You're listening to shortwave from NPR.

Hey everybody, shortwave producer Rebecca Amira is here with NPR climate correspondent

Lauren Summer. Hey Lauren. Hey there. So Lauren, you're here because within climate coverage

you're our go-to fire person and to say there are a lot of fires happening in the US right

now especially across the West is in understatement. Yeah, there are dozens of active fires across

10 states in the US right now, more than 2.5 million acres of burned and tens of thousands

of people have been evacuated. Just last week the US Forest Service closed all the national

forests in California to help prevent more fires from starting. These fires are really

extreme. They burn hot, they move fast and the firefighting forces are just overextended

and without enough firefighting personnel, federal officials have had to stop using a key tool

to help prevent future fires. Prescribed burns. Prescribed burns. Those are the fires set

on purpose to help clear out the vegetation that can fuel really big fires. Yeah and here

in the West we haven't been doing it as much as we should. There's been this massive

build up of vegetation and that of course is what fuels these very destructive fires.

But there's one part of the country that's managed to get fire back on the land. These

low intensity controlled burns. It's not the West, it's the South. Oh, okay. Yeah, from

1998 to 2018 70% of all controlled burning in the country was in the Southeast, you know,

like in your home state of Florida. Just another reason to love Florida. Am I right?

Ah, that's okay. Wrong on it. It's wrong on it. It's moving on. Today on the show what

Florida and the rest of the Southeast are getting right about prescribed burns and the

lessons Western states are starting to take away to help prevent catastrophic fires in

the future. You're listening to shortwave, the Daily Science podcast from NPR. Okay, Lauren,

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