Introduction
A wildfire is any kind of uncontrolled fire attacking combustible vegetation that occurs in the countryside of a wilderness area. Wildfires differ from other types of fire due to its extensive size and the speed at which fire can spread from its source. Wildfires may be caused by humans who are working in the forest or by some natural calamities like lightning. Either way, it can cause a lot of destruction both to properties and vegetation cover. Wildfires have the ability to jump vegetation gaps like rivers and roads in the wilderness. Wildfires are very common and occur in almost every continent. The county of San Diego in California has experienced two major wildfires that have caused a lot of destruction in the county. The first wildfire was in 2003 and was referred to as the cedar fire. The cedar fire of 2003 was human caused and burned out of control through a very large area of San Diego County. The fire was driven by the Santa Ana Winds and burned about 280,278 acres including over 2,800 buildings killing 15 people. (Neely, Hasemyer and Kucher, 2007). This was the largest fire ever to be recorded in the history of California. The fire started at Cleveland national forest and managed to spread across to several other forests within a very short period of time. In the year 2007, California experienced another big wildfire that began in the Southern part of the state. This fire destroyed about 1,500 homes and about 500,000 acres killing nine people and injuring about 85 among them 61 firefighters. (Krueger, Sanchez and Huard, 2007). This fire was so huge that it was even visible from space.
Wildfires are very disastrous as they not only destroy property and vegetation cover but also lead to loss of lives and also results into very bad environmental and climatic degradation. Wildfires in some cases have several benefits both to the habitat and general environmental conditions. The main challenge that comes with the benefits is whether the positive things offered by the wildfires outweigh their negatives. Some of the benefits of wildfires include; clearing underbrush, thinning out the tree canopies and also helps in restoring soil nutrients. The wildfires can also be left to burn so that they can clear some dead and downed materials thus offering an eventual cleanup of the entire forest (Krueger, Sanchez and Huard, 2007).
The wildfires that occurred in the county of San Diego caused a lot of damage however; to some extent it had some benefits to both the environment and the inhabitants of the county. The two wildfires helped in the initiation of the construction of new structures in the county. The wildfires also contributed a lot towards ensuring that the undergrowth in the forest was cleared. The fires also helped in clearing all the dead components in the forest so as to have a clean environment ready for the growth of new brands and more sustainable vegetation (Neely, Hasemyer and Kucher, 2007).
Conclusion
Wildfires may be artificially or naturally caused. In some cases the wildfires are caused by lightening while in some cases they can be caused as a result of the negligence of the users. Either way, their effects are usually the same. The wildfires usually cause a lot of destruction especially when the size of the fire is very big. However, if the size of the fire is small, it can be left to burn unattended to in order to clear the undergrowths and make the forest clean and find a better way of disposing carcasses. It also helps in paving way for the growth of new species and also in restoring the soil nutrients.
Work cited list
1. Anne Krueger, Leonel Sanchez and Ray Huard. Harris fire burning unchecked, heads for Otay Lakes and Chula Vista, SignonSanDiego.com, 2007
2. Neely Liz, David Hasemyer and Karen Kucher , Harris fire roars unchecked in East County - 700 residents flee Barrett Junction. 2007
