CA on fire

[Urbane Guerrilla]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

Granted the "newsies" are a pain, but an uncontrolled fire is a wildfire, isn't it? Not a forest fire because of no forest.

As a forest ranger's son who has seen a major fire and a couple minor ones counting that time the dry grass in the back yard got lit up one windy winter day -- little problem with bad ash from the trash incinerator -- I reserve the term wildfire for blazes crowning out in treetops and prairie fires running before forty mph winds: not merely not contained, but big fires moving very fast. Such fires as make genuine firestorms. A crowned out blaze in a large grove of tall trees gets close -- and you don't want to get close.

Generally, if it's not trees, it's brush. So, brush fire. It's also quite okay to just mention what kind of terrain is being burned over.

Stylistically, I'm okay with "wild fire" as two words -- but only okay. I think there are terms available that are both more accurate and more sensible.

[glatt]

California is on fire again. You hear about the one near LA in the news a fair amount this week, and may have an idea that there are one or two more, but there are 12 big ones: