Why Conduct Wildfire Community Impact Research?
The Importance of Wildfire Community Impact Research
When the 2023 Enterprise/Hay River Wildfire burned about 80% of the NWT community of Enterprise, FPInnovations Wildfire Operations Research sent their wildfire research team to conduct a post wildfire community impact investigation.
The value of this research and the need for more was immediately recognized, “Wildfire disasters don’t come out of nowhere. They’re the result of observable conditions in the environment, and within communities. When they happen, knowing what led to the disaster allows people and communities to act early and prevent disasters in the future. We know firsthand the value of this kind of rapid community impact research. FPInnovations worked with us after the disaster in Enterprise, NWT to get to root causes. From there, the community — and numerous other communities in the NWT - have benefited from what we learned. Filling this research gap in Canada’s wildfire management sphere will ensure lessons aren’t left behind in the wake of a disaster, and that people and governments have the tools they need to prevent the next one.”
– Mike Westwick, Manager, Wildfire Prevention, Mitigation and Information.
Wildfires are an inevitable natural hazard and Wildfire Community Impact Research (WCIR) is important for enhancing wildfire resilience and disaster mitigation efforts. Severe wildfires, especially those that occur in the wildland-urban interface (WUI), can cause significant damage to communities and infrastructure. Understanding the progression, effects of suppression and impacts of these extreme events is crucial for developing strategies to reduce future risks, improve response efforts and support recovery. These goals align with the Wildfire Resilient Futures Initiative, which supports proactive and collaborative actions to prevent and mitigate wildland fires. Wildfire Community Impact Research plays a key role in this process. By studying how communities and structures were impacted by past wildfires, researchers can better inform mitigation strategies, building codes and public awareness. WCIR also helps validate existing fire prevention strategies and ensures that research findings are quickly communicated and applied. A collaborative approach to WCIR is necessary for improving data collection, sharing and analysis across regions.
Severe Wildfires Cause Disaster
A small fraction (3-5%) of wildfires exhibit “extreme” behaviour and account for over 90% of the annual forest area burned. These relatively rare but severe wildfires are the main cause of Wildland Urban Interface (WUI) fire disasters and follow a distinct pattern known as the “WUI Fire Disaster Sequence” (Cohen 2010; Calkin et al. 2014). Research has identified that creating ignition-resistant structures and properties is a critical way to prevent disasters. However, these efforts must be informed by studies of structures and properties that have withstood past WUI fires (Menakis et al. 2003; IBHS 2007; Cohen and Stratton 2008; Sandink et al. 2017).
Learnings from WCIR can inform improved planning guidelines, building codes, WUI fire mitigations and public awareness, resulting in fewer homes and structures igniting.
There is a need for a standard protocol to ensure policies and practices for conducting wildfire impact research are universally applicable across the country to improve data collection, sharing and analysis.