#wui — Public Fediverse posts

@ZLabe I was in the Sacramento Mountains (Cloudcroft, NM) two weeks ago for #wildfire work and was so sketched out I signed up for emergency alerts for my three nights in town. I used to live in NM, so accustomed to *dry,* but this was different.

Today, I drove over Donner Pass for the #WUI Conference in #Reno, and was shocked at the lack of snow. I knew it was bad, but seeing it was wild. I grew up near here (Plumas County) and know what March is supposed to look like.

@ai6yr Scientific article.
Explainer for rapid growth of 2018 Camp Fire in northern California. No paywall.

10km =~ 6.2 miles!!!!

"Abstract Extreme fire spread during the 2018 Camp Fire in northern California was driven by organized long‐range spotting tightly coupled to plume dynamics. Doppler radar and satellite observations reveal distinct regions of ember lofting and downwind fallout within the convective column, forming direct pathways for firebrand transport several (up to 10) kilometers ahead of the main fire front. These firebrands ignited dense clusters of new fires that merged into rapidly advancing lobes, producing abrupt surges in fire growth that exceeded expectations based on surface wind and fuel conditions alone."
https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1029/2025JD045798

#Wildfire #CAfire #WildlandUrbanInterface #WUI

CA Resliency Alliance

Wildfire Knowledge Tidbit

Smoke from WUI Fires: Chemical Composition

Smoke pollution depends on what burns. Unlike wildland fires, which mainly consume vegetation, wildland-urban interface (WUI) fires involve homes, vehicles, businesses, and infrastructure. This mix of fuels produces a distinct chemical profile with important health implications. Studies show that all fires release elements such as magnesium, aluminum, and calcium. But WUI fires generate higher levels of toxic trace metals—including copper, lead, and zinc—linked to the burning of structures and manmade materials. For example, during the 2018 Camp Fire, average lead concentrations measured 200 km away were more than 40 times higher on smoke-impacted days. These elevated metals raise concerns for both public health and ecosystems. Many can cause acute, chronic, or delayed health effects through inhalation, skin contact, or ingestion, putting downwind communities at particular risk.

Source: Wildland Fire Research: What’s in Smoke?, EPA, July 22, 2025 and The Chemistry of Fires at the Wildland-Urban Interface, National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, 2022

#wildfires #health #smoke #wui

"While climatic trends increased the frequency of high-risk fire-weather by 2.5-fold, the combination of this trend with wildland-urban interface expansion led to a 4.1-fold increase in the frequency of conditions conducive to extreme-impact #wildfires from 1990 to 2022 across #California."

https://www.nature.com/articles/s44304-025-00067-6
#WUI #ClimateChange

The Case for Letting Malibu Burn
Bushfires and sprawl: Man-made catastrophes and cultural narratives

The lethal mixture of home ownership and the bush: Neighborhoods on fire.
"Since 1993. almost half of California’s new homes have been built in fire hazard areas...Commercial greed over common sense and the social good."

The aristocratisation of the coast
"In a feverish buying and selling of land, the coast has become utterly transformed and unrecognizable. Each succeeding house, bigger and grander, takes the view of its neighbors in a kind of unbridled competition.… Once lost, paradise can never be regained.… Developers have bulldozed the Santa Monicas beyond recovery."
>>
Mike Davis, Ecology of Fear: The Case for Letting Malibu Burn. 1998
https://longreads.com/2018/12/04/the-case-for-letting-malibu-burn/

Ecology of Fear: Mike Davis’ history of LA and natural disaster is re-read whenever fire rages in California >>
https://theconversation.com/ecology-of-fear-mike-davis-history-of-la-and-natural-disaster-is-re-read-whenever-fire-rages-in-california-247101
#bushfires #fires #firestorms #sprawl #housing #suburbs #mansions #OverDevelopment #coast #NSW #destruction #disasters #gridlocked #roads #highways #floods #landslides #WUI #FossilFuels #Biodiversity #Holocene #folly

Lessons from another settler society about current fire practices, land management and logging practices: With more good fire comes less feral fire.

"To understand modern fire policy in California requires an analysis of California’s settler attitude toward the more-than-human world. This attitude relies heavily on the invented concepts embedded in the words nature and wilderness."

