NFPA Journal - Summer 2022 - 46

Research by Birgitte Messerschmidt
THE GLOBAL
VIEW ON FIRE
RESEARCH
Scant Protection
A PAIR OF NEW REPORTS CHALLENGES STANDARDS DEVELOPERS
TO IMPROVE WILDFIRE PROTECTION IN BUILDING CODES
C
urrent building codes
are not strong enough
to reduce wildfire risk to
homes and other structures,
and until they are
we will continue to witness the unnecessary
destruction of property, including
entire communities, by wildfire.
That was one takeaway in a pair of
new reports, released the same week
in March. " Spreading like Wildfire:
The Rising Threat of Extraordinary
Landscape Fires, " published by the
United Nations (unep.org), lays out how
wildfires are impacting people and the
environment and examines risk mitigation
and wildfire management. The
clear message is that it is not possible to
eliminate wildfire risk and that we must
urban conflagration. It's a sobering read,
but the report also offers specific actions
we can take to manage and reduce our
wildfire risk, with recommendations
including the improvement of fuel
management, wildfire monitoring, and
firefighter safety. The report's authors
also call for rebalancing investments in
suppression to proactive mitigation and
management.
The WUI report, created jointly by
Wildfire is a necessary
component of the
landscape, and it is
essential that we
embrace a more
learn to live with fire. The second report,
" WUI Structure/Parcel/Community Fire
Hazard Mitigation Methodology " (nist.
gov), illustrates how hazard mitigation
in the wildland/urban interface (WUI) is
a balance between hardening structures
and reducing the exposure from wildfire, with an emphasis on
the need for structures to be able to withstand these fires and
not rely on intervention from first responders.
The timing of the reports and their big-picture messages is
critical. Recent studies by NFPA Research show that wildfires
are responsible for more than three-quarters of the costs associated
with large-loss fires in the United States over the past
decade. The human cost is also increasing, with wildfires dominating
the list of fires resulting in 10 or more fatalities. These
numbers leave little doubt that wildfires are playing a larger
role in the fire experience in the US and around the world.
A clear message of the UN report is that because wildfire is
a necessary component of the landscape, it is essential that we
embrace a more adaptive management of fire. Where wildfire
can become a disaster is when it meets the WUI, and to mitigate
that risk it is necessary to look at the built environment
and the role it plays in transforming a wildfire into a disastrous
46 | NFPA JOURNAL * SUMMER 2022
adaptive management
of fire.
the National Institute of Standards and
Technology, the Insurance Institute
for Business & Home Safety, and the
California Department of Forestry and
Fire Protection, dovetails in a number
of important ways with the UN report.
The findings are based on information
collected from previous fires, as well as
from laboratory and large-scale tests on
WUI fire propagation and mitigation.
Among the key findings is the demonstration
that, for high-density communities
in wildfire-prone areas, full community
participation in hardening and mitigation
efforts is critical, as only a few insufficiently hardened
properties can jeopardize an entire community in a wildfire
event. The report underscores the importance of building codes
in this effort, while observing that current codes could be made
more robust to protect communities against wildfire-suggestions
worth considering for future editions of the codes.
It will require significant political will to take the steps necessary
to end the destruction of communities by wildfire. That's
precisely why NFPA launched Outthink Wildfire™
(nfpa.org/
wildfirepolicy), the policy initiative created to foster collaboration
among all levels of government in order to enact change
and enhance protection from wildfire. We must take the latest
research offered in the UN and NIST reports and make it actionable
through bold policy decisions. We cannot accept another
wildfire disaster when we know what needs to be done.
Birgitte Messerschmidt is director of the Applied Research Group at NFPA.
MICHAEL HOEWELER
http://www.unep.org http://www.nfpa.org/wildfirepolicy http://www.nfpa.org/wildfirepolicy
NFPA Journal - Summer 2022

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of NFPA Journal - Summer 2022
