How Stakeholders View Wildfire Mitigation Efforts for Homes

The National Fire Protection Association’s (NFPA’s) Fire Protection Research Foundation report, Stakeholder Perceptions of Wildfire Mitigations for Homes: Multi-Audience Survey Research, captures the results of surveys administered to wildfire mitigation stakeholder groups, including government officials, local fire departments, and residents in California and Oregon.

The current situation

According to the NFPA, today there are approximately 45 million homes in the U.S. that are at risk to wildfire. The increasing expansion and complexity of the built environment in wildfire-prone areas pose severe challenges to community safety. Wildfires, often referred to as wildland urban interface, or WUI, fires, are likely to become more severe and affect more people with negative consequences, such as:

• Property losses.
• Short- and long-term damage to infrastructure.
• Social disruption.
• Large community evacuation.
• Injuries and fatalities (to both evacuees and responders).

The report

California and Oregon: The NFPA worked with these 2 states because, while parcel-level wildfire mitigation efforts are voluntary in many states, both Oregon and California are implementing regulations that require parcel-level mitigation action by property owners living in identified wildfire risk areas. These actions include removing or modifying vegetation and other combustible elements on private property and upgrading home exteriors for ignition resistance.

Surveys: The purpose of these surveys was to gather information about how stakeholders in these 2 states perceived wildfire mitigation efforts for existing structures and motivations for taking action.

Findings: Some notable findings from NFPA’s survey of fire departments include:

• Lack of funding and resources were reported as the biggest obstacles to achieving wildfire mitigation goals.
• The lack of dedicated staff assigned to outreach and education on wildfire risk and mitigation stems from the funding and resource shortages.
• A majority of firefighters surveyed believe that wildfire protection should be a shared responsibility between property owners and firefighters.
• A majority of departments now have a division dedicated to wildfire issues, and just over half of departments surveyed have allocated personnel specifically for wildfire mitigation or wildfire hazard assessments.

This information about stakeholder perceptions can be used to improve messaging about effective mitigation actions and government regulations surrounding wildfire mitigation.