Wildfire Risk Hazard Assessment

Photo courtesy of
National Interagency
Fire Council website

Since the 1980’s, wildfire has becoming an ever-increasing threat to communities in the western United States. In 2002 alone, over six million acres burned and more than 2,000 homes were lost. Natural resources losses that year were the greatest to date, and suppression costs were higher than any year previous.

Recognizing the potential for catastrophic losses from wildfires, Congress developed the National Fire Plan to allocate grant funds to communities along wildland/urban interface areas. The grants allow communities to develop fire safe plans that will establish pre-suppression planning and fuel reduction treatments.

There are several definitions of the wildland/urban interface. Some definitions refer to the zone where man-made improvements intermix with the wildland fuels. Other definitions refer to any area where potentially dangerous combustible wildland fuels are found adjacent to combustible homes and other structures. In general, the wildland/urban interface means the boundary between communities and the open, undeveloped space around and adjacent to them.

The first objective of the risk assessment/fuels reduction process is to identify existing conditions and hazards that increase the risk for loss of life and/or property in the event of a wildfire. The ultimate goals of risk assessment/fuel reduction plans are to:

Photo courtesy of
National Interagency
Fire Council website

• Inform private landowners of how to protect their personal safety and property by presenting defensible space and fuel reduction recommendations.
• Increase community safety by identifying ways to expand existing fire fighting manpower and equipment resources, and promoting practices that can help to reduce ignition risks and fuel hazards.
• Set guidelines that, when followed, will enable the community to implement participation programs for maintaining fire safe communities.
• Promote fire hazard reduction and pre-suppression coordination with agencies such as the Bureau of Land Management or the U.S. Forest Service, who are responsible for fire management on public lands

Defensible Space In Action

RCI has conducted numerous wildfire risk hazard assessments for communities throughout Nevada, and provided those communities with fire safe/fuels reduction plans that, when followed, serve to protect lives and property from wildfires. Our specialized multi-disciplinary professional teams spend time in each community, looking at vegetation that surrounds the community, structure composition, general layout of the community in relation to its surroundings, and existing firefighting manpower and equipment. The teams take the data they’ve collected and, combined with previously amassed information about the existing condition of the community, form recommendations that citizens can use to reduce the risks of major damage from a wildfire. Our fuel reduction plans often include fact sheets for homeowners that summarize the recommendations provided in the reports, as well as GIS-produced maps and posters that outline the existing condition and fuel and firebreak recommendation dimensions, and other figures necessary to detail the methods outlined in the plan.

Project Experience

RCI has conducted risk assessments and fuel reduction plans throughout Nevada, beginning in 1988 when NACO retained RCI to assist in a statewide study that was authorized through the Nevada Legislature. Legislation mandated the study of Nevada’s existing programs for wildfire prevention and suppression and restoration of burned areas, to include identification, review and analysis of the wildfire suppression and prevention issues. This report was the foundation for many of Nevada’s current wildfire prevention/management programs and legislation.

Nevada’s geography and vegetation communities differ across the state, varying from montane forests to the Mojave desert to the Great Basin. RCI’s wildfire risk assessments and fuel reduction plans are as diverse as our home state. RCI conducted a risk/hazard assessment in the Virginia Highlands, located in the Virginia Range near the Sierra Nevada Mountains in 2000. Following the success of that project, RCI covered communities in the pinyon-juniper woodlands of White Pine County and northern Lincoln County, the desert scrublands of central Lincoln County, and the eastern Sierra communities of Holbrook Junction and Galena Forest Estates. In addition to the regular assessment procedures including agency coordination, public presentations and report preparation, each of the projects required assessment techniques unique to the area and the community. RCI’s long presence in Nevada and wide-ranging project experience enables us to provide the depth of assessment and unique site-specific recommendations each community deserves.

Statewide Plan

In 2004 and 2005, Resource Concepts, Inc. completed individual wildfire risk and hazard assessments for 239 communities in 16 Nevada counties and the Carson City Consolidated Municipality. The project required extensive travel and logistical planning to obtain site-specific data from rural and remote communities. RCI risk assessments included descriptions of vegetative fuels, estimates of fuel loads (tons/acre), and maps of fuel hazard conditions in the wildland/urban interface. The RCI Fire Specialist assigned an ignition risk rating for each community of low, moderate, or high. The rating was based upon historical ignition patterns, opinions of local, state, and federal fire agency personnel, community field visits, and professional judgments based on experience with wildland fire ignitions in Nevada. The Risk/Hazard Assessment project also included development of wildfire mitigation recommendations for each community. The extensive amount of fieldwork required for the project was consistently completed ahead of schedule and often below budget. The extensive amount of field data collected was efficiently compiled into Access and GIS databases for easy data retrieval and report preparation.