Large fires becoming even larger, more widespread

Fire season may be a reality in many places around the country. But the threat is spreading to areas once relatively unscathed by wildfires, a new study suggests.

In the journal Science Advances, a team of environmental scientists found that fire frequency has tripled in some parts of the United States — and that in the 2000s, wildfires grew up to four times the size of fires in previous decades.

The team attributes the change to drought, but humans are also to blame: Human-caused climate change has dried out many areas, and 84 percent of the fires were started by humans and not other factors such as lightning strikes.