Fire-adapted communities

A fire adapted community is defined by the United States Forest Service as "a knowledgeable and engaged community in which the awareness and actions of residents regarding infrastructure, buildings, landscaping, and the surrounding ecosystem lessens the need for extensive protection actions and enables the community to safely accept fire as a part of the surrounding landscape." The National Wildfire Coordinating Group definition, which was developed approved by the Wildland Urban Interface Mitigation Committee, is "A human community consisting of informed and prepared citizens collaboratively planning and taking action to safely co-exist with wildland fire."

According to a United States Forest Service briefing paper the following are some of the elements of a fire adapted community:

The public understands:

The community takes actions to:

The Fire Adapted Communities Coalition is a group of partners committed to helping people and communities in the wildland-urban interface adapt to living with wildfire and reduce their risk for damage, without compromising firefighter or civilian safety. See External Links below for Coalition resources.

The term has existed for a number of years, but was given prominence in the 2005 “Quadrennial Fire and Fuel Review (QFR),” a publication that examines the future of wildfire in the United States and provides insight and predictions about potential changes in mission, roles and responsibilities. The 2005 QFR suggested promoting “fire-adapted human communities, rather than escalating protection of communities at risk in the wildland-urban interface.” The ultimate aim would build toward the goal of a greater “sense of living with fire within communities,” and “establishing responsible partnerships with communities.”

The 2009 QFR also says the notion that “the government will always be there” (p. 32, 2009 QFR) during a wildfire needs to be changed to a model where property owners and local agencies “take responsibility and become active participants and an integral part” in curbing the effects of wildfire to communities. (p. 21, 2009 QFR.) “As some ecosystems must adapt to a fire-prone environment in order to survive, so must human communities in the interface, if they are to survive over the long-term.”

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Wikipedia