Expert says the more people moving to rural areas of California, the greater the risk for 'devastating fires'

The Holy Fire as seen from Lake Elsinore, California.
(Image credit: Mario Tama/Getty Images)

The largest fire in California's recorded history is still burning, one of more than a dozen major blazes causing destruction in the state.

Professor Char Miller of Pomona College, an expert on wildfires and California's drought, said that many of the fires are spreading across rural areas, places that just a few decades ago had only a few inhabitants, but now have three to four million residents. "The more people move into these areas, the greater risk for more devastating fires," Miller said. "When humans push into areas of chaparral, pine, or sagebrush, we inevitably bring fire with us."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
Explore More
Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.