SCIENCE IN THE NEWS DAILY
Fighting Fire With Fire
from the Economist
As woodlands in the warmer parts of the northern hemisphere come to the end of their fire season and their counterparts south of the equator prepare for the worst, people have begun to rethink how best to fight the wildfires, which seem to be getting fiercer and more frequent. With less winter snow on mountains as average temperatures rise, woods in many regions are drying out and becoming ever more vulnerable to fire.
The deadliest wildfire in Australia's history, which scorched a broad swathe of the landscape north-east of Melbourne earlier this year and killed almost 200 people, has prompted local authorities to question the country's long-standing policy of allowing residents to stay behind to defend their homes as the flames roar through.
Meanwhile, mistakes made in the early stages of a wildfire that raged across the mountains overlooking Los Angeles in August turned a containable blaze into the county's worst conflagration ever. In both instances, a heatwave following years of drought provided tinder for an arsonist's match.
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