NFPA Journal - Fall 2021 - 72

THE VIEW
Wildfire by Michele Steinberg
Closing the Gaps
WHY WE NEED A NEW RESEARCH AGENDA THAT TRULY REFLECTS
THE PROBLEM OF COMMUNITY DESTRUCTION BY WILDFIRE
W
e know enough about
wildfire safety to declare
that we must act on our
knowledge through robust
policy approaches. But, to
paraphrase American sage Maya Angelou,
when we know better, we do better.
And when it comes to the impact of
wildfire on communities, there's a lot more
we need to know if we hope to do better.
For example, there has been little
investigation into cost comparisons,
such as the cost to retrofit and mitigate
a property versus the cost of damage and
recovery. We know that mass destruction
of homes and businesses occurs largely
from structure-to-structure ignition, but
we lack insight into the technical details
of how to prevent such conflagrations.
NFPA calls for new construction to meet
model codes and standards as well as
land-use practices, but without standard
risk metrics and visual tools such as risk
maps, it's difficult for local authorities to
apply and enforce regulation. We need
to establish best practices related to emergency notification
and mass evacuation in wildfire scenarios, a gap that must be
addressed if we are to properly inform and engage people on
how to keep themselves and their families safe.
All of these needs were identified in a recent report that grew
out of " Preparing for Disaster: Workshop on Advancing WUI
Reslience, " an event held last year that was co-sponsored by
NFPA. The pre-pandemic gathering was designed to identify
market and research gaps in wildfire resilience-gaps that, until
they are closed, threaten to slow our progress toward a safer
future. That means further deaths and injuries, as well as largescale
property loss, for communities in wildfire-prone areas.
No one's suggesting that closing these gaps will be easy, since
No one's suggesting
that closing these
wildfire research gaps
will be easy. But we
already have some
valuable experience
in framing the big
questions.
to just five key tenets. That's what NFPA
did earlier this year when we solidified
the direction for Outthink Wildfire™
, a
policy initiative to end the destruction
of communities by wildfire by 2050. In
fact, the five areas of focus that we came
up with felt like no-brainers. Decades of
research and experience illuminating the
key factors driving wildfire disasters gave
us enough evidence to focus on what's
needed in America's wildfire-prone
places: upgrading our built environment
to resist ignition and limit wildfire
spread; doing more to address natural
wildfire fuels on public lands; helping
local firefighters be safer and more
effective in their wildfire operations; educating
people on what to do to save their
homes and families; and ensuring that
current codes and standards, as well as
sound land-use practices, are in use and
enforced. It has been useful to map the
" Preparing for Disaster " report against
the Outthink Wildfire tenets-most are
squarely focused on addressing the problems
of property loss on a mass scale through better building,
rebuilding, retrofitting, and public outreach. The more that
research can validate best practices and solutions, the easier
it will be for NFPA and like-minded organizations to convince
policymakers to enact meaningful changes.
We need to embrace a new emphasis on wildfire research.
wildfire's impact on the built environment and society is a
wickedly complex stew of factors, causes, and conditions. But
we already have some experience in framing the big questions.
Imagine the challenges involved in distilling that complexity
72 | NFPA JOURNAL * FALL 2021
Key to NFPA's authority and credibility is our ability to back
our guidance and standards with the best available information
about how to eliminate loss and suffering from fire,
electrical, and related hazards. Setting a practical wildfire
resilience research agenda that fills these gaps will supplement
the vigorous policy work of Outthink Wildfire and will signal
to the academic and research communities that significant
research is still needed if we hope to enjoy a future free from
the loss of homes and communities due to wildfire.
MICHELE STEINBERG is director of the wildfire division at NFPA.
FROM NFPA'S
WILDFIRE DIVISION
MICHAEL HOEWELER
NFPA Journal - Fall 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of NFPA Journal - Fall 2021
