Removing vegetation can help protect houses during wildfires
Limiting a fire’s fuel source can increase the likelihood a structure survives a wildfire by nearly 50%.
Buildings with high amounts of vegetation within five feet were destroyed in a wildfire 78% of the time, nearly twice as high as structures with small amounts of perimeter vegetation, according to the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS). This pattern was confirmed to hold true from distances ranging from 30-100 feet around a property.
Keeping a building’s perimeter clear of vegetation can nearly double the likelihood of surviving a wildfire, according to the research, which was conducted in conjunction with Zesty.ai, an AI-based climate risk analytics provider.
“It’s common sense that increased vegetation increases wildfire risk, but this study shows just how powerful individual action can be in safeguarding structures. Mitigation actions that can cut risk nearly in half are statistically meaningful to anyone with a stake in this peril,” Attila Toth, CEO of Zesty.ai, said in a release. “These findings also underscore how wildfire research at IBHS and artificial intelligence at Zesty.ai translates to real-world impact at the intersection of homeowners, community leaders, regulators, and insurance carriers. This type of collective action will help protect our communities from the devastating impact of wildfire, which unfortunately has continued to increase over the last decade.”
Further, having structures near other property also increases the wildfire risk, particularly for plots with moderate to high vegetation coverage, IBHS reported. Buildings with another structure within 30-100 feet were destroyed in a wildfire 60% of the time, compared to a 31% destruction rate for homes without nearby structures.
To derive the conclusion, the two companies analyzed more than 71,000 properties involved in wildfires between 2016 and 2019, assessing the relationship between vegetation, buildings and property vulnerability.
“This research further demonstrates to homeowners, community leaders, and policymakers just how impactful taking the mitigation actions laid out in the Suburban Wildfire Adaptation Roadmaps can be in protecting homes from wildfire ignition,” Roy E. Wright, IBHS president and CEO, said in a release. “Quantifying the effect of mitigating fuel density risk, one of the critical actions identified in the Roadmaps, is a first piece in the larger puzzle of what groups of mitigation actions most improve the chance of home survival and by what level.”
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