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Fire districts in western Washington train for another ‘tough, difficult’ wildfire season
More and more disastrous wildfires are sparking up in western Washington. Fire districts across the Puget Sound are preparing to battle the fires in the dry, hot temperatures. Monday started a week-long Wildland Urban Interface training session, hosted by Graham Fire & Rescue.
SEATTLE - An interactive tool is helping people understand their risk for wildfires, flooding and other climate impacts.
About 1 in 3 people in the Western United States face a significant chance of wildfire exposure, according to a Washington Post analysis of data collected by First Street Foundation.
Nearly 72 million homes nationwide face some wildfire risk this year - and the risk is even higher in the Western United States.
"In total, approximately 71.8 million homes have some level of wildfire risk in 2022, growing by 11.1% to 79.8 million by 2050, owing to the impact of a changing climate."
According to a new report called "Fueling the Flames," about 480,800 properties in Washington state have at least 0.03% likelihood of being in a wildfire this year (or a 1% chance in the next 30 years). That's about 15.9% of all properties in the state. And of those, 110,100 properties have at least a 0.2% risk (or 6% in the next 30 years).
Spokane County has the most properties at some risk of fire this year, with more than half (54% or 111,800 properties) with at least a 0.03% chance of wildfire. Yakima, Benton, Okanogan, and Chelan Counties fill out the top five, in that order.
While Douglas County is ranked #7 for total number of properties at risk, it is #1 for percentage of properties in the danger zone: 87.1% of properties there have at least some risk, followed by Chelan at #2 in risk percentage. More than 80% of all properties have at least some fire risk.