One-third of all US homes are in wildfire threat zones

As they grow in size and intensity, wildfires threaten communities across the Wildland Urban Interface.

Transcript

00:00Wildland-Urban Interface. It's a phrase you may not have heard before, but you may live in or near.

00:08It references the line where structures and other human development intermingle with undeveloped

00:13wildland. Where built meets vegetation as a line marker and so that's why we call it an interface

00:20and urban because these are communities. Over 60,000 communities are at risk for

00:25Wildland-Urban Interface fires that burn approximately two million acres per year.

00:30We've cleared a lot of that land that is fire prone and put communities in those spaces. That

00:36coupled with the droughts, extreme heat, the changes in the way we're having these massive

00:42wind storms, all of this is contributing factors to the wildfire we're seeing.

00:47Fires start in wildland areas and quickly spread to nearby populated areas.

00:52The wind-driven ember cast, the ember spread from house to house as materials burn, so the

00:59community itself becomes the fuel. Wildfires can occur anywhere there is fuel. We think of the

01:05western U.S. when it comes to wildfires and that wildland-urban interface, but we've had wildfires

01:11even in the fire department I'm part of in central Pennsylvania that have been large and have

01:15threatened structures. Experts say you should create space between your property and vegetation

01:20that could burn. Putting gravel between the foundation of the yard, there's a defensible

01:25space that we can stop the fire moving our direction. Making sure that grass is trimmed

01:29down and managed so that you're not getting an overgrowth of materials that could feed fires.

01:33And then look at things like trees and branches that overhang your property if there's ways to

01:37trim those back. Making homes as fire resistant as possible helps keep wildfires from spreading,

01:43potentially saving lives and property in the wildland-urban interface.

01:47When people are living and developing and inhabiting areas near the wildland-urban interface,

01:52a huge investment is needed, which does sometimes put firefighters at risk as well

01:56to protect all these homes in these very desirable communities. We have to understand

02:01if we're going to live and put communities in fire-prone lands, we must become fire adapted.

02:06For AccuWeather, I'm meteorologist Tony Laubach.