NFPA Journal - Spring 2022 - 69

THE VIEW
Wildfire by Michele Steinberg
FROM NFPA'S
WILDFIRE DIVISION
Growth Opportunities
WHY IS THERE SUCH A SHORTAGE OF SKILLED, TRAINED PROFESSIONALS
WHO CAN DESIGN AND BUILD WILDFIRE-SAFE BUILDINGS?
D
isaster drives demand.
It's the message I heard
repeated, in so many
words, at a recent conference
of disaster resilience
experts. More hurricanes, floods, and wildfires
wreaking havoc across the country
have had an enormous impact on housing
stock and community infrastructure. Yet
most communities lack a key ingredient
for restoring normalcy and economic
health following disasters: a trained and
skilled workforce.
Just as NFPA and the broader safety community
have rallied to help professionals
across a range of industries skill up to
tackle emerging hazards such as fires in
buildings under construction and fires
in alternative-fuel vehicles, we should
also be broadcasting the desperate need
for skilled and knowledgeable designers,
architects, installers, contractors, and
more to help us create wildfire-resilient
communities, and to assist in the rebuilding
effort when communities burn.
Consider Hurricane Michael, which struck
the Florida Panhandle in 2018 as a Category 5 storm. Michael
damaged or destroyed roughly 60 percent of Bay County's housing
stock, and a year later more than 7,800 people remained
homeless. Similarly, the 22 wildfires that occurred around the
same time in Northern California, notably the Camp Fire that
devastated the town of Paradise, left more than 350,000 people
displaced, with 14,000 homes destroyed in Paradise alone. On the
recent three-year anniversary of the fire, just over 1,000 homes
had been rebuilt. Whether the culprit is wind, water, or fire, the
demand for skilled workers to rebuild after a catastrophe has
never been higher.
Admittedly, there are many forces at work that can slow the
recovery process. Our new pandemic reality has made us all
too aware of phrases like " supply chain interruption " and " the
Great Resignation, " trends that make it difficult to secure both
the materials and the labor force necessary to get communities
Until privatesector
professionals
embrace the business
opportunities of
wildfire-resilient
construction, the
wildfire disaster
cycle will continue.
back on their feet quickly. Post-disaster
rebuilding efforts are generally a patchwork
of skilled and unskilled volunteers,
government aid, and sometimes ad hoc
coalitions of builders and developers. Yet
even in calmer times, in locations where
wildfire risk is well-documented, property
owners struggle to find qualified service
providers for home upgrades that would
increase their wildfire safety.
Ignition-resistant building standards,
listed materials, and design guidelines
for wildfire resilience all exist through
NFPA and other standards-development
organizations, as well as through government
sources. NFPA provides valuable
training (nfpa.org/training) and even a
credential (nfpa.org/cwms) to help professionals
hone their skills in wildfire-safe
design, construction, and inspection. Yet
most states and regions do not yet require
wildfire-resistant design elements in new
construction, and they pay even less attention
to wildfire risk reduction connected
to home upgrades, retrofits, or substantial
improvements.
We don't expect property owners to upgrade their own electrical
wiring systems, and we don't expect them to install their own
fire sprinklers. Yet NFPA and other safety advocates tend to aim
most of their retrofitting and mitigation advice at residents and
homeowners, most of whom are likely not licensed professionals.
Those are important messages; while you don't need special
credentials to clean out your gutters or rake your yard, a DIY
deck addition built with combustible materials could spell doom
for your home in a wildfire. That's why it's critically important
for new construction, post-disaster rebuilds, and everyday home
upgrades and retrofits to be done with wildfire risk in mind.
Until private-sector professionals embrace the business opportunities
of wildfire-resilient construction, the wildfire disaster
cycle will continue..
MICHELE STEINBERG is director of the wildfire division at NFPA.
NFPA .ORG/JOURNAL * NFPA JOURNAL | 69
FP
MICHAEL HOEWELER
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NFPA Journal - Spring 2022

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