fuel ladders Archives - Colorado Mastication

Wildfires can start when there are three ingredients: oxygen, fuel, and heat. As soon as one of them is no longer present, the wildfire will end. Those three elements are also known as the fire triangle. Let us look at every ingredient of this triangle. Oxygen is always present. The fuel in the forest can be dead trees, branches, dry grass, scrub oak as well as trash, paper, fence and outbuildings. The third ingredient, heat, can come from natural and unnatural sources. Lightning strike to the ground or a tree can start a fire. Power lines torn down by high winds can provide heat to start a wildfire. Although a wildfire can start from a natural cause, human activity is