Knocking on our Front Doors: Fires in Urban Forests

Wildfires are increasing in size and severity, as well as in social, economic, and environmental costs. These wildfire events that once affected only rural and Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI) communities are now more frequently affecting cities and highly populated, densely built, and diverse communities throughout the world. These events are now being referred to as “urban fires” since they are no longer solely driven by vegetation fuel types and altered climates and landscape treatments, but also by flammable building structures, extreme wind events, and urban forest structure, composition, and conditions in and around homes.