Yelling "Fire" in a Crowded Neighborhood

The headline in the Washington Post today says it all:

The catastrophic toll of California's wildfires: 26 dead, hundreds missing, thousands displaced

 

The article (link here) goes on to say that, “collectively, the infernos that have erupted across the region since Sunday are the state’s deadliest wildfires since World War II…. For Capt. Greg McCollum of the Santa Rosa Fire Department, the sheer size and power of the Tubbs Fire has humbled him after 24 years on the job. This is a once-in-a-career fire,’ he said. ‘One of the other guys said it’s a once-in-two-careers fire. Well, I’m no historian, but I know a damn big fire when I see one.’”

The sheer magnitude of need is unprecedented.  “’The fires have put a strain on federal resources, too. Coming on the heels of a string of catastrophic hurricanes, the California wildfires in total represent just one of 22 disasters that the Federal Emergency Management Agency is managing across the nation. Eighty-five percent of FEMA’s 9,900 full-time employees are working ‘in the field,’ away from their assigned offices, agency spokesman Mike Cappannari said.”

An article in Newsweek, (also the source of the photo above) published just two days ago in the midst of the California conflagration, tries to answer the question I immediately asked aloud when I saw the horrendous images of devastation on television, namely:  How do we prevent this kind of destruction in the future?

The answer is not preventing fires.  In fact, suppressing wildfires leads to more growth and potentially more damaging fires in the future.  Fires are a natural part of the evolutionary life of a forest.  As with many of the natural events discussed in this blog, the destruction follows poor decisions on the part of human beings in how they develop their communities beside and within natural areas.  The article concludes:

"Albert Simeoni, a professor at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, says that we can minimize the damage through science.  Simeoni was once a firefighter and assistant fire chief in Corsica, France, and had been caught in a dangerous wildfire. Now he researches fire protection engineering, which is the study of how to protect people, property, and the environment from unwanted fire damage.

"Part of the problem is with how houses have been built. Simeoni could see that the areas of California that were burned were not built in an ideal way for preventing fire damage. “If you look at the photos, you see that the houses are very close to each other and basically there is a domino effect where if one house is burning it spreads to another,” he said.

"To build in a way that reduces fire damage, you should build houses farther apart, Simeoni said. Keeping vegetation from touching a house, pruning dry leaves and considering the flammability of housing materials like ductwork can all reduce the damage.

"Other factors can help predict the flammability of an area. The topography, dominant winds and plant life can all determine the chances of an area facing “extreme fire behavior,” which is when flames advance faster than you can control them.

"California is a fairly risky place for fires, and increasingly so… Fire seasons are becoming longer and longer. The change of weather and climate are making it even worse in California.  However, the state doesn’t even have the most extensive fires right now. Simeoni says that Brazil and Canada have more intense blazes occurring, but there is less at stake in those inflamed areas: fewer people and less property."

Therein lies the key to addressing fire safety in the future.  Development must consider human lives as the highest priority.