Wildfire Increasingly an Urban Issue

Wildfire Increasingly an Urban Issue

02 July 2015

published by http://headwaterseconomics.org 

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USA–  Wildfires increasingly are threatening urban areas—often repeatedly—putting more homes, lives, infrastructure, and other resources at risk.
 

• More than 15,000 wildfires burned in the continental United States from 2000 to 2013.
   
• During these years, 127 urban areas (cities with more than 75,000 residents) were threatened by major wildfires (fires greater than 5 square miles in area) that burned within 10 miles of the city.
   
• In many cases, urban areas have been threatened repeatedly by major wildfires events.
   
• Cities in the West are particularly vulnerable to wildfire because the West contains conditions conducive to wildfire such as extensive and remote forest areas and frequent drought conditions.
   

  

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