killing 14 and causing $500 million in damages. For now, the southeast is not in danger of fire due to summer rainfall almost doubling pervious averages.

Overall, wildland fire isn’t something we need to be concerned about here, but it is important to be aware of the dangers faced by the western United States every fire season. Although, fire has great destructive capability, it does reinvigorate forests by removing dead brush and fertilizing the soil. Fire isn’t going to go anywhere and likely will only get worse as climate change leads to hotter and drier summers. However, fire can be more effectively combated and people can be more aware of warnings to help make sure they don't accidentally start a fire that claims lives, property, and America's wilderness.