Wildfires: Firestorms, smoke, and unintended consequences

Abstract

In the last decade, incredible images of wildfires have increasingly appeared across TV screens, in news feeds, and from the windows of many homes in fire-prone communities. In 2018, a wildfire consumed an entire town in California, with nearly 19,000 houses destroyed and 85 deaths. Then a grass fire in the middle of a Colorado winter killed two people and destroyed more than 1,000 houses in 2021. And in 2023, a series of wildfires on the island of Maui in Hawaii resulted in more than 100 lives lost and more than 2,000 buildings destroyed. These are just three examples of many similar events in one of many countries experiencing unprecedented human impacts from wildfires. Are these events unique, or are they a reflection of significant changes in wildfire impacts that will continue for decades to come?