Wildfires

blog

Historic Lynchings and Voter Registration, China in Space, Firefighters' Mental Health: RAND Weekly Recap

This weekly recap focuses on the link between historic lynchings and voter registration, Afghanistan in the era of fentanyl, supporting firefighters’ mental health, and more.

commentary

As Fire Season Heats Up, Burnout Looms

Increasingly intense fire seasons are taking a physical and mental toll on wildland firefighters. Without more direct attention paid to firefighters' mental health, burnout could decimate the ranks of those who protect lives and property across the West.

Grace Hindmarch, Aaron Clark-Ginsberg @aclarkginsberg, et al.

blog

Veterans Day, Psychedelic Drug Policy, Family Caregivers: RAND Weekly Recap

This weekly recap focuses on supporting veterans with mental health and substance use disorders, changes to psychedelic drug policy, the vital role of family caregivers, and more.

commentary

Another Record-Breaking Fire Season Shows the Need for a Comprehensive Strategy

Year after year, fires across western U.S. states scorch forests, rangeland, and neighborhoods, wreaking havoc on rural economies and pushing smoke into cities. Policymakers should consider a coordinated and comprehensive effort that brings together the best minds in government, communities, and academia.

Jay Balagna, Aaron Clark-Ginsberg @aclarkginsberg

blog

Wildfires, America's Wealth Gap, Screening for COVID-19 at Work: RAND Weekly Recap

This weekly recap focuses on the growing risk of wildfires, how Americans' incomes have grown (or not), workplace screenings for COVID-19 symptoms, and more.

commentary

What Can FEMA Learn from the Historic 2017 Hurricane and Wildfire Seasons?

When a hurricane comes ashore or a wildfire ignites, most of a community's vulnerability to disaster is already set. Emergency managers including FEMA, states, and localities could do much more to identify statewide risks and build community resilience before an event makes headlines.

Jason Thomas Barnosky, Patrick S. Roberts @RamblingRoberts, et al.

blog

Australia's Fires, Artificial Intelligence, Fentanyl: RAND Weekly Recap

This weekly recap focuses on Australia's devastating fires, how artificial intelligence could manipulate the masses, the fentanyl crisis, and more.

commentary

Australia's Fires: Respond Now, but Also Measure Toll on People for the Future

As an Australian, Melissa Finucane has watched with anguish as massive bushfires devastated wide swaths of her home country. As a researcher who studies community resilience, she can't help but think of how much blood, sweat, tears, and money will be required to recover.

Melissa L. Finucane @MelissaFinucane

blog

Artificial Intelligence, Refugees, Global Health Security: RAND Weekly Recap

This weekly recap focuses on the Pentagon's artificial intelligence strategy, technology's role in the refugee crisis, threats to global health security, and more.

commentary

A Climate Scientist's Brush with Wildfire

RAND researcher Robert Lempert was evacuated from the path of a wildfire. This experience emphasized for him the challenges of adapting to climate change, not merely because it is hard, but because it makes the familiar become unfamiliar in unexpected ways.

Robert J. Lempert @RobertLempert

blog

White Supremacist Terrorism, Wildfires, the Dark Web: RAND Weekly Recap

This weekly recap focuses on violent white supremacy, power outages to prevent wildfires, how to catch criminals on the dark web, and more.

commentary

Turning Off Power to Combat Wildfires Could Harm the Very People Who Need Protection

While intentionally shutting off power may be a practical way to prevent power lines from sparking wildfires, is it worth the risks? Until more thoughtful and comprehensive decisions are made, planned power outages need to be planned better.

Joie D. Acosta, Regina A. Shih @ReginaShih

commentary

Uncovering the Links Between Fires and Public Health in Equatorial Asia

Fires in Indonesia, if left unchecked, could cause an average of 36,000 premature deaths annually across Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore. Researchers built a tool that models the effect of the fires on public health.

Miriam E. Marlier

commentary

We Built an App to Detect Areas Most Vulnerable to Life-Threatening Haze

Forest and land-use fires are ravaging Indonesia's Sumatra and Kalimantan islands. Haze from these fires is life-threatening; inhaling smoke can cause heart and respiratory diseases, leading to premature deaths. We developed a new tool to provide decisionmakers with information to protect people who live downwind.

Tianjia Liu, Miriam E. Marlier, et al.

commentary

Allocating Costs for California Wildfires

Wildfires in California have caused and will likely continue to cause substantial losses for residents, businesses, and government agencies. It is important to distribute these losses in a manner that provides incentives to reduce their magnitude over time.

Lloyd Dixon

commentary

Wildfires Getting More Destructive

The potential for smoke to harm air quality and cause health problems was especially acute in 2015 because a record number of wildfires broke out in the United States. Pre-wildfire season preparedness could go a long way toward protecting public health.

Jaime Madrigano

commentary

Fighting Fires From Above

A newly deployed airborne firefighting resource is helping the United States Forest Service (USFS) battle wildfires, while at the same time providing valuable lessons on the utility and cost effectiveness of water-dropping scooper aircraft.

Edward G. Keating, Dulani Woods

commentary

Investing in Firefighting

While the U.S. Forest Service has not completely agreed with RAND's proposal to transition to a fleet dominated by water-dropping scooper aircraft for fighting fires, they have leased one CL-415 scooper aircraft. It might be more cost-effective for the USFS to simply purchase it outright.

Edward G. Keating, Andrew R. Morral @AndrewMorral, et al.

commentary

The Desirability of 'Free' C-27s for the U.S. Forest Service

Although we believe that a scooper-centric firefighting aircraft portfolio for initial attack would still be preferred, Air Force-provided 1,850-gallon C-27Js could be a cost-effective component of the retardant-bearing portion of the Forest Service's airborne firefighting arsenal, write Edward G. Keating and Daniel M. Norton.

Edward G. Keating, Daniel M. Norton

commentary

Firefighting Aircraft: Is Bigger Better?

An aircraft's capacity and speed largely determine the rate at which water or retardant can be applied to a fire. Very large air tankers (VLATs) certainly have the capacity to apply large amounts of fluids to a fire, but because of the distances travelled they may not be able to get a second load very quickly.

Carter C. Price @CarterCPrice

commentary

Planning for Superstorms, Wildfires, and Deep Uncertainty

The path to climate change preparedness should start at the intersection of resilience and robustness — that is, building resilient communities with the individuals and organizations within those communities making robust decisions, ones designed to work well over a wide range of ever-changing conditions.

Robert J. Lempert @RobertLempert, Anita Chandra