Strategies for mitigating both structure and life loss within these areas has been the adoption of fire-adapted communities and structure triage. The National Wildfire Coordination Group (NWCG), the group that establishes national interagency wildland fire operations standards,  has created actionable steps that communities can achieve to reduce the risk of loss from wildfires. The plan outlines risk reduction by two main categories: ignition resistant structures and zone-delineated landscapes. Within the plan, the NWCG breaks down residential structures to individual components (i.e. roof material and design, gutters, eaves, vents, siding, decks, fencing, etc.) and gives best practices on making these areas as ignition resistant as possible. The NWCG also outlines three distinct ignition landscape zones from 0-100 ft of the structure for reduction in fuel load, arrangement, and continuity. These actionable steps can greatly reduce loss from wildfire within WUI.

Unfortunately, creating fire-adapted communities and using ground and aerial resources to combat wildfires does not seem to be enough. Firefighters are also tasked with structure triage in areas where the wildfire is most likely to go due to wind, terrain, and fuel drivers. During extreme wildfire conditions, saving every structure may not be possible; to help firefighters communicate to command a list of structures that are able to be defensible, many agencies have developed structure triage and defense guides. 

The triage guide is broken down into three categories: Not Threatened, Threatened Defensible, and Threatened Non-Defensible. A non-threatened structure is one that has a safety zone nearby or on site, composed of bare soil, where all resources can gather in the event that fire behavior becomes too dangerous to engage. A non-threatened structure is also typically made of materials that are unlikely to ignite and is surrounded by maintained landscaping with a very low fuel load. A threatened but defensible structure is one that also has a safety zone nearby or on site but is made of construction features or landscaping that requires firefighters to implement structure defense tactics. A threatened and non-defensible structure is one where there are no safety zones nearby, the structure has material and/or landscaping issues that make fire defense tactics unsafe, and fire activity in the area make it dangerous for firefighters to implement structure defense tactics. Once triage is completed, this information will be relayed to command/division supervisor via radio and virtual mapping; physical confirmation (paint, flagging, etc.) will also be placed at the end of the driveway to let other resources know to move on to the next structure.

Once you identify structures that are defensible you then have to create a plan to defend the structure. Your plan may be one in which you “prep-and-go” or “stay-and-play.” This plan may include establishing fold-a-tanks, portable water pumps, installing sprinklers on roofs and fence lines, and structure wrap. It is best practice to back in equipment to allow quick escape, close all doors and windows, turn off gas lines, turn on interior and exterior lighting, check and mark hazardous materials, coil and charge all lines and sprinklers connected to portable pump, remove grass, shrubs, and other combustible materials from the property, place owner’s ladder on corner of structure facing away from flaming front, know your primary and alternate escape routes, be sure to leave reserve water for emergencies, and develop trigger points to aid in decision to withdrawal to your safety zone.

Training Homework:

Drive to a wildland urban interface structure in your area. Give you and your crew a time limit to develop a structure triage and defense plan that includes all equipment and tools that you would need to be able to defend the structure and surrounding property. How many ft of varying sized hoselays do you need? How many rolls of structure wrap and accompanying tools do you need? What type and how many reducers, gated wyes, nozzles, sprinklers, portable water pumps, fold-a-tanks would be necessary? Would you need to remove receptive fuels on the property? Are the gutters clear of combustible debris? All of these questions and more should be written down and a plan developed in a relatively short amount of time (roughly 30 minutes).

About the author:
Jared attended Iowa State University and graduated with a degree in Forestry. He was introduced to wildland fire by his fire ecology professor. During his summer break, Jared would go out on wildland fire assignments through the Missouri Iowa Interagency Coordination Center on both engine and hand crews. After college, Jared worked multiple seasons as a forestry technician within the U.S. Forest Service as part of an initial attack fire crew. Jared eventually found his way back to Iowa and now works for the Waukee Fire Department