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Wildfire risk is increasing all over the world, particularly in the western United States and the communities in wildland-urban interface (WUI) areas are at the greatest risk of fire. Understanding the driving behavior of individuals to evacuate…
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In wildland–urban interface areas, firefighters balance wildfire suppression and structure protection. These tasks are often performed under resource limitations, especially when many structures are at risk. To address this problem, wildland…
Author(s): Alexander Joseph Heeren, Philip E. Dennison, Michael J. Campbell, Matthew P. Thompson
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Background: Potential Wildfire Operational Delineations (PODs) were developed as a pre-season planning tool to promote safe and effective fire response. Past research on PODs has identified uses in an incident management context. There has been…
Author(s): William C. Buettner, Tyler A. Beeton, Courtney Schultz, Michael D. Caggiano, S. Michelle Greiner
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Background: An effective identification model is crucial to realise the real-time monitoring and early warning of forest fires from surveillance cameras. However, existing models are prone to generate numerous false alarms under the interference of…
Author(s): Yuming Qiao, Wenyu Jiang, Fei Wang, Guofeng Su, Xin Li, Juncai Jiang
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Structure loss is an acute, costly impact of the wildfire crisis in the western conterminous United States (“West”), motivating the need to understand recent trends and causes. We document a 246% rise in West-wide structure loss from wildfires…
Author(s): Philip E. Higuera, Maxwell C. Cook, Jennifer Balch, E. Natasha Stavros, Adam L. Mahood, Lise A. St. Denis
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Firebrands generated from wildfires can contribute to wildfire spread and are a threat to structures in the wildland-urban interface (WUI). Understanding the characteristics such as the firebrand size, mass and heat flux to the recipient fuel are…
Author(s): Sampath Adusumilli, David L. Blunck
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Large outdoor fires such as wildfires, wildland urban interface (WUI) fires, urban fires, and informal settlement fires have received increased attention in recent years. In order to develop effective emergency plans to protect people from threats…
Author(s): Negar Elhami-Khorasani, Max Kinateder, Vincent Lemiale, Sam Manzello, Ido Marom, Leorey Marquez, Sayaka Suzuki, Maria Theodori, Yu Wang, Steven Wong
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As wildfire risks have elevated due to climate change, the health risks that toxicants from fire smoke pose to wildland firefighters have been exacerbated. Recently, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) has reclassified wildland…
Author(s): Jooyeon Hwang, Ngee Sing Chong, Mengliang Zhang, Robert J. Agnew, Chao Xu, Zhuangjie Li, Xin Xu
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Facing an increase in the size and complexity of wildland interface fires, water utilities must pay more attention to protecting vital infrastructures during potentially catastrophic wildfires. Water utilities can mitigate the impacts of wildfires…
Author(s): Robert Gutierrez, Esaud Lagunas
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A safe separation distance (SSD) needs to be considered during firefighting activities (fire suppression or people evacuation) against wildfires. The SSD is of critical interest for both humans and assets located in the wildland–urban interfaces (…
Author(s): Jacky Fayad, Gilbert Accary, Frederic Morandini, François Joseph Chatelon, Lucile Rossi, Thierry Marcelli, Dominique Cancellieri, Valérie Leroy-Cancellieri, Yassine Rahib, D. Morvan, Sofiane Meradji, Antoine Pieri, Jean-Yves Duret, Jean Louis Rossi
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Wildfires spread along trajectories set by a coincident wind direction. Despite the highly directional nature of wildfire threats to public safety, landscape fire risk assessments are typically omnidirectional. We used a simple metric of landscape…
Author(s): Jennifer L. Beverly, Air M. Forbes
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Background Estimating the factors affecting the probability of a wildfire reaching the wildland urban interface (WUI) can help managers make decisions to prevent WUI property loss. This study compiles data on fire progression, wind, landscape…
Author(s): Yu Wei, Benjamin Gannon, Jesse Young, Erin J. Belval, Matthew P. Thompson, Christopher D. O'Connor, David E. Calkin
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Firebrand showers are known to result in massive destruction in large outdoor fires. A key missing piece is how these ignition scenarios may be influenced by firebrand showers in conjunction with external radiant heat that would be generated by…
Author(s): Sayaka Suzuki, Sam Manzello
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Firebrand spotting is a major cause for structure losses in wildland-urban interface (WUI) fires. When firebrands land nearby and accumulate into groups or piles, they can act as a more competent ignition source compared to single firebrands. While…
Author(s): Luqing Zhu, James Urban
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The wildland-urban interface (WUI), where housing intermingles with wildland vegetation, is the fastest-growing land use type in the United States. Given the ecological and social benefits of forest ecosystems, there is a growing need to more fully…
Author(s): Nancy Sonti, Rachel Riemann, Miranda H. Mockrin, Grant M. Domke
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This review synthesizes the scientific literature on fuel treatment economics published since 2013 with a focus on its implications for land managers and policy makers. We review the literature on whether fuel treatments are financially viable for…
Author(s): Molly E. Hunter, Michael H. Taylor
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Firebrands play a vital role in the propagation of fire by starting new fires called spotfires, ahead of the fire front during wildfire progression. Firebrands are a harbinger of damage to infrastructure; their effects particularly pose a threat to…
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This review synthesizes the scientific literature on fuel treatment economics published since 2013 with a focus on its implications for land managers and policy makers. We review the literature on whether fuel treatments are financially viable for…
Author(s): Molly E. Hunter, Michael H. Taylor
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We examined the financial efficiency and effectiveness of landscape versus community protection fuel treatments to reduce structure exposure and loss to wildfire on a large fire-prone area of central Idaho (USA). The study area contained 63,707…
Author(s): Fermin Alcasena-Urdiroz, Alan A. Ager, Pedro Belavenutti, Meg A. Krawchuk, Michelle A. Day
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Firebrand piles are known to ignite combustible infrastructure resulting in significant damage; however, the parameters that impact the heat transfer from firebrand piles to a combustible surface are not well understood. Heat transfer from a…
Author(s): Brian Y. Lattimer, Steven Wong, Jonathan L. Hodges
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