How We Rebuild After Wildfires > ENGINEERING.com

A blaze in the Nadina-Verdun wildfire complex in British Columbia, Canada. Like many other places across the world this summer, residents of B.C. will be facing a colossal rebuilding challenge when the wildfire season is done. (Image courtesy of Tracy Calogheros, CBC News.)

In 2017, wildfires swept across Europe and North America, causing record land loss and property destruction. The 2018 wildfire season is shaping up to be just as bad. Observers, like Canadian politician John Horgan, are starting to worry “that this may be the new normal.”

For people building or rebuilding in fire-prone areas, it could be a difficult normal to adjust to. In the wake of these fires, the question is: How do we rebuild stronger after wildfires? Even more importantly, should we?

World on Fire


An infrared image of Earth, stitched together from NASA satellite footage. The red represents areas of forest fire. (Image courtesy of NASA).

An infrared image of Earth, stitched together from NASA satellite footage. The red represents areas of forest fire. (Image courtesy of NASA).

The summer of 2018 has been the summer of the wildfire. Fires have swept across western Canada and the U.S. California’s Mendocino Complex Fire is now the largest in the state’s history. Outside of North America, fires have caused devastation in Russia, United Kingdom, Greece and even above the Arctic Circle in Sweden.

Why have fires become such a problem? Global climate change is one possible cause. A 2016 PNAS study showed that increasing temperatures have increased fuel aridity, or how dry a forest’s organic material is. The…

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