Today’s mega-fires are so intense that they can render standard firefighting useless: leaping across firebreaks, creating heat too intense to approach and vapourizing water dropped from above before it can curb the flames. “It’s like spitting on a campfire,” says wildland-fire researcher Mike Flannigan. Wildfire specialists are changing their focus to prevention, mitigation and preparedness. But in a warming world, “there’s no technofix, no silver bullet or vaccine”, says Flannigan. “We’re in for the long haul. Dante’s circles of hell — we’re probably on level four and we’ve got a way to go.”

https://www.ft.com/content/540fa28d-9590-4ea2-99d7-453e3e2c3086

There should be fire alarm signal and fire station nearby.

Public health professionals should have mechanisms to receive the wildfire alarm . Transporting humans from affected areas to hospital and providing medical services. Public health professionals act as a manager for combating the disaster.

Hawaii wildfires: did scientists expect Maui to burn?

Wildfires are not new to Hawaii but they are becoming increasingly devastating. More traditional land use and better data dissemination could help to prevent future tragedies...

A 2021 report by Maui County found that “the number of incidents from a combination of wild/brush/forest fires appears to be increasing, and that this increase poses an increased threat to citizens, properties and sacred sites”...

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-02571-z

there are a few dimensions to look at, first fires destroy ecosystem, leading to food insecurity, two fires destroy inhabitants both to the animals and human settlements. three by destroying trees risks the spread of soil erosion, drying of small streams hence drought. The sum result is malnutrition, waterborne diseases., these a few but limited public health concerns in my view particularly in the third world economies. And therefore, public health team should be a apart of multi-agency response team.

We must get better at predicting how wildfires rip through towns and cities, writes infrastructure researcher Hussam Mahmoud. Better modelling could help scientists to understand how fire interacts with varying layouts, building materials and vegetation under different weather and wind conditions. Combined with good data from real-world towns, these models could help policymakers decide how to implement fire-mitigation measures...

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-02687-2

WOW!

Scientist shocks peers by 'tailoring' climate study

In a controversial bid to expose supposed bias in a top journal, a US climate expert shocked fellow scientists by revealing he tailored a wildfire study to emphasise global warming.

While supporters applauded Patrick T. Brown for flagging what he called a one-sided climate "narrative" in academic publishing, his move surprised at least one of his co-authors -- and angered the editors of leading journal Nature...

https://news.yahoo.com/scientist-shocks-peers-tailoring-climate-034211231.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly9tYWlsY2hpLm1wLw&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAACGkbeoHqXMnZ87hDcr9PMAek8wFscrNiNChxKb8GzcQKRTxhBAq75bli93YgykexjZtw0b_ZDAfFhVDe5ILWcYfx61th9HpjVNjsGoaHiR8BibS66t51H1DCX5Do_vnjIrepI-45lmce8A_RNIUYckDwiWfzHOQbghnN_0oPuH-

Logjam in Biden’s $50 Billion Dollar Wildfire Plan

The administration’s plan to thin forests ignores an important way that wildfires spread and set houses aflame...

Wildfires are a yearly threat to anyone living near a forest, grassland, or chaparral, which includes about half of all U.S. addresses. President Joe Biden’s administration has introduced an ambitious 10-year, $50 billion plan it claims will protect those homes, to be funded partly with taxpayer dollars and other sources yet to be determined. The administration’s plan focuses on a massive increase in logging across the country in order to reduce fuels in bone-dry forests. Very little will likely be spent on making homes near forests more fire resilient. But the fires in Paradise and Maui show that the administration is on the wrong course...

https://undark.org/2023/11/23/opinion-wildfire-plan/

"Canada’s catastrophic fires weren’t alone. On August 8, a devastating blaze swept across the Hawaiian island of Maui and engulfed the city of Lahaina, killing at least 100 people. The death toll is the highest caused by a wildfire in the U.S. in more than a century, and thousands of residents lost their homes.

On the islands, some seasons are hotter and drier due to climate change, allowing wildfires to spread at increasing speeds. Climate change is altering many other such areas around the planet, threatening to make what was once considered extreme fire become more and more the norm..."

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/how-swaths-of-invasive-grass-made-mauis-fires-so-devastating-180982729/

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/15/science/climate-wildfires-ecosystems.html

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/the-ten-most-significant-science-stories-of-2023-180983484/