As US western wildfires ravage property, protection services boom

Businesses that provide wildfire risk assessments and home hardening services say demand is rising as US western wildfires grow fiercer.

Malibu, California, United States – In 2003, Joe Torres was deployed in Afghanistan with the United States Air Force as a firefighter, working crash and rescue, but it was a fire raging much closer to home at the time that would set his post-service life on its current trajectory.

Back then, the Cedar Fire in San Diego ranked as the largest in Californian history, reaching a total of more than 190,000 hectares (270,000 acres) and killing 15 people.

“When I started working as a firefighter, that was considered a huge fire,” Torres told Al Jazeera. “I was reading about this fire and thinking, ‘Wow, California is burning.’”