Coalition Formed to Combat Wildfire Threat Where U.S. Urban Neighborhoods Meet Wildland Areas

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As the U.S. population grows, housing, office buildings, schools and other structures needed to support an urban environment are being constructed closer than ever to wildland areas. One unwanted result is the increased number of wildfires and the danger those fires pose to life and property.

The just-formed National Wildland Urban Interface Council (NWUIC) will address those and other challenges associated with the growing threat from wildfires in urban neighborhoods that border wildland areas. The alliance was developed by the International Code Council (ICC) and the National Association of Resource Conservation and Development Councils (NARC&DC).

Just about every state is at risk for wildland urban interface fires. Wildland fires cost taxpayers, local communities and businesses in excess of $10 billion annually. Since 1990, the wildland urban interface has experienced an unprecedented growth rate of three acres a minute, 4,000 acres a day and close to two-million acres annually of conversions from wildlands to wildland urban interface. The cost to fight wildfires annually is estimated at $4 billion and insurance losses are estimated at more than $1 billion annually.

"With more than 70,000 communities, 46 million homes and 120 million people across the United States at risk from wildland fires, this growing crisis needs new emphasis to save lives, reduce injuries and protect property," said ICC CEO Rick Weiland. "This is an important public safety and building safety issue."

NARC&DC President James Sipperly said, "The new National Wildland Urban Interface Council blends a strong national emphasis to combat wildland fires. Our Council?s contribution to this effort includes an effective, existing grassroots organization, with more than 32,000 local volunteers. It directly affects more than 180 million people in 2,614 counties in all 50 states, as well as the Caribbean and the Pacific Basin."

The NWUIC was a primary recommendation of a National Blue Ribbon Panel on Wildland Urban Interface Fire organized by the Code Council. The panel brought together more than 40 national groups including public safety organizations, federal agencies, forestry programs, local government associations, insurance companies and conservation groups. The panel identified the need for a unified, collaborative approach to combat the loss of life and damage caused by wildland fires adjacent urban locales.

More than 120 organizations and agencies are expected to begin working together on this important issue for the first time, hosted by the National Association of Home Builders, at a meeting scheduled for Nov. 3?4 in Washington, D.C.



Author:National Wildland Urban Interface Council Release