California is facing a critical increase in wildfire intensity and frequency, significantly influenced by urban expansion into wildfire-prone areas and climate change. Historically, regions could go decades without fires, but now many areas experience them every few years. This rapid cycle disrupts ecosystems, transforming forests into grasslands and bare soil, exacerbating soil erosion. Recent droughts following wet years have caused vegetation to dry quickly, creating conditions ripe for large, uncontrollable fires that lead to dangerous post-fire debris flows. The combined impact of recent fires has resulted in unprecedented human and economic losses.
Combined, January's Palisades and Eaton fires killed 29 people, destroyed more than 16,000 homes, and produced an economic impact about 10 times larger than any previous wildfire disaster in California.
Wildfires themselves are also burning more intensely, leaving behind fire-affected soils that can repel water and little vegetation to keep slopes intact.
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