Wildfires and forest fires are becoming an increasing concern all around the world. It seems as if every day you turn on the news there’s a new wildfire burning out of control and threatening people’s homes.
The threat of Wildfires
There are three main reasons why wildfires are becoming more of a threat:
1) More people are living in wildfire-prone areas. The number of homes sitting in urban-wildland interfaces throughout the U.S. increased by 41% between 1990 and 2010, or 12.7 million homes. (Ailworth, 2011) A study of 2010 census data found 1 in 3 homes in the west now sit in fire prone zones.
2) Wildfires are becoming more severe as a result of climate change. Warmer temperatures mean dryer vegetation and uneven rainfall, allowing wildfires to burn more intensely and grow much larger, much faster.
3) Logging and forest management practices may be partly to blame. Many experts believe the forest service’s policy of not allowing any fires to burn has disrupted the normal fire cycle, allowing underbrush to accumulate and making for fires that are larger and more uncontrollable. Logging is also known to increase wildfire risk.
Together these factors amount to a situation where wildfires are becoming a bigger problem. All told it’s believed fire risks are now around 4-times more likely than they were prior to 1990. (Fountain, 3-5-2020) Since 2000, wildfires have accounted for the largest portion of Federal disaster declarations.
In recent years we’ve seen wildfires burn down not just isolated homes in the middle of the forest, but also large suburban communities and other areas once thought to be beyond the risk of forest fires. Wildfires aren’t stopping once they reach the edge of the forest, but are continuing to burn through the neighborhoods brushing up against these natural areas.
Protect your home & family from wildfire
The following information will discuss everything you need to know about reducing wildfire risk and how to keep your family safe from wildfires.
- Fire Resistant Homes: Building or Retrofitting a House in Wildfire-Prone Areas
- Protecting Your Home From Wildfires: How To Reduce Wildfire Risk
- Wildfire Smoke & Its Effects on Human Health
References:
Ailworth, E. (2019, May 10) “Growth fuels size of catastrophes,” Wall Street Journal, A3