Slowing the Spread of Urban Fires Starts Right Outside the Home
A year after the LA wildfires, growing research is revealing just how essential the outdoor spaces between homes can be.
The outdoor spaces between homes can form an important buffer zone to prevent the spread of urban wildfires — or make them worse.
Photographer: Dan Coplan/Moment RFIt was the Santa Ana winds, which blow westward every year from the deserts of Nevada and Utah, that helped carry wildfires from the mountains of Southern California down into the suburbs of Los Angeles County one year ago. From there, homes fueled the fast-moving blazes as they consumed entire communities, resulting in some of the most destructive fires in state history.
As these kinds of urban fires become more frequent and intense due to climate change and the encroachment of homes in flammable forest areas, researchers are stressing that prevention needs to start with the outdoor spaces around a home.