WUIPro

What has changed is the fuel load. We started putting lots and lots of fuel (homes, cars, etc.) on those hills that have been burning forever.

My brush is actually very narrow because it demands personal responsibility from every individual to not build there or to manage their own wildfire risk.

The fires have always been there. The area has been high risk for thousands of years.

In 1542 Spanish explorer Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo named San Pedro Bay, located in what is now Los Angeles County, "Baya de los Fumos" (Bay of the Smoke) during his expedition along the California coast.

How much damage did the L.A. wildfires cause? After federal cuts, a crucial estimate is missing Researchers were told not to share data on the January fires or to update their climate disaster database.

How much damage did the L.A. wildfires cause? After federal cuts, a crucial estimate is missing www.nbcnews.com/science/envi... via @nbcnews.com

Sure, but we all knew this buying in the WUI. There is no new information today that we didn't have 40 years ago. We knew it would get hotter and dryer and that homes made out of sticks and paper on hillsides would burn.

The Pine Barrens are well known for fire, but not usually like this. WUI isn't just a western problem.

"Without lower insurance premiums, homeowners aren't incentivized to harden their homes against wildfires and build defensible space."

Yes they are.

They get to keep their homes vs losing them in a wildfire.

Keeping your house isn't motivation enough? Maybe it's a matter of messaging?

This isn't really about insurance. It's about living in a toxic fuel load in an area that's burned for thousands of years and dealing with the reality of that choice. Insurance companies are not required to cover homes that will burn because of how they're Bilt and where they're located.

The homeowner in the wildland-urban interface doesn't really care about what the county does, what the utility does and what the local FD does regarding firescaping & wildfire mitigation as much as you think they do.

They just don't want THEIR house to burn down.

25 years ago wildfires in the Western United States didn't get into structures.

Today, they almost always do.

The residential push into the WUI is one of the most significant changes in America's wildfire risk.

This is very true, yet this will not change so we need to work to make living in the WUI much safer.

The last episode of BLM's Wildfire Matters actually digs into this very theme - why ecologists and land managers need fire experience.

TMRW:

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Hi Michael! Are you aware of any position papers that explain the safety of single-stair buildings to rank-and-file fire department leadership? I know of your 2021 point access block article and the recent Pew report, but maybe there's something clear and suscinct that we can share with fire depts?

As the U.S. moves to a pay-to-protect firefighting model, more and more countries will be hiring laid off American wildland firefighters, meteorologists and other experts.

WUI (wildland urban interface) wildfires burn in all 50 states, not only in the Western United States.

Prayers with the firefighters, emergency responders and residents of Myrtle Beach.

You wrote out the solution yourself.

Now let's get to work.

Ahhh... American car-brain disease. Condo and apartment dwellers do not equal drivers. We're also not talking about climate, we're speaking about ingition and the spread of fire, which condo buildings limit to a great degree.
Fire season is year round but climate change is progressing.

The cuts at NOAA/NWS directly impact homeowners' ability of survival (for themselves and their belongings) in a WUI area wildfire.

Abstracting from the density question, the survivability of 7-story condo buildings in the WUI is many times greater than single-family homes. They're build to a different code and far greater wildfire prevention specs.

"The Palisades Fire should make everyone realize that its our homes that provide the fuel for devastating fires, not the foliage."

The fuel load of homes exponentially exceeds anything that the forest can provide in terms of fuel.

(h/t @jack_7909 on X)

What do the cuts at NOAA and NWS mean for homeowners living in the WUI (wildland urban interface)?

You might be notified of active fire danger later than normal.

Less resources might be committed up fire to fighting the blaze coming towards your property.

Faster burning fires not only burn disproportionately large areas, but they also burn more severely.

Extreme fire spread events (just the top 3%) accounted for a third of the total area burned, but half of the total area burned at high severity--setting the stage for long-term forest loss. 🧪🌎🔥

The majority of people who live in the WUI (wildland urban interface) don't know they live in the WUI or what the WUI is.

The private wildland fire mitigation and fire fighting industry will be picking up the slack following the defending of federal fire prediction and fire fighting capabilities.

Everything goes up after these cuts.

Gas & electric, insurance, damages.

Looks like a return to 10am. Good luck without any fire crews. Full suppression is right out of 2025.

100%

Residents in the WUI - more than 45 million homes - will learn about fires later than normal and those fires will be fought and managed with less resources than in the past.

Wildfire season is expected to be very violent this year.