2020 and Beyond: A Future of Fire

When human civilization began controlling fire our ancestors were provided with a reliable source of safety, security, nourishment, and communication — now in 2020, the relationship to flame and smoke has changed in a way unimaginable to previous generations. Extraordinarily large and intense wildfires have proliferated all over the western United States this year, bringing new devastation and distress to communities already suffering from a pandemic, electrical blackout, and unrest.

The region, which has historically experienced forest fires from late spring to autumn, has seen fire season grow longer and longer each year. Some experts argue the prolonged activity is caused by climate change, saying the problem is part of a long-term trend, while others point fingers at outdated forest management practices, aging equipment and misguided urban development investments. The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (or Cal Fire) also link some of this year's major wildfires to unusual lightning storms and dry wind that moved quickly through arid terrain in mid-August. Consequently, this weather event paved the way for the worst woodland inferno experienced in a century — more than 5 million acres have burned in California, Oregon, Washington and Colorado, destroying hundreds of homes and displacing thousands of people.

Once rare, megafires — or fires that burn more than 100,000 acres of land — have become increasingly more common. Niklas Hagelberg, a United Nations Environment Programme (or UNEP) climate expert, argued these firestorms will persist as global temperatures continue to rise. In addition,  modeling simulations  by researchers at National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (or NOAA) suggest that megafires could increase exponentially in the next 50 years if active measures to reduce greenhouse gases aren't taken by governments and people around the world.

The map tour below summarizes the major fires that have taken place across California, Oregon, Washington and Colorado between August - October, 2020.

“Five of the six largest wildfires in California history have taken place in 2020 according to Cal Fire.”

“There were flames across the street from me, flames to the right of me, flames to the left of me. I just watched everything burn.” - Oregon Resident

“We’ve had this trauma all over Washington” - Gov. Jay Inslee

“Three of the largest fires in state history have burned this year”

To mitigate these wildfires, public safety and operations teams can leverage DataCapable’s Threat Detection module to dramatically improve decision-making in the critical early moments of an event. With real-time detection, validation, and contextualization, emergency operation centers can have a bird-eye view of every fire in the region, empowering operators with real-time information to know which assets and agencies to deploy, and enabling the sharing of important information with field-workers as to ensure the safety of your community, infrastructure, and resources.

The diversity of blazes experienced this fire season meant that not all incidents required an equal response. DataCapable’s contextualization service takes the discovery of threats to the next level by adding detailed updates as fire events unfolded, allowing your team to focus on what’s important, while still keeping a pulse on the situation. 

Examples include, but are not limited to: knowing the affected area and boundaries of a wildfire, gauging the severity and escalation of a burning area, knowing when an incident reaches full containment, realizing when major transportation routes resume normal operations, and getting enhanced post-event analysis. 

During this years firestorms, the largest natural gas distribution utility in the country successfully leveraged Threat Contextualization. The utility received ongoing updates — through SMS text and/or email — about wildfires, landslides, flooding, gas leaks, evacuations and gas explosions, as they unfolded in their territory.

As a result, the service — which easily integrated into their existing systems — provided a visual representation of the impacted areas through pictures and videos. This ultimately allowed administrators to take decisive action before the fires became a wider threat to their operations.

According to climate data from the  Rhodium Group , approximately 28 million more Americans — in states like Texas, Florida and Georgia — are likely to experience apocalyptic fires like the ones taking place out west. Whether at risk or at large, when communities accept this new reality, having easy-to-use and readily available decision-making tools ensures targeted, effective response that will prove revolutionary to ensuring public safety.

As our ancestors benefited from the discovery of fire thousands of years ago, organizations today can access new information that will guide their decision making at critical moments. Whether the need is to pinpoint critical events on a map, or narrow the gap between the field and the office, deploying DataCapable® products will help protect property and life.

The Philanthropy California team vetted the list of response funds below to help you direct resources to the most impacted communities. Learn more  here .