NFPA Journal - Summer 2022 - 38

Wildfire
Now or Never
As the scope and destructive capacity of wildfires intensify,
more communities are signing on to NFPA's Firewise USA program.
But it needs to happen faster.
base of the home and kept free of combustible
materials, and additional space
can be created between areas of vegetation
within the home ignition zone. Annual
maintenance activities can remove
dead leaves, pine needles, and other debris
from the home and property to minimize
ignition risk. While many of these
steps may seem small, they can result in
significantly improved wildfire protection
when practiced at the community level.
These steps are detailed at nfpa.org/
preparinghomesforwildfire.
While the recent Firewise growth is enThe
remains of a home in Superior, Colorado, destroyed
by the Marshall Fire in December. Nearly 1,000 homes
were lost to the fast-moving wildfire. GETTY IMAGES
I
n 2017 it was Santa Rosa, California,
where thousands of homes were destroyed
by the Tubbs Fire, which killed at
least 22 people in Sonoma County.
In 2018 it was Paradise, California, which
was nearly obliterated by the Camp Fire.
Eighty-five people died. In 2020 it was Malden,
Washington, a small farming community
where wildfire destroyed 80 percent of
Estimated number45 million
of homes in the US
located in the
wildland/urban
interface, or WUI
Sources: NFPA
the structures. Last year it was Grizzly Flats,
the small California community where an estimated
450 out of the town's 600 homes
were destroyed by wildfire, and the suburban
stretch between Denver and Boulder,
Colorado, where nearly 1,000 homes burned
in a fast-moving wildfire on December 30.
These are just a few of the communities
that have been profoundly affected by recent
wildfires. Unfortunately, they won't be
the last. As fire behavior has become more
aggressive and widespread over the past
decade, due in part to drought, warming
temperatures, and decades of management
practices in fire-prone areas, more
and more communities across the country
find themselves under threat from wildfire.
By one estimate, at least 70,000 communities
in the US face wildfire risk.
38 | NFPA JOURNAL * SUMMER 2022
across the country as residents, communities,
and wildfire practitioners grapple with
a complex combination of changing conditions
and evolving threats.
Firewise is the only program of its kind
in the country. Administered by NFPA and
co-sponsored by the USDA Forest Service
and the National Association of State Foresters,
Firewise specifically targets existing
homes and communities, providing a
framework for voluntary, and critically important,
action that property owners can
follow to protect themselves against the
threat of wildfire. The steps promoted by
Firewise are practical and straightforward,
such as retrofitting homes with noncombustible
materials to make them more resistant
to ignition from wildfire and embers.
Space can be created around the
33%
Estimated
percentage
of all US
homes located
in the WUI
That urgency is an important factor in
the recent growth of Firewise USA®
, the
program I manage for NFPA's Wildfire division.
Over the past five years, 1,000 new
communities have joined Firewise, which
now numbers more than 1,800. California
alone has brought in more than 300
new communities since 2019. We continue
to see growth in other western states and
4.5 million
Estimated number of
WUI homes in the US
that face high or
extreme risk of wildfire
2 million
Estimated number
of homes facing
high or extreme
wildfire risk located
in California
couraging, it is not proceeding at the pace
we need. Wildfire organizations need to
work to increase the number of people
following the kind of science-based recommendations
promoted by Firewise. To
support these efforts, agencies and organizations
need consistent funding for staff
and projects, and residents need access
to financial support to assist with improvements.
Community wildfire efforts need to
do a better job at telling success stories so
that residents realize that there are many
things they can do to reduce their wildfire
risk, while recognizing the level of commitment
necessary to make it happen.
Firewise is also an important component
of Outthink Wildfire™
, the new NFPA
initiative dedicated to ending the largescale
destruction of communities by wildfire
(nfpa.org/wildfirepolicy). The losses
1 million
Estimated number
of additional new
homes projected to
be built in " very high "
wildfire risk areas in
California by 2050
Annual incr163%ease
in the number
of structures
destroyed
by wildfire in
the US over the
past decade
of Grizzly Flats, Paradise, and many other
communities prompted the creation
of Outthink Wildfire, which is designed to
help communities foster collaboration, enact
change, achieve resilience, and protect
themselves from wildfire. One of the difficulties
in pursuing these goals is understanding
whether new funding for wildfire
mitigation will apply to new construction
and rebuilding in wildfire-stricken areas,
or if it will be available to help harden existing
homes and communities. This is the
kind of detail that NFPA's Outthink Wildfire
policy team can influence by working
with federal, state, and local governments
to devise legislative solutions that support
community wildfire preparation.
For more on Firewise, visit the program's
website at nfpa.org/firewise.
http://www.nfpa.org/preparinghomesforwildfire http://www.nfpa.org/preparinghomesforwildfire http://www.nfpa.org/wildfirepolicy http://www.nfpa.org/firewise
NFPA Journal - Summer 2022

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