A plant thats everywhere is fueling a growing risk of wildfire disaster | FireWatch [Video]

(CNN) — A ubiquitous, resilient and seemingly harmless plant is fueling an increase in large, fast-moving and destructive wildfires in the United States.

Grass is as plentiful as sunshine, and under the right weather conditions is like gasoline for wildfires: All it takes is a spark for it to explode.

Planet-warming emissions are wreaking havoc on temperature and precipitation, resulting in larger and more frequent fires. Those fires are fueling the vicious cycle of ecological destruction that are helping to make grass king.

“Name an environment and there’s a grass that can survive there,” said Adam Mahood, research ecologist with the US Department of Agriculture’s research service. “Any 10-foot area that’s not paved is going to have some kind of grass on it.”

Grass fires are typically less intense and shorter-lived than forest fires, but can spread exponentially faster, outrun firefighting resources and burn into the growing number of homes being built closer to fire-prone wildlands, …