IATE Term of the Week: Wildfire

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Wildfire

For almost a week, a wildfire has been raging just west of Sacramento in California. The huge fire is reported to have destroyed almost 50 homes and displaced thousands. As of Thursday, the 11,000 firefighters battling the wildfire have, however, made some progress in containing it.

For this reason, this week’s IATE term is ‘wildfire’, which is defined by the Cambridge Dictionary as a “fire that is burning strongly and out of control on an area of grass or bushes” As such, wildfires are very common around the countryside, especially during the summer or extreme weather events. To see the term in IATE, you can click here, or have a look at the picture below.

Wildfire IATE

In California, it has been reported that this fire is just one of many other wildfires that have been spiralling out of control since July 29th. This troubling aspect surely has put many citizens under a great deal of pressure because of the evacuation that took place earlier this week. Now, several people have returned to the scorched pits that were once their homes.

NBC News spoke with one of these citizens, who said that “To go home, to go to your house, see it [burned] and stuff, that’s my major fear”.

Experts have noted that due to the increased eventuality of extreme weather, wildfires like this have become more and more common in the last decade. In part, this is mostly due to the continued degradation of the environment. The fact that environmental concerns are put on the top of the agenda by governments around the world paint the picture of an increasing danger of pollution and worsening environmental conditions.

Jerry Brown, a spokesperson for the United States government, said that “It’s not a game of politics, it’s an existential threat to our well-being and our way of life” NBC News reports.

 

Sources:

NBC News: Residents Return to Devastation After Massive California Wildfire

CNN: Dozens of cars set ablaze as wildfire jumps California freeway

 

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By Oscar Larsson
Communication Trainee at TermCoord
Student at University of Glasgow