Many communities in the western U.S. are fire-prone, as are many other areas in the world. These areas will always face wildfire, and will likely experience an increased number of extreme wildfire events in the future, resulting in substantial economic, social, and environmental impacts. Over the last 10 years, 3.4 to 10.1 million acres have burned annually in the U.S. In terms of area burned, 2017 has been one of the largest fire years in the last decade, with over 8.5 million acres burned across the U.S. (NIFC). Figure 1 shows the distribution of wildfires in the western U.S. in 2017.
Unprecedented amounts of live and dead fuel, combined with warmer University of Arizona Cooperative Extension has also produced fire mitigation education materials to help communities understand how to coexist with wildfire. Please visit https:// extension.arizona.edu/pubs and type “wildfire” in the search box for specific Firewise® defensible space materials. This fact sheet was developed to help you and members of your community understand the danger of embers during a wildfire and take proactive steps to reduce the risk
