Exposure of human communities to wildfire in the Pacific Northwest
At the request of the United States Forest Service Pacific Northwest Regional Office, Pyrologix1 assessed the exposure to wildfire of housing units within named human communities across the Pacific Northwest Region (Oregon and Washington). The purpose of the assessment was to identify the communities most threatened by wildfire. The fifty most-threatened communities in each state were identified.
These results have several applications. A home buyer can use these results for comparing the relative wildfire exposure of homes in different communities; homeowners can gauge their wildfire exposure compared to their peers in neighboring communities. Governments and other organizations can potentially use the results to prioritize communities for home-loss mitigation efforts, allocate mitigation funding, inform building codes, and guide residential development. Finally, land owners and land management agencies can use the exposure-source results to identify locations within their ownerships that produce damaging wildfires.
