wildland-urban interface News

2.9M Colorado Residents Now Living in Areas at Risk Of Wildfire

The number of Coloradans whose homes are at risk from wildfires soared 45 percent in five years, reflecting the state’s booming population and changing uses of agricultural land, state officials said. The Colorado State Forest Service said 2.9 million people …

How Insurance Industry Might React to ‘New Normal’ of California’s Historic Wildfires

The “new normal” for California has yielded another year of record wildfires and billions of dollars in insured losses. Homeowners insurance rates inch up in high risk areas, and carriers get more cautious about where they write in a state …

Markets Not Getting Better at Insuring Disasters: Viewpoint

Last year was the second-costliest year for disasters since 1970, according to a new analysis from reinsurance firm Swiss Re AG. Global economic losses from these events reached $337 billion in 2017, behind only 2011’s total losses, and less than …

Humans to Blame for More Than 80% of U.S. Wildfires

Humans have been the culprits behind hundreds of thousands of wildfires in recent decades, and they will probably make things a whole lot worse in coming years. Research from the University of Colorado Boulder finds that humans have dramatically increased …

Forrest Service Maps Shows Expansion of WUI in West as Wildfires Burn

A new U.S. Forest Service report shows the continued expansion of housing development near forests, an area referred to as the wildland-urban interface, with direct implications for the cost of wildfire fighting. Increasing densities of people and infrastructure in the …

AP Finds That Wildfire Citations in California Applied Unevenly

A review by The Associated Press of California government data has found a wide discrepancy in how state and local fire officials apply fines and citations for failing to clear vegetation in areas prone to wildland blazes. Property owners in …

Understanding Wildfire Risk: A Closer Look at the Wildland-Urban Interface

This post is part of a series sponsored by CoreLogic. More than 21,500 fires have burned nearly 700,000 acres so far in 2014 (as of May 29, 2014), and these fires have been caused by both lightning strikes and more …

Report: $189B in Western U.S. Properties High Wildfire Potential

Despite a little touch of some wetter and cooler weather, the 2013 wildfire season isn’t over, and the Western states in particular should be prepared for a few more potentially active months. That’s according to the 2013 CoreLogic Wildfire Hazard …

Homeowner Fees Recommended To Address Colorado Fires

Colorado homeowners living in high-risk wildfire areas should be charged fees, and officials need to adopt statewide building requirements to address destructive fires, according to recommendations Monday from a group convened by Gov. John Hickenlooper. The recommendations seek to shift …

Insurers, Government Grapple with Costs of Growth in Wildland-Urban Interface

The summer of 2013 has been another severe fire season for the United States, a trend that has insurance companies bracing for a new normal: higher rates of property damage as Americans move to wildfire-prone areas in ever greater numbers. …