California’s wildfire season is getting longer, according to University of California–Irvine (UCI) environmental engineers, who say poor fire management practices contributed to the most wildfires. In a study published April 22, UCI researchers analyzed California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CALFIRE) wildfire statistics from 2000 to 2019, comparing the data with the period of 1920 to 1999. Researchers found the annual burn season was becoming longer, and more widespread. “CALFIRE data show that each new year of the 21st century has been a record breaker in terms of wildfire damage in California,” Tirtha Banerjee, UCI assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering, said in a press release. “We also have seen that about 80 percent of the total number of the state’s wildfires over the past few decades have been small, measuring less than 500 acres. But when fires get large, their deadliness greatly increases.” The researching team deduced that about 20 percent of overall wildfires accounted for 97 …