Did You Know?

Wilderness Urban Interface Fires

Slide Show By: Alexander Moore

 Wilderness Urban Interface
(WUI) is defined by the
United States Forest Service
as being:

“where structures and other human development

meet or intermingle with undeveloped wildland or
vegetative fuels,”
Construction in the Wilderness Urban Interface is booming! One statistic states…

“In the Western U.S. alone, 38% of new home construction is adjacent to or intermixed with the
WUI.”
 Population of United States

350000000 This trend of expanding into the wilderness is unlikely to change. In 2020 the United
States will have an
estimated
341,386,665
340000000
31,153,802 more people than this year (2010). people according
to the U.S. Census
Bureau.
330000000

Population of United States

320000000

310000000

300000000

290000000
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
These statistics are troublesome considering they
all point to more people in the WUI and…

…human activity is 7 times more likely to be the

cause of a wildland fire than that of lightning
strikes [a common natural cause].
Wilderness Urban Interface Fires affect all socioeconomic groups.

In the picture white X’s represent

lost homes.

In 1961 a Wilderness Urban Interface Fire even

destroyed structures in the wealthy Los
Angeles neighborhood Bel-Air.
“The disaster sequence starts when a wildfire
or multiple wildfires burn during extreme fire conditions [1 – 3% of all wildfires].”
Jack Cohen (Forest Service Research Scientist)

Extreme Fire Conditions Involve:

• Ample Dry Fuel

• Fire friendly weather (high winds,

low humidity, high temperatures, lack
of precipitation)

• Fire friendly topography (aspect of

slope and terrain like canyons, ravines,
and drainages)
Besides needing a large and initially uncontrollable wildfire (top 1 – 3%). The WUI disaster
sequence requires:

Structure Ignitability

To Few Fire Protection Resources

Decreased Fire Protection Effectiveness

 An example of a WUI disaster are the California
Wildfires of 2008, which caused 1.4 billion
dollars of property damage.

To put that in perspective, the

property damage statistic for the
entire nation in 2008 was 15.5 billion
dollars.
Structure ignitability (arguably the easiest factor to influence when thinking about fire
prevention in the WUI) is determined by:

Materials used in construction.

The structure’s surroundings, 100 – 200 feet

in all directions.
95% of homes survived a WUI incident when vegetation around the home was cleared
and non-flammable roofing materials were used.
 • All states in the United States have some sort of
WUI area.

• The WUI is most concentrated in Eastern and

Southern states and the smaller states have the
greatest percentage of land mass in the WUI.

• California, Texas, and Florida have the largest

number of homes in the WUI.
As of 2000:

• 9.4% of all land in the U.S. is classified as WUI.

• 38.5% of all homes in the U.S. are in the WUI.

• In 19 out of the 48 contiguous states, over 50% of all homes are considered
in the WUI.
As you can see, the Wilderness Urban Interface is an area where fire prevention can pay off in
HUGE ways.

Several agencies like the National Fire Protection Agency and the International Association of
Fire Chiefs are already taking the initiative. “Firewise Communities” at www.firewise.org is a
multiagency fire prevention collaboration and an excellent example of fire prevention in new
media (the internet) which concentrates solely on WUI fire prevention.
Be Safe!

Be Smart!
 Picture Sources
In Order of Use
http://www.wildfirelessons.net/uploads/WUI_Picnic_Rock_Fire_BLM.jpg

http://www.lkjh.org/bike/california/la/topanga/f0310.jpg

http://www.nycustomhomes.com/images/background3.jpg

http://www.lafire.com/famous_fires/611106_BelAirFire/LAFDreport_1/photo2.gif

http://www.fs.fed.us/r2/psicc/spl/harrispark.jpg

http://www.crustal.ucsb.edu/about/annual_reports/2006-2007/images/EP-OwlCanyon-crop.jpg

http://gazebo.raisearoof.com/images/standard_cedar_shingle0pop.jpg

http://awarebrain.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/gardenhosefire.jpg

http://z.about.com/d/sanfrancisco/1/0/R/W/-/-/DSC_1344.jpg

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/10/13/us/14WILDFIRES600_READY.jpg http

://www.ci.tumwater.wa.us/picts/log%20cabin%20small.jpg

http://www.foresthistory.org/publications/FHT/FHTFall2008/Cohen.pdf

www.Life.com

www.life.com

http://www.nrs.fs.fed.us/pubs/gtr/gtr_nrs1/stewart_1_197.pdf

http://www.firewise.org/
 Sources of Information and Statistics

• Fire Loss in the US 2008 (Abstract)

• USFA Fire Statistics (Quick Stats)

• USFA TOPICAL FIRE RESEARCH SERIES: Fires in the Wildland/Urban Interface

• The Wildland-Urban Interface in the United States by Stewart, Radeloff, and Hammer

• The Wildland-Urban Interface Fire Problem: A Consequence of the Fire Exclusion Paradigm by

Jack Cohen

• The Firewise Communities website at www.firewise.org

• The Los Angeles Fire Department Historical Archive at www.lafire.com