When
Wildfires break out, you will usually hear news people
talking about the number of acres burned. This is a way
to understand how destructive the fire is. An acre is
a measure of land area. An acre is 43,560 square feet
and there are 640 acres in a square mile. Many wildfires
are small and are naturally extinguished but because of
several very large wildfires recently it is more common
now to not let forest fires burn naturally. They 1988
Yellowstone fire, for example, burned 1.2 million acres
including 793,000 acres inside the park itself.
Fires can
also be described as "out of control" or "contained"
and they may give a percent as well. Out of control fires
are spreading rapidly. For several days during the California
wildfires, the fires were completely out of control with
winds and warm temperatures helping them spread. Containment
means bringing a fire under control. For example, a fire
that is 100% contained is not out but is completely under
control and not spreading. A fire that is 80% contained
still has 20% that is not yet under control and could
be spreading.
