did you know wui

8/8/2019 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

29500000

30000000

30500000

31000000

31500000

32000000

32500000

33000000

33500000

34000000

34500000

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)


8/18

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

did you know wui

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