LAMB'S CANYON, Utah (ABC4) — A wildland fire science expert spoke on what causes wildfires and why we are experiencing the wildfire season we've had so far this year- with over 500 human caused fires.

Brad Washa, Assistant Professor of Wildland Fire Science at Utah State University told ABC4.com that in Utah, 40% of wildfires are caused by lightning, and the remaining 60% are human caused, anything from campfires to vehicle fires.

"Just above the ridge here a couple years ago we had the Parley's Canyon Fire, that was a vehicle caused fire," he said, gesturing behind him.

"One thing we saw during COVID, there were a lot more people that were going out, camping out, 'cause they couldn't do anything else, and we saw a large increase of human-caused fires during that time period," Washa sai

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