By Carey L Biron
WASHINGTON( Thomson Reuters (NYSE:) Foundation) – The devastation of the Los Angeles wildfires has resonated far beyond Southern California, as local officials and residents across the United States have watched the flames, started among dry vegetation, rapidly jumping from house to house.
The crisis underscores efforts to look beyond the forests and public lands that have been the traditional focus of wildfire risk to more community-based mitigation efforts involving homeowners, private landowners, city planners and other experts.
“For a long time, fire has been communicated as a land management problem,” said Andy McEvoy, a faculty research assistant at Oregon State University’s College of Forestry. “It’s not just land management. There’s a community aspect to it as well. We’re certainly seeing that play out in LA.
“It’s increasingly evident with these disasters that all sides of the boundary – public and private, municipal and otherwise – all have some part to play in this process,” he told Context/the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
In Oregon, similarly wind-driven fires in 2020 prompted new work on community-wide wildfire mitigation efforts.
McEvoy was involved in a state-wide wildfire risk mapping released this month, which eventually will be the basis for new codes in home and property risk mitigation in some areas.
Yet the draft Oregon maps in 2022 ran into public opposition, including property owners concerned that the new requirements could mean additional costs. The opposition illustrated the challenges in getting residents to recognize the collective importance of measures such as putting fire-resistant siding on a house or clearing out nearby vegetation.
While California has some of the strictest home building codes in the country, many of the homes hit by the recent fires appear to have been older and not retrofitted.
The fires in the LA region have burned more than 40,000 acres, killing at least 27 people and destroying more than 15,000 structures.
“These policies can benefit not just the homeowner that obeys them but can also benefit their neighbors,” said Matthew Wibbenmeyer, a fellow with think tank Resources for the Future who has studied wildfires for 15 years.
A report from the think tank last year found that as the climate changes, parts of the United States such as the Southeast will see most of their wildfire risk coming from private lands.
But reaching residents and private landowners remains tricky, said Wibbenmeyer, noting they may be concerned about cost or simply resistant to removing a favorite bush to tamp down risk.
“But with the event we’re seeing this week (in LA) and in recent years, I think that’s definitely changing.”
NEW URBAN FOCUS
For decades, wildfire in the United States was seen as related to forests.
That began to change in 1985, when major wildfires affected urban areas primarily in Florida, said Michele Steinberg, wildfire division director for the non-profit National Fire Protection Association (NFPA).
As experts looked more towards urban areas, they have come to recognize that key steps could reduce risks but that both individual and community-wide actions were needed.
“We could tell each individual, ‘Do this to your house,’ but if your neighbor doesn’t do it, that’s a huge fuel package burning for hours and hours,” Steinberg said.
“Unless we get the whole community working across adjacent parcels, we can’t make a difference.”
One result is the association’s Firewise program, which pushes communities to create a local body for risk reduction, do a hazard evaluation and run education activities.
Firewise communities also must come up with a three-year plan – perhaps agreeing to attend to overgrown common areas or help elderly residents maintain their properties.
Today there are more than 2,800 active Firewise sites across 35 states, with 473 added in 2024.
Firefighters have recognized these efforts to make homes and communities more fire-resistant and safer for first responders, according to testimonials provided by NFPA.
Insurers have noticed, too, with some offering discounts to homeowners in Firewise communities.
The key is getting residents to take responsibility for mitigation work, experts say.
“When people see someone from the government, from the fire department, doing this work, they think, ‘They’ll do it, I don’t have to do anything,'” Steinberg said.
“We have to help people understand: Nobody can come on your property and do this for you…. You have to figure it out.”
‘BATHED IN SMOKE’
As climate change increases the frequency and severity of extreme weather, from floods to fires, some locations are seeking to broaden their efforts and expand cooperation on wildfire risk reduction across communities.
“If we expect everyone to participate in saving our community from the ravages of wildfire, … the plan has to come from the whole community,” said Chris Chambers, a forestry officer with the fire and rescue department in Ashland (NYSE:), Oregon.
The picturesque city in the state’s southwestern mountains experienced a devastating wildfire in 2020 and is currently updating its wildfire protection plan.
“I have seen from a boots-on-the-ground perspective how valuable mitigation around homes, businesses and in the wildland contributes to potentially saving a property – or whole neighborhoods,” said Kelly Burns, a longtime firefighter and now the city’s emergency management coordinator.
In recent months, the process of updating the wildfire plan has included community surveys, knocking on residents’ doors and holding personal conversations.
The approach is unique, seeking to not only minimize fire damage but increase the possibilities that people can return to their homes and recover afterward, said Erica Fischer, an Oregon State University engineering professor.
She and colleagues are trying to design models of where the city should place its fire trucks during wildfires, with an eye to typical priorities such as homes or power infrastructure but also cultural or other assets whose damage could slow post-fire recovery.
That could include a community center or a feature like Ashland’s popular trail system, damage to which could make residents hesitant to move back, she said.
“It’s not just about your home on this isolated property but about every home in three to five miles of your home. So it becomes this community-wide, systematic issue,” Fischer said.
In Ashland, the community is responding.
“We’re bathed in smoke each summer from regional fires. By and large, Ashland understands that we’re at significant risk, and people are engaged and want to help avoid a disaster,” Chambers said.
“Taking advantage of that energy is a key component of success for an issue that depends on both collective and individual action.”
