Over the past few weeks, many large wildfires have broken out across the Western United States and Canada, forcing thousands of people to evacuate. Hotter, drier conditions driven by climate change are a significant underlying factor in this trend toward larger wildfires and longer, more intense wildfire seasons in the West. And with more people and property located in close proximity to wildfire-prone terrain, the risks and costs are mounting as the erratic and extreme behavior of these fires has grown much more difficult to fight.
Wildfires raging across the West
The largest wildfire in the U.S. right now—the Durkee Fire—is raging in Oregon, while the Park Fire, California’s largest so far this year, is spreading quickly. A large fire in Jasper National Park in Canada has burnt down half the town of Jasper. The map of wildfires today shows an alarmingly active wildfire season underway. The national preparedness level for wildfires is now at the highest level of 5. Current maps also show that smoke from these wildfires is being carried hundreds of miles away to the East Coast.
And that map is matched by sobering statistics for the wildfire season to date.
The wildfire outlook for August and September looks grim too.
Climate change is fueling a dangerous new wildfire regime
Wildfires have always been an essential feature of the Western landscape and ecosystems. But with climate change, we are in a new regime of catastrophic large wildfires. In addition, decades of aggressive fire suppression and a large swath of trees dead or damaged due to drought and bark beetle infestations has created a tinderbox of ignitable fuel. Alternating cycles of heavy rainfall, which cause grasses to grow, followed by intense hot, dry periods when that vegetation dries up, add to the combustible mix.
This year, even though parts of the West experienced heavy rainfall earlier in the year, they entered the summer in varying degrees of drought and rainfall deficit. And then last month’s intense heatwaves triggered a rapid loss of moisture and drying of vegetation, a phenomenon sometimes called ‘flash drought.’ In particular, the heatwaves have resulted in an increase in vapor pressure deficit (or VPD), which scientists have shown tends to correlate with wildfire burned area on long time scales.
With these background conditions, when human causes or lightning ignite fires, they have an incredible amount of fuel to feed off and grow quickly, as we are seeing in California, Oregon, and Washington. Conditions in Oregon are so extreme that the fires are causing their own weather systems.
And as if wildfires aren’t damaging enough, New Mexico has experienced yet another terrible danger: landscapes denuded by past wildfires experienced heavy rainfall this year, triggering devastating flash floods. The small town of Ruidoso and the Mescalero Apache Reservation have been particularly harshly affected.
None of this is normal. And it is projected to worsen as our climate warms further. We cannot lose sight of the fact that the extreme conditions we see today are a direct result of burning fossil fuels. Decades of deliberate deception and obstruction of climate action by fossil fuel companies, coupled with insufficient action by policymakers, are to blame for the continued expansion of fossil fuels, still rising heat-trapping emissions, and mounting damages to people, ecosystems and the economy.
People, homes, and critical infrastructure in harm’s way
Development patterns—including sprawl, the high cost of housing in urban areas, and the desirability of living in proximity to forests—are pushing more people and property into harm’s way. Those living near wildfire-prone areas are experiencing firsthand the dangers and costs of changing wildfire patterns. This season’s wildfires have already burned hundreds of homes and structures, forced thousands to flee, forced road closures, damaged critical infrastructure like drinking water systems, and forced power safety shutdowns.
In many places, people are also finding it harder to insure their homes as insurers drop policies, raise rates, or exit markets entirely.
Wildland firefighters are also facing the punishing task of trying to put out large wildfires across lengthy, active fire seasons. Fighting fires in populated areas with many homes can be even more dangerous as there is less space to maneuver safely, and the stakes for protecting lives are high. Year after year, the physical and mental toll is immense and fire fighters are not getting paid fairly for this daunting work, raising the urgency of the passage of a bipartisan bill to help fix this situation.
And it’s not just people right near the fires who are affected—smoke from wildfires is carried hundreds of miles away, and the worsening air quality is a serious public health threat. This image from NASA shows how far east the smoke from the western wildfires has reached already, which mirrors trends from last year.
Need for action now
The extent of wildfires burning across the West right now is terrifying. The impacts on people and ecosystems are sobering and heartbreaking to contemplate.
The immediate imperative is of course to make sure that people can quickly evacuate out of the path of dangerous wildfires. Immediately heeding the warnings of local emergency authorities is crucial. Better tools and data for prediction, detection and early warning systems—provided for free and made widely available—can all help make this process more effective and safer. California’s Wildfire Smoke and Health Outcomes Data Act is an important example of this type of effort.
Other protective actions—such as building homes with more fire-safe materials; keeping open, vegetation-free defensible space around homes and communities; ensuring proximity to emergency evacuation routes and water supplies; and ensuring a system of checking on neighbors who may be mobility-impaired—are important ways to keep people safe.
In places affected by wildfire smoke, paying attention to air quality alerts and staying indoors and investing in air purifiers can help. Those who are especially susceptible to the ill effects of wildfire smoke, including young children, elderly people, and those with preexisting breathing or heart ailments, need to take special care. UCS also supports two additional California bills that can help mitigate the public health impacts of wildfires.
Outdoor workers, including those who work on farms and in construction, must be protected by their employers from smoke inhalation. Unfortunately, there is still no federal wildfire smoke safety standard, leaving workers dependent on an insufficient patchwork of state-level measures (such as Oregon’s and California’s). FEMA must also move to clarify that wildfire smoke (and extreme heat) do qualify for disaster declarations, as already allowed under law.
Proactive measures to limit the risks and costs of wildfires—such as healthy forest management practices, including controlled burns done with strong safety and ecological standards; changes to land use development and zoning; and robust investments in technology, equipment and resources to keep firefighters safe—must all be part of the solution set that policymakers act on. Adopting the suite of recommendations of the Wildland Fire Mitigation and Management Commission would be a huge step forward.
After disastrous wildfires, people need help to get back on their feet. Past fire seasons have shown how difficult that can be. When homes and essential infrastructure are destroyed, when places are repeatedly burnt by wildfires, residents may not be able to return to their communities for extended periods. Some may never be able to return.
Policymakers must ensure that disaster aid flows fast to those who need it most, including by quickly appropriating emergency funding, as needed, and by permanently authorizing HUD’s community development block grant disaster relief (CDBG-DR) program to ensure equitable access to resources to rebuild. Over the longer term, investments in receiving communities—including in jobs, schools, affordable housing, and other infrastructure—can ensure people who are displaced can find welcoming places to begin to rebuild their lives. Access to mental health services, both for affected communities and for firefighters, is also very important.
Finally, deep cuts in heat-trapping emissions are essential to limit future climate change, one of the biggest contributors to the dangerous new wildfire regime we are in already. Holding fossil fuel companies accountable for their role in causing these harms must be part of how we start to address them. Right now, people on the frontlines of wildfires, firefighters, and taxpayers are bearing the health costs and footing the bill for harms that are directly attributable to these companies.
As another ‘Danger Season’ reaches its midpoint, the steep toll of wildfires and other climate impacts is another urgent reminder that policymakers must act boldly and decisively now to limit the worst impacts of climate change, and help ensure that communities around the nation are better prepared for the crisis that is already here.