Did You Know WUI
Transcript of Did You Know WUI
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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,
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Construction in the Wilderness Urban Interface is booming! One statistic states
In the Western U.S. alone, of new home construction is adjacent to or intermixed with theWUI.
38%
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29000000
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2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
Population of United States
Population of United States
This trend of expanding into the wilderness is unlikely to change. In 2020 the United
States will have an
estimated341,386,665
people according
to the U.S. Census
Bureau.
31,153,802 more people than this year (2010).
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human activity is 7 times more likely to be the
cause of a wildland fire than that of lightning
strikes [a common natural cause].
These statistics are troublesome considering they
all point to more people in the WUI and
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Wilderness Urban Interface Fires affect all socioeconomic groups.
In 1961 a Wilderness Urban Interface Fire even
destroyed structures in the wealthy Los
Angeles neighborhood Bel-Air.
In the picture white Xs represent
lost homes.
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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)
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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
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An example of a WUI disaster are the California
Wildfires of2008, which caused 1.4 billion
dollars of property damage.
To put that in perspective, theproperty damage statistic for the
entire nation in 2008 was 15.5 billion
dollars.
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Structure ignitability (arguably the easiest factor to influence when thinking about fire
prevention in the WUI) is determined by:
Materials used in construction.
The structures surroundings, 100 200 feet
in all directions.
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95% of homes survived a WUI incident when vegetation around the home was cleared
and non-flammable roofing materials were used.
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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.
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As of2000:
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.
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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.
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Picture Sources
In Order of Usehttp://www.wildfirelessons.net/uploads/WUI_Picnic_Rock_Fire_BLM.jpg
http://www.lkjh.org/bike/california/la/topanga/f0310.jpg
https://reader009.{domain}/reader009/html5/0528/5b0b6b4c15c88/5b0b6b54a5d33.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/
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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