The Increasing Risks of Wildfires

The increasing risks and prevalence of wildfires result from a number of factors. With more leisure time, improved transportation and the desire to escape the pressures of city living, the number of residences, vacation homes, cabins,and other structures in wilderness and forested areas has exponentially grown over the past three decades. Logging restrictions and decreased timber harvesting have contributed to aging, disease-prone forests that are overly dense with stands of young trees, brush and large volumes of dead and dying trees. This fuel loading has made the wildland/urban interface a highly flammable, increasingly dangerous zone. With more property owners in these remote areas, their risk increases because of limited accessibility to public and safety services.

Protecting structures from the danger of wildfires is a growing problem for rural property owners, insurance companies, and government agencies. Further exacerbating the problem, structures within the wildland/urban interface are usually located a great distance away from fire protection services and equipment, in difficult terrain, and offering poor road accessibility. These structures typically have a limited water supply for fire protection. Since strong winds are common during wildfire emergencies, power grids, wireline and wireless communication infrastructures cannot be relied upon.