https://headwaterseconomics.org/natural-hazards/retrofitting-home-wildfire-resistance/

 

Why "mega fires" are the new normal. 

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Two things that have changed in the last couple of decades are contributing to the threat.

Many parts of the country have become hotter, drier and subject to “flash droughts” that dry things out quickly. And an ever-increasing number of people want to live in or near wildlands that evolved to burn.

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Their homes may be surrounded by trees and plants with stunning vistas of unspoiled nature “but it comes at a cost,” said Volker Radeloff, a professor of forest ecology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

In addition, fires are moving faster, which makes them harder to fight and increases home loss. “Fires are 250% faster in the West and 400% faster in California,” said Balch, of UC-Boulder. “Speed is fundamentally the underlying driver of why fires are getting so much bigger.”

 

Today, invasive plants such as cheatgrass have created a contiguous carpet of fuel that can race through, igniting shrubs and trees that are normally spaced apart, allowing fires to spread over large distances.

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“Cheatgrass was involved in 39 of the largest 50 fires across the Great Basin West,” said Jennifer Balch, a fire scientist and professor of geography at the University of Colorado-Boulder.

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It’s also a landscape that in the past would have experienced frequent low-intensity fires, clearing away brush, keeping fire out of the tree crowns, and keeping fires from becoming infernos.

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Protecting yourself

While the dangers are real, there are newer tools that can help people protect themselves against fires.

The first is simply avoiding, when possible, living in areas at high risk. 

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This information is available now. You can go on Zillow, you can go on Redfin, you can go on Realtor.com and there’s fire risk information for every property across the country.

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But what about those of us already here?

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There’s increasingly clear data on how to protect a home from wildfires, especially the dangerous embers that can drift for as much as a mile.

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Research by Headwaters Economics shows that becoming wildfire resilient doesn’t have to break the bank.

The cost of retrofitting can be as inexpensive as $2,000. Some of the most effective things can be done by a homeowner over a weekend.

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Living in our glorious foothills and mountains doesn't have to be a death sentence for our homes and way of life. We can take simple steps to severely reduce the chance of losing our homes to wildfire. As we move towards creating  fire adapted communities within our Fire District.  From the front door to the forest.

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