Interest continues to surge in preventing another record season of wildfire devastation

The year 2020 marked a milestone in wildfires devastation in terms of season length, acres destroyed and intensity, and that is turning more and more attention to the International Wildland-Urban Interface Code and strategies to limit future fire destruction.

• The Urban Land Institute issued this report on wildfire strategies for real estate that focuses on the role of codes, titled “Firebreak: Wildfire Resilience Strategies for Real Estate.”
• Rik Johnsson, a NIST mechanical engineer in the Fire Research Division’s WUI Fire Group, offers his insights in “Knocking Down Fences for Fire Research.”
• National Public Radio produced this deep dive analysis on how much work is needed to make state and local jurisdictions more competent in their responses to future outbreaks. It is titled “Rebuilding After A Wildfire? Most States Don’t Require Fire-Resistant Materials.”
• Recently, former CAL FIRE Director Chief Ruben Grijalva submitted this article published in Governing magazine: How Better Building Codes Can Mitigate Wildfires’ Devastation, which stated “that adopting the 2015 edition of the IWUIC in 10,000 census blocks across the country would generate $4 in wildfire mitigation savings for every $1 invested — benefits that represent avoided casualties, property damage, business interruptions, and insurance costs.”
• Online seminar 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. March 11 provides basic code knowledge for proper application of the 2018 International Wildland-Urban Interface Code. Instruction focuses on basic code concepts with a focus on mitigating fire risks to structures and wildland. Read more here.