fires in N. America--overview

  The total cost of the 2017 fires in California alone is projected to exceed $180 billion.  This includes not only the immediate costs of firefighting, but also the much larger costs of landscape rehabilitation; medical and hospital costs; insurance losses and the costs of replacing thousands of homes and other buildings; lost economic productivity from the destruction of businesses; repair and replacement of key infrastructure such as roads, power lines and dams; and weeks of lost income by employees. …

   "If anything, we need a serious, fact-based national dialogue about how to sustain our forests and woodlands through smart management and policy,” said Don Falk, a professor in the School of Natural Resources and the Environment in the UA College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.

https://uanews.arizona.edu/story/wildfire-problem-will-get-bigger-coming-decades

Projected change in annual area burned for the period 2010–2039, with red colors indicating areas with the greatest increase in area burned annually in wildfires, and dark blue the least.

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7-31-18   A thick layer of trapped smoke is challenging efforts to contain the fierce Carr Fire in Shasta County, keeping critical aircraft on the ground....Cal Fire has the largest state-owned firefighting air fleet, with 23 air tankers, 11 Super Huey helicopters and 14 air attack aircraft.

http://www.dailydemocrat.com/article/NI/20180731/NEWS/180739977

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7-31-18    The National Interagency Fire Center requested two C-130 aircraft and aircrew from the Nevada Air National Guard's 152nd Airlift Wing, of Reno, to aid firefighting efforts in California today.  https://mynews4.com/news/local/nevada-air-guard-to-send-two-c-130-aircraft-to-help-fight-california-wildfires