What might have ignited the recent wildfires in the U.S.?

One fire was started by an electrical short in an oil well pump. There are thousands of them around in these parts.
We had a bad one set off by the Army training and some of their munitions got it going. A few homes went up. At least Uncle Sugar will cover those, I would think.
There’s a bad one raging right now in the wildlife refuge that has destroyed 10 homes and caused the evacuation of 100 homes since it started. It has involved 31,000 acres so far. The cause has yet to be determined http://newsok.com/10-homes-lost-as-wildfire-spreads-in-southwestern-oklahoma/article/3601056

If you go by mccain, illegal aliens.

@ragingloli :: It really is genius. Burn down the farms that you work in for 3 dollars per hour so you can be unemployed.

That or McCain is a old, racist, piece of shit.

There are some people being prosecuted for setting the very bad Arizona fires last month.

Thunder storms typically create a lot of lightening strikes and very little rain.

Many fires are started by careless smokers.

Machinery can cause fires. A man here in the valley caused a fire when he was trying to clear the brush to help prevent fires, by an overheated chain saw.

All of the causes listed above are possible and do happen.

Lightning
electrical sparks
matches
cigarettes
campfires
human error
arson

But the reason they have been so devastating is because of the drought in the American southwest.

So many trivial things can cause a fire such as:

- Throwing your cigarette out the window on a highway.
– A metal part of your car hitting the road and causing a spark.

Anything as seemingly trivial as a spark from your car can do big damage when coupled by drought ridden brush.

I am in the middle of serious wildfire country up here in the high foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains. From now through October is the high danger zone.
Around here several fires have been started by mowers and tractors in dry grass over the years. The big Tahoe fire of 08 was started by an illegal campfire.

People are lackadaisical and under estimate the danger.

Right now, every night I water the trees and the whole perimeter of my yard ( I am on 5 acres ) and soak the hillside below my deck.

My clearance is good but, I am, literally, 10 feet away from my driveway gate from 20 acres of raw land that is thick with brush, trees, fallen tree limbs and 2 foot tall dry grass.

If a fire comes up the back of the canyon it would really feed on that fuel and easily be able to jump the road to my property.

One of the risks of living in the hills.

Lightning can occur without rain. Just thought I’d throw that in there.

Thanks all. I did not know that, at least in some cases, the specific cause of the fire is known.

Lets not forget the vehicle exhaust from stalls, those that did not have an actual engine fire. There is ranch and farm equipment that sparks or catches fire. Some fires nere here was causes by trains, a piece of metal being struck just right or sparks from the tracks somehow.

@YARNLADY .. “Many fires are started by careless smokers”...

This may be true but there are also just as many non-smoking careless campers.. A careless passenger in a car can toss out a soda bottle, it will splatter into many pieces when it strikes the asphalt and the slivers will fall onto the grassy area along the road, with the minium amount of solar energy, it can spark a fire from those very slivers, hours.. days after that passenger littered.

The fires are getting worse and were reported in this morning’s news in the UK. I suppose fires start every year caused by lightning, camp fires and human carelessness but due to drought and strong winds they are especially bad just now.