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BySethBorenstein TheAssociatedPress WASHINGTON Peoplehave triggered five out of six wildfires in the U.S. over the last two decades, tripling the length of the wildfire season and making it start earlier in the East and last longer in the West, a new study finds. Even as climate change worsens the nation's fire season — making it longer and easier to burn more acres — researchers said human activities play an even bigger role. While fire experts have long blamed people more than lightning, the new work details the extent of human-caused ignitions and how they interact with global warming to make matters worse. Scientists analyzing fire data from 1992 to 2012 found that 84 percent of all U.S. wildfires — but only 44 percent of the total acres burned — were started by people, either by accident or on purpose. And human- caused blazes have more than tripled the length of the wildfire season from 46 days to 154 days, according to a study in Monday's jour- nal Proceedings of the Na- tional Academy of Sciences. "People are moving more and more into natural wild areas and essentially pro- viding ignition for wild- fires," said lead author Jen- nifer Balch, a fire ecologist at the University of Colo- rado. Thespark Of the more than 1 mil- lion human-started fires since 1992, about 29 per- cent began by trash burn- ing, another 21 percent were arson and 11 percent were from misuse of equipment, Balch said. Last year's Soberanes fire in California was sparked by an illegal campfire and burned for nearly three months. The blaze sur- passed $200 million in fire- fighting costs, the most ex- pensive in U.S. history. One out of every five wildfires occurs on the Fourth of July from fire- works, Balch said. The hottest spots The Southeast is a hot spot for human-triggered wildfires. Kentucky, West Virginia, Tennessee had fire seasons that lasted more than 200 days and 99 percent of the wildfires in those states are caused by people. The region is home to swaths of forests with trees that don't catch fire eas- ily or naturally so people are the main culprits, said study co-author Adam Ma- hood of the University of Colorado. Climate connection Climate change has lengthened the U.S. fire sea- son by a few weeks, which is dwarfed by what humans do. But the study shows how both human-sparked flames and man-made climate change work together to make America burn more, especially during more fre- quent dry, hot weather. "If a campfire grows out of control during a wet, cool period, then it probably isn't going to grow into a large wildfire," said University of Utah fire scientist Philip Dennison, who wasn't part of the study. "Climate change loads the dice to- ward warmer, drier con- ditions that make it more likely that a fire will de- velop from human-caused ignitions." SCIENCE CauseofmostUSwildfirestracedtopeople,studyfinds KEITHD.CULLOM—THEASSOCIATEDPRESSFILE A home is threatened by a wall of flames near Santa Barbara. By Martha Bellisle The Associated Press SEATTLE A federal ap- peals court on Monday de- nied a request from the U.S. Justice Department to put President Donald Trump's travel ban case on hold un- til he issues a new executive order. A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals did not give an ex- planation for its ruling but said it would extend until next week the deadline for the government's opening brief in its appeal. A lower court temporar- ily blocked Trump's order that banned travelers from seven predominantly Mus- lim countries and paused the U.S. refugee program after Washington state and Minnesota sued to stop it. Trump tweeted "SEE YOU IN COURT" after the 9th Circuit refused to rein- state the ban, but he also has said repeatedly that his administration is work- ing on a new travel ban that addresses some of the con- stitutional concerns that critics have raised. White House Press Secre- tary Sean Spicer was asked during a briefing Monday why the administration wants to defend the ban in court if it's writing a new one. He said the govern- ment would defend the ap- peals case "because we were right the first time." "While the new execu- tive order attempts to ad- dress the court's concerns that they made, the goal is obviously to maintain the way that we did it the first time because we be- lieve that the law is very clear about giving the pres- ident the authority that he needs to protect the coun- try," Spicer said. Nicole Navas, a Justice Department spokeswoman, declined to comment on why the agency sought to put the case on hold while the administration is pub- licly saying it wants to fight it. The states objected to pausing the appeal, saying in a motion late Friday that it appears the White House and Justice Department are not communicating. "Despite the Trump ad- ministration's repeated re- quests for delay, the courts agree with my office that this case should move for- ward," Washington state Attorney General Bob Fer- guson said Monday in an email. The states said "the pres- ident has not rescinded the executive order and has not issued a new executive or- der." Because Trump has not rescinded the current order, court briefings on the preliminary injunction should proceed, the states said. The appeals court said the government's brief is due March 10 instead of Friday. WHITE HOUSE Federal appeals court refuses to put Trump's travel ban case on hold Lunchisonus!• Free Gift! 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