The wildfires that ravaged parts of Southern California so badly a couple weeks ago are nearly all out now. But the threat remains, and it isn't limited to the arid West.
Maryland, despite its normally abundant rainfall, faces a significant and growing risk of runaway blazes that threaten to burn homes and other structures, according to a two-year-old state study.
A "wildland fire assessment" done by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources points out that the state's forests have become increasingly fragmented over the years, with development spreading out from the cities and suburbs into rural areas.
"You have a lot of wildland-urban interface," said Monte Mitchell, state fire supervisor at DNR's Forest Service, all along the Baltimore-Washington corridor, but also reaching into southern and western Maryland and to the lower Eastern Shore.
Unfortunately, this report is not available online. But here's a page I scanned in from the study, with a map depicting the state's "wildland-urban interface" -- those areas where homes and wooded areas mingle.
Interestingly, the report says, the state's conservation laws and Smart Growth are at least partly to blame for increasing the risks of wildfires to homes. In the old days, developers bulldozed all the trees before building a new housing subdivision; now, builders are required to leave trees and "natural" buffers, and such leafy communities are popular with home buyers.
"The trend shows that the number of incidents involving structures that are damaged or threatened from wildfires has steadily grown each fire season," the report says.
Last year, DNR's Forest Service responded to 753 wildfires that burned 6,074 acres. The vast majority burned less than 10 acres, unlike the Southern California blazes that blackened thousands of acres each. But the immediate triggers were often similarly human - debris burning, arson and children accounted for most.
It's been several years since the state suffered a bad fire season, but the drought of 2001-2002 was particularly severe. One major blaze, in September 2002, charred 1,400 acres - more than 2 square miles - and forced the evacuation of the town of Oriole, where one house and several outbuildings were damaged.
Though the mix of homes with trees and brush may be high in the suburbs and exurbs of central Maryland, the degree of development and the small size of the wooded patches limites the amount of harm a wildfire could do. The biggest risk, when factoring in other considerations, including where the most "fuel" is, shows that there are high to very high wildlfire hazards in western Maryland, in Southern Maryland, on the lower Shore, and even in parts of Anne Arundel and Baltimore counties.
The study breaks down the fire risks in each county, carving them up into hex-sized grids 1.5 miles across. But because Maryland is so densely populated, Mitchell says, the DNR study didn't attempt to tally how many homes might be at risk.
The report was distributed to every county's planning office for use in weighing future development patterns and for preparing fire response. Mitchell says he's unaware of any county that has incorporated the state's wildland fire assessment into its comprehensive development plans, but the department has been working with individual communities to help them reduce their risks, by clearing brush from around homes and the like. DNR also does controlled burns of several hundred acres each year, he says, to reduce the amount of "fuel" that might feed a wildfire.
This is normally a peak time for wildfires in Maryland, and the state is still in the grip of a drought. Mitchell says heavy rains a couple weeks ago dampened the "fuel" and eased the risks. However, he cautions, "spring is normally our worst fire season."
For more on what you might do to reduce the threat to your home from wildfire, check out DNR's web site here.
If you'd like to know what your community is doing to reduce its wildfire risk, contact your local fire department or planning office. DNR's efforts to prevent and curb wildland fires are explained here.
To see the report, email Monte Mitchell, state fire supervisor, at mmitchell@dnr.state.md.us