“The white man sure ruined this country, it’s turned back to wilderness.”
Sierra Miwok elder James Rust, quoted by M. Kat Anderson

Excerpts of The State of Fire: Why California Burns by Obi Kaufmann. Heyday Books, in Los Angeles Review of Books September 15, 2024
>>
https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/what-then-is-natural/
#bushfires #CulturalBurning #FossilFuels #MegaFires #gigafire #arson #ClimateBreakdown #Cryosphere #droughts #smoke #loggingIndustry #LoggingImpacts #NSWLogging #FCNSW #harm #WUI #sprawl #cars #extractivism #denial #IndigenousPeoples #ecosystems #biodiversity #SettlerSociety #mindset #BelloBook

LAUREN MAGLIOZZI (INSTAAR & CEAE)
🔥🌊🌱 Fire, water, & the urban wild: Impacts of the Marshall Fire on Coal Creek in Boulder County, CO

Join us for her summer evening talk at the CU Boulder+INSTAAR Mountain Research Station
🗓 Wed July 10
🕖 7 pm
🔗 https://calendar.colorado.edu/event/lauren-magliozzi-mrs-seminar-fire-water-and-the-urban-wild-impacts-of-the-marshall-fire-on-coal-creek-in-boulder-county-colorado

Additionally, see a well-illustrated #storymap by Magliozzi et al. that assesses water quality & ecosystem impacts of the #MarshallFire at the Wildland-Urban Interface #WUI https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/5f19b8becef94ba3a537612b0332d99d

Univ. of Arizona: $3.8M grant will fund study of firefighter risks, interventions in wildland-urban blazes https://healthsciences.arizona.edu/news/releases/38m-grant-will-fund-study-firefighter-risks-interventions-wildland-urban-blazes

#wildfires #wui #firefighting

A message to examine your community's brittleness:

"And while 2.1 million #NorthCarolina homes are in the #WildlandUrbanInterface, North Carolinians have relatively little experience with #wildfires, he noted.

“The combination of #WUI and a ‘fire naive’ population could potentially cause major loss of human life in the eastern U.S., similar to what we’ve seen now in #Hawaii and previously in California,” Scheller said."

https://journalnow.com/news/local/hawaii-fires-a-cue-to-start-expecting-the-unexpected-even-in-triad/article_ac9023e6-3886-11ee-86e5-d7cc2367c123.html

Regulating the #WildlandUrbanInterface—Three Case Studies from #Colorado | Community #Wildfire Planning Center https://www.communitywildfire.org/new-report-regulating-the-wildland-urban-interface-three-case-studies-from-colorado/ #COfire #WUI

"Fires are a new reality," stressed the President of the Republic, stating that the images of the #wildfires last summer are "an insufficient and limited portrait of a much broader and more #complex #reality". "We have to get more and more used to realities like these."
#Portugal
#Resilience
#WUI
https://www.tsf.pt/portugal/politica/marcelo-visita-areas-ardidas-incendios-comecam-a-prevenir-se-no-inverno-15551018.html

I get real excited when people talk about the wild land-urban interface I can't help it I'm a WUI Girl 🏘️🎄🐻

#ecology #wui #wildlife #UrbanEcology #WildlandUrbanInterface #hazardmitigation #wildlifemanagement #wildfire

"Millions of homes are being built in fire-prone areas of Mountain West as wildfire risks grow"

With reference to the #MarshallFire last year here in #Colorado, and a picture of the devastation in my town of #LouisvilleCO

#wildfire #WUI

https://www.ksut.org/environment-climate/2022-12-12/millions-of-homes-are-being-built-in-fire-prone-areas-of-mountain-west-as-wildfire-risks-grow

Flocking to fire: #Wildfires don't deter Americans from moving to at-risk regions.
#WUI
https://t.co/VcgQgAImKX

ULRI's Fire Safety Research Institute recently completed a series of façade experiments to examine window failure as a potential mechanism for building-to-building fire spread including different combinations of windowpanes with plain and tempered glass. This "Heat Transfer from Structure Fires" study aims to advance understanding of building-to-building fire spread mechanisms so as to inform control measures and reduce risk in urban and #WUI environments.

https://fsri.org/research-update/research-continues-heat-transfer-structure-fires-project