USDA Forest Service and Partners
Knocking on our Front Doors:
Fires in Urban Forests
By Francisco J. Escobedo, USDA Forest Service; Ryan Klein, University of Florida;
Alessandro Ossola, University of California, Davis; and Phil Rodbell, USDA Forest Service
Wildfires are increasing in size and severity, as well as in social,
economic, and environmental costs. These wildfire events that
once affected only rural and Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI)
communities are now more frequently affecting cities and highly
populated, densely built, and diverse communities throughout
the world (Figure 1). These events are now being referred to as
"urban fires" since they are no longer solely driven by vegetation
fuel types and altered climates and landscape treatments, but also
by flammable building structures, extreme wind events, and urban
forest structure, composition, and conditions in and around homes.
In this article, we discuss how these urban fires
are now affecting new and different types of
urban communities and forests and how this
is changing the way we approach, plan, and
manage urban and community forests in fire-
prone ecosystems. Also, we present some ongoing
research and projects by the USDA Forest Service
Pacific Southwest Research Station (USFS-PSW),
University of California Cooperative Extension,
University of California-Davis, and University of
Florida that are addressing these questions.
The changing nature of urban fires
and their impacts to communities
Fire-prone ecosystems are being urbanized at rapid
rates and this has resulted in newly diverse and
populated communities being established in areas
of high risk. For example, a recent study by the
USFS-PSW found that in California, trends indicate
that higher income communities in exurban areas
are increasingly being affected by fires. Also, in
more urbanized communities, rental properties are
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