THE MERCURY NEWS - Climate change didn’t light the match, but it likely set the stage for the Airport, Bridge and Line fires to burn fiercely and aggressively throughout Southern California, say academics and the head of an environmental group.
As of Friday afternoon, Sept. 13, the three blazes had consumed more than 113,000 acres in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties, forcing people to flee, burning multiple homes and shuttering schools amid sweltering temperatures that have since cooled.
James Gomez, a UC Riverside doctoral candidate, was the lead author in a study showing how soot from large California wildfires traps sunlight and makes days hotter and drier.
“When a fire occurs in an area such as the San Bernardino National Forest, firefighters are quickly called in to extinguish the blaze,” Gomez said via email.