2017/02/27 by Jennifer K. Balch, Bethany A. Bradley, John T. Abatzoglou +3 · 1 voice · 6 citations
Engineering · Environmental Science · #Fire dynamics and safety research #Fire effects on ecosystems #Rangeland and Wildlife Management
paper · doi:10.1073/pnas.1617394114
openalex publication_date 2017/02/27 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
Significance Fighting wildfires in the United States costs billions of dollars annually. Public dialog and ongoing research have focused on increasing wildfire risk because of climate warming, overlooking the direct role that people play in igniting wildfires and increasing fire activity. Our analysis of two decades of government agency wildfire records highlights the fundamental role of human ignitions. Human-started wildfires accounted for 84% of all wildfires, tripled the length of the fire season, dominated an area seven times greater than that affected by lightning fires, and were responsible for nearly half of all area burned. National and regional policy efforts to mitigate wildfire-related hazards would benefit from focusing on reducing the human expansion of the fire niche.