Maui fires suggest dangerous new phase for disasters

Maui fires suggest dangerous new phase for disasters The disastrous wildfires that swept the island of Maui last week suggest new territory for natural disasters, including the prospect of large urban centers threatened by the blazes. The fires have&… sthomas The Hill

Chris Field, director of the Stanford Woods Institute of the Environment, shared a similar perspective about the Maui fires, expressing his surprise about “how many different ways there are for wildfires to become catastrophic.” 

“This fire in Maui wasn’t gigantic and it certainly wasn’t in an area that’s heavily forested,” he told The Hill. 

Nonetheless, scientists are increasingly finding “that the combination of dry fuels and high winds can make lots of different kinds of places vulnerable to wildfire,” he explained. This is why the Maui disaster developed “in a place that isn’t a classic wildfire area,” according to Field.  ...