Wildfire burn area at the edge of suburban neighborhood in Southern California. (Photo by Erin Donalson / iStock)Wildfire defense that works
Fire-prone communities are eager for solutions to better protect themselves. Now, a Berkeley-led study provides data on how mitigation strategies can reduce wildfire destruction by as much as 50%.
Using state-of-the-art wildfire simulation tools, combined with real-world data, the researchers found that implementing home hardening and defensible space strategies together can double the number of homes and other structures that survive a blaze. They also demonstrated that just removing the vegetation within a 5-foot perimeter of homes could reduce structure losses by 17%. These strategies may further prevent loss by slowing the spread of fire.
To measure the impact of wildfire mitigation strategies, the team — led by Michael Gollner, associate professor of mechanical engineering, and postdoctoral researcher Maryam Zamanialaei — took advantage of CAL FIRE’s damage inspection database (DINS), which includes data from on-the-ground surveys of all structures that were damaged or destroyed in major California wildfires since 2013. Researchers added information from other geospatial sources to better define the spacing between each building, construction materials and the density of vegetation surrounding each structure.
By applying advanced machine learning techniques to the combined dataset, they developed a model that predicts structure survivability with 82% accuracy. Their research identified structure separation distance as the most influential factor driving structure loss, especially in densely built areas. Flame length and construction features also substantially contributed to the vulnerability of structures.
Additional contributors include Dwi Purnomo and Maria Theodori of UC Berkeley; Daniel San Martin of the Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María; Yiren Qin, Ali Tohidi and Arnaud Trouvé of the University of Maryland; and Chris Lautenberger of Cloudfire.
Learn more: California communities can reduce wildfire damage by half. Here’s how. (Berkeley News); Fire risk to structures in California’s wildland-urban interface (Nature Communications)