homeWelcome, sign in or click here to subscribe.login
     


 

 

Environment


Subscriber content preview

November 15, 2018

Deadly fires spur search for solutions

By MATTHEW BROWN and ELLEN KNICKMEYER
Associated Press

BILLINGS, Montana — Creating fire buffers between housing and dry brush, burying spark-prone power lines and lighting more controlled burns to keep vegetation in check could give people a better chance of surviving wildfires, according to experts searching for ways to reduce the growing death tolls from increasingly severe blazes in California and across the West.

Western wildfires have grown ever more lethal, a grim reality that's been driven by more and more housing developments sprawling into the most fire-prone grasslands and brushy canyons, experts say. Many of the ranchers and farmers who once managed those landscapes are gone, leaving neglected terrain that has grown thick with vegetation that can explode into flames when sparked.


 
. . .


To read this story in full login or purchase a subscription.




Email or user name:
Password:
 
Forgot password? Click here.