At Home in the Woods: Lessons Learned in the Wildland/Urban Interface - A new publication that documents some of the best, most innovative fire mitigation practices currently underway in the wildland/urban interface.
Increasing growth in Idaho with emphasis on "lifestyle" has resulted in developments in areas at risk from wildland fires. Unfortunately, covenants intended to preserve the "forest atmosphere" of the development oftentimes compound the danger. Requiring wooden shingles, for instance, does not promote fire safety, nor do landscaping requirements that demand combustible greenery close to dwellings. Narrow access roads and cul-de-sacs hamper firefighter response. Local water supplies may not be sufficient to fight fires.
What can you do?
Planning and zoning departments may not have either the authority or the desire to enforce safe practices. Prospective buyers should ask questions about fires, flooding, landslides.
Owners who are used to the emergency services of urban areas may mistakenly believe that they have access to the same services. If you life in a remote area, you should evaluate hazards and plan for their eventuality.
Click here for some basic tips for fire safety for homes at risk for wildland fire. For more extensive information, visit the Firewise homepage.
Related pages: Idaho Department of Lands, State Fire Marshal
Wildland fires are a cause of great fear in rural and urban/wildland interface areas of Idaho . Fire can quickly consume large areas, destroying property and taking lives. When huge fires, or conflagrations, strike, there is often little that can be done to control them, and residents may be forced to flee. Dense smoke may fill the area for miles around the fire impacting areas not directly affected by the flames. Because smoke from such fires contains substantial amounts of fine particulate matter and other hazardous pollutants, fires pose direct health impacts, especially for the young and elderly, as well as economic damages due to loss of tourist business. Wildland fires also threaten infrastructure (e.g., leading to increased sedimentation impacting reservoirs) as well as wildland resource values such as water, timber, wildlife habitat, and recreation.
Wildland fires may spawn secondary hazards, such as flash flooding and landsliding, long after they have been extinguished. Vegetation provides a number of physical functions which contribute to the hydrologic and slope stability regimes of an area. When this vegetation is consumed in wildland fire, resulting changes may include decreased rainfall interception and infiltration; faster concentration times and greater volume of peak flows; increased volume and velocity of overland runoff; and loss of reinforcing roots. The intense temperatures of wildland fire may also cause chemical changes in the soil, resulting in hydrologic changes similar to those described above. These areas may not return to pre-fire conditions for decades.
Summer 2000 Wildland Fires List of fires in 2003
As of September 26, 2000 the National Interagency Fire Center reported that 1,541 fires had burned 1,235,150 acres in the state during the fire season that some called the most serious wildland fire season in U.S. history. As a result of an adverse weather pattern (“La Nina”), a combination of hot temperatures, low relative humidity, little or no precipitation and plenty of wind led to numerous fires ranging from small to massive complexes.
Unlike in many past wildland fire seasons whose impacts were confined to wildlands and Idaho 's relatively isolated, small communities, large towns such as Salmon were threatened and affected.
Thirteen fires led to evacuations; sites evacuated included two small towns, three mining areas, and many scattered residences. There were only seven serious injuries in Idaho , a significant success considering the number of residents who were evacuated and assisted in initial attacks by creating fire lines around their properties or fighting the fires, and the number of personnel on the fire lines.
| NFPA: Wildfire info for Kids |
| Idaho: State Fire Plan |
| National Fire Plan |
| Firewise |
| USFS: Current Fire Danger |
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Bureau of Homeland Security
4040 Guard Street
Building 600
Boise, Idaho 83705
(208) 334-3460
