How risk management can prevent future wildfire disasters in the wildland-urban interface

Recent
fire seasons in the western United States are some of the most damaging and
costly on record. Wildfires in the wildland-urban interface on the Colorado
Front Range, resulting in thousands of homes burned and civilian fatalities,
although devastating, are not without historical reference. These fires are
consistent with the characteristics of large, damaging, interface fires that threaten
communities across much of the western United States. Wildfires are inevitable,
but the destruction of homes, ecosystems, and lives is not. We propose the
principles of risk analysis to provide land management agencies, first
responders, and affected communities who face the inevitability of wildfires
the ability to reduce the potential for loss. Overcoming perceptions of
wildland-urban interface fire disasters as a wildfire control problem rather than
a home ignition problem, determined by home ignition conditions, will reduce
home loss.