Around 10 million acres are charred by wildland fires each year in the United States. Almost 1.4 million acres were lost to California wildfires in 2008.The causes of wildland fires are numerous: lightning, carelessly discarded smoking materials, campfires, fireworks,powerline interactions or conductor clashing, and evenarson.

A recent (2008) development in litigation related to wildland fires is United States v. Union Pacific R.R. Co..This decision set the precedent that recoverable damages include not only the cost of fire suppression, but also damage to the environment and destruction of lumber. Consequently, wildland fire litigation is expected to increase in coming years.

Fire behavior analysts
Fire behavior analysts (FBAs) are skilled at interpreting wildland fire patterns and applying computer fire modeling tools to analyze surface fire spread and fire spotting. However, fire behavior analysts are under-utilized in litigation related to wildland fires. Especially for cases where the origin and cause of a wildland fire is undertermined, fire behavior analysts can assess whether various origins are consistent with fire patterns, provide valuable information regarding fire development, and answer "what if" questions related to fuels treatments, wind and weather, fire suppression, etc. The most common tools applied by fire behavior analysts include BEHAVE, FARSITE, and WFDS.

For additional information or inquiries related to wildland fires and fire behavior analysis, contact one of our fire behavior analysts.

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