• Would you live in an area prone to wildfires? What level of risk from wildfires is acceptable to you?
• How would you know if the wildfire risk was assessed accurately?  What are the characteristics of a good wildfire risk assessment?
• What should be done by people and communities in areas prone to wildfires to prepare for the hazard and prevent catastrophe?

• What factors influence the impact of wildfires?
• How do wildfire hazards vary from place to place? Why?

1. In what ways are wildfires predictable?
2. To what other hazards are wildfires linked?
3. What are the potentially disastrous consequences of swildfires?
4. In what ways has human activity made wildfires catastrophic?
5. How can the hazardous consequences of wildfires be minimized?

RESOURCES

Notes: download PowerPoint

Text: Chapter 13

Supplemental Presentation: The United States of Wildfire

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• Search Google or Yahoo News for "wildfires"

• National Forest Service Wildland Fire Assessment System
• National Wildfire Coordinating Group
  • maps of current wildfires in the US; each includes a database of historic fire perimeters
  • Inciweb - Incident Information System
  • National Fire Situational Awareness
    • For historic fires:
      • zoom in on the area of interest
      • select "Fire History - current decade"
      • select "InteragencyFirePerimeterHistory"
      • click on a fire perimeter on the map to learn details about the fire, including the name and year
• National Interagency Fire Center Open Data - includes a historic wildland fires database
• Risk Factor (provides estimates for flood, wildfire, and extreme heat risk)
• KQED Series: Living with Wildfire
• We Can't Stop Wildfires - But Here's How We Live With Them (video)
• Is Your Home At Risk Of Wildfire In A Changing Climate? 6 Questions To Ask
• Fire in the Earth System: Introduction to the Special Collection
• Example city wildfire planning page: Santa Rosa, CA
• US Forest Service
  • Fire Management
  • Wildland Fire Assessment System
• Federal Emergency Management Agency
  • http://m.fema.gov/wildfires.htm
• National Geographic Society
  • http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/natural-disasters/wildfires/
  • http://www.nationalgeographic.com/eye/wildfires/wildfires.html
• Centers for Disease Control
  • http://www.bt.cdc.gov/disasters/wildfires/
• NOAA
  • http://www.noaa.gov/features/04_resources/fire2.html
  • State of the Climate - Wildfires 2012
• American Red Cross
  • Be Wildfire Ready
• U.S. Dept. of Health & Human Services
  • Coping with Wildfires