Wildfires present an increasing threat to communities through impacts that include destruction of homes or outbuildings, evacuations, damage to public infrastructure, and economic disruption. Effective fire management entails identifying and understanding behavioral patterns of communities most at risk from such disturbances, and how actions taken by individual residents and communities can help mitigate risks and alleviate the need for federal resources for wildfire suppression. A common way of analysing human susceptibility to wildfire is through the concept of social vulnerability, which describes a population’s potential exposure and sensitivity to wildfire-related risks, and their ability to reduce the negative impacts from the hazard through mitigation actions—for example, fuel suppression carried out on private property by homeowners or landowners. Addressing and reducing such vulnerability to the effects of wildfire first entails a sufficient understanding of the factors that determine who is vulnerable and why.

Researchers at the University of Idaho conducted two studies in an effort to assess the potential factors of social vulnerability. As part of a long-term effort to explore adaptation to wildfire, risk and vulnerability in the area surrounding McCall, Idaho, researchers analysed (a) self-reported survey data from at-risk residents, (b) computer-based wildfire risk simulations, and (c) geospatial data. McCall provides a useful setting for studying wildfire vulnerability because fires typically occur in the surrounding region on an annual basis, and because the area is considered to be at high risk for future wildfire impacts. Employing a similar methodology, researchers analysed the characteristics contributing to increasing social vulnerability to wildfire in Flathead County, Montana, a fire-prone region that includes a growing population of residents living in the wildland-urban interface.