Resolution No. 4814 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

family homes and 450 apartment units destroyed. Total damages were over $1.5 billion. This fire was fueled by very high vegetative fuel loads and occurred on an unusually hot, dry, windy day. The fire spread extremely quickly, with over 800 homes engulfed by fire within the first hour, and completely overwhelmed initial fire suppression efforts. In October 1991, rural counties near Spokane Washington experienced 92 separate fires that burned about 35,000 acres and 114 homes. Between October 25 and November 3, 1993, 21 major wildland fires broke out in California. These fires burned over 189,000 acres and destroyed over 1,100 structures with 3 fatalities and hundreds of injuries. The worst wildland/urban interface fire in United States history as far as casualties are concerned occurred in 1871 in Peshti9o, Wisconsin. This fire burned over 1.2 million acres and killed over 1,200 people. In 2003, a series of wildland/urban interface fires in southern California burned over 750,000 acres and destroyed over 3,000 homes. These few examples dramatically illustrate the potential for disasters in the urban/wildland interface area. 9.2 Measures of the Level of Fire Hazard There are several quantitative and semi-quantitative measures of the level of fire hazard. Most of these measures have been developed by the United States Forest Service in cooperation with other fire agencies. National maps of these fire hazard measures (Wildland Fire Assessment System) are available at the Forest Service website (www.fs.fed.us/land/wfas). These maps are updated very frequently, in some cases daily. All of the Forest Service Fire Danger maps and related technical maps are viewable at the website by going to the INDEX category, then to Fire, Wildland Fire Assessment System. The spatial resolution of the web-published maps is relatively Iow. For example, the Oregon data are based on about 90 reporting stations scattered across the state. Thus, these maps are intended to show regional differences in the level of fire hazard, rather than detailed local differences. However, as a regional guide to fire hazard levels, these maps are enormously useful and readily accessible. The most useful major fire danger measures are briefly reviewed below. For reference, we note that the Forest Service website also has an extensive glossary of fire-related terms, which may be helpful for those unfamiliar with fire terminology and nomenclature. Observed Fire Danger Class Maps Fire danger class is a five level fire danger classification scheme that is based largely on moisture content in fuels and weather conditions (temperature, humidity, wind). Daily nationwide maps are viewable and printable from the Forest Service website (www.fs.fed.us/land/wfas). This fire danger classification is widely used for purposes such as restricting campfires and outdoor burning and is widely reported in the media. The formal definitions of the five levels of danger are given below. Public Review Draft: August 6, 2004 9-10