What’s shaping up to be one of the worst wildfire disasters in US history had many causes. Before the blazes raged across Los Angeles …, eight months with hardly any rain had left the brush-covered landscape bone-dry. Santa Ana winds blew through the mountains, their gusts turning small fires into infernos and sending embers flying miles ahead. As many as 12,000 buildings have burned down, some hundred thousand people have fled their homes, and at least two dozen people have died.
As winds picked up again …, key questions about the fires remain unanswered: What sparked the flames in the first place? And could they have been prevented?
The US Forest Service is teaming up with computer scientists to see if artificial intelligence can help crack old cases. A study led by data scientists at Boise State University, published in the journal Earth’s Future …, analyzed the conditions surrounding more than 150,000 unsolved wildfire cases from 1992 to 2020 in Western states and … [a]ccording to Cal Fire, people have caused 95 percent of California’s wildfires.
