Technology Provides Consistency in Reducing Wildfire Losses: Codes and Standards (Part III)

The use of codes and standards may not readily come to mind as a technological solution, but the development of sound codes and ordinances is founded on science and technology. In the case of wildfires, extensive research, modeling, and observation have shown that wildfires do not behave like floods that flow through residential areas, consuming homes in their path. Neither do these fires “select” homes to destroy as would a monster or, as they are more often characterized, a terrible dragon raging through subdivision after subdivision, consciously deciding which home is destroyed and which is allowed to survive.

The all-too-familiar wildland/urban fire is technically an exposure fire. Thinking of historic conflagrations such as Boston, Chicago, as well as Atlanta and San Francisco (consequences of the Civil War and the 1906 earthquake, respectively), the communication of flames and heat in wildfires is not the issue of the forest fire consuming hundreds of homes at once but with the change in the type of fuels involved. A wildfire (or wildland fire by definition) is a fire supported and spread by vegetation (fuel), driven by wind (oxygen), and generating sufficient energy (heat) to spread. (Yes, the fifth grade lesson of the “fire triangle” still applies). The home losses around the world every year occur as a result of the change in the primary fuel of the wildfire from vegetation (trees and grasses) to structural elements (homes). That’s what gets folks all excited and confused. The change in fuels is the opportunity to reduce damages and losses by building homes and structures that can withstand exposure to a wildfire. And that opportunity lies in part with the adoption of effective codes and standards for building homes in fire prone areas.

While codes and ordinances will not stop the flames, their application does help reduce the resulting damages and burdens on those affected. In the event of a large disaster, the affected population could be in the tens of millions of people. The adoption and enforcement (with lots of education) of nationally developed codes and standards provides consistency across jurisdictions, resulting in improved cooperation and mutual assistance among first responders, planners, builders, and administrators.

Coming up next blog: Getting more people on the same page and in the same book.