posted on 2021-11-10, 16:34authored byGeoffrey
Colin L. Peterson, Steven E. Prince, Ana G. Rappold
The
increased risk of wildfires and associated smoke exposure in
the United States is a growing public health problem, particularly
along the Wildland–Urban Interface (WUI). Using the measure
of fire danger, the Energy Release Component, we define fire danger
as the onset and duration of fire season, in the continental US, between
1979 and 2016. We then combine the measure of fire danger with census
data to quantify changes in population fire exposure across the WUI.
We determined that the largest increases in fire danger were observed
in the Southwest, Intermountain, and Pacific Southwest regions. The
increased fire danger, specifically during peak fire season, accounted
for 6.1 more fires each year and 78,000 more acres burned each year,
underscoring the link between fire danger and the risks of large fire
occurrence and burn acreage. Finally, we observed significant population
growth (121.2% between 1990 and 2010) within high-danger WUI areas,
further implying significant increases in potential fire exposure.