The number of Fire Safe Councils (FSCs) available to support the efforts of CAR to reduce the chances for loss and damage from wildfires. The California Fire Safe Council, and county and local FSCs, are non-profit organizations that promote fire safety education, and encourage wildfire hazard management and wildfire prevention. CAR represented by an FSC may be more prepared and/or resilient in the face of wildfires.
Forest communities potentially at risk from future pest outbreaks, which could result in economic, environmental, aesthetic, and public safety impacts. These communities represent potential opportunities for risk reduction through different types of actions designed to mitigate the particular type of threat. Forest pest threat is ranked based on expected tree mortality, based on data from the USDA Forest Service Forest Health Protection program (FHP)
In the worst cases, wildfires can result in firefighters or other people dying directly or indirectly as a result of the fire. This indicator is a direct measure of this important impact of fires.
People within residential areas adjacent to or within areas prone to wildfires may be at risk from harm when fires occur. This indicator is a measure of the degree of exposure, based on number of structures, or number of people exposed to risk of harm from wildfires.
Provides a measure of highly modified urbanized WUI (>1 house/2 acres; >0.5 houses/acre) at risk of wildfire penetration. In contrast to Intermix areas, Interface landscapes have more manicured, irrigated and highly modified vegetation, and often it is the structural fuels that contribute significantly to fire spread. Wildfires in this form of WUI are relatively rare, and typically only spread under very extreme fire weather conditions. But due to the high density of assets such as homes, roads, and residential and commercial infrastructure, damage levels from burning can be very high even over small areas.
Provides a measure of risk for existing Intermix areas, based on the associated Fire Hazard Severity Zone (FHSZ) class. Intermix is defined as between 1 house/2 acres, and 1 house/20 acres (0.5 to 0.05 houses/acre). Landscapes with housing densities of less than 1 house per 2 acres typically retain most of their natural vegetation fuels, and consequently are not as resilient to wildfires as denser urbanized areas. Although wildfires are more frequent in these types of environments, infrastructure values (due to low housing density) are typically relatively low (as compared to urban areas).
Structures lost to wildfire, as reported in CALFIRE’s annual Wildfire Activity Statistics report. The loss of a home and other real property to wildfire disrupts lives. This indicator shows the level of losses to society from fire effects on structures built in areas where wildfires occur.
Communities that are adjacent to or within fire-prone areas may be more prepared and/or resilient in the face of wildfires. In addition, communities with Community Wildfire Protection Plans in place will be given priority for funding of hazardous fuels reduction projects carried out under the auspices of the federal Healthy Forest Restoration Act.
The wildland-urban interface (WUI) is an important landscape feature and is defined as the area where urban and natural areas intersect. It is the region where people and structures may be most at risk of harm from wildfires. In some cases, not all of a community will be at the WUI, so it is important to know the proportion of a community that is exposed.
