Wildfire Loss Estimates and Incident Reporting

Credit: Image by Dirk (Beeki®) Schumacher from Pixabay

The effective management of the national fire problem, particularly within the Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI), fundamentally relies on accurate fire loss estimation and robust fire incident reporting. This collection of research highlights that fire safety struggles to advance without reliable data where incident reporting systems capture the frequency, location, and nature of all fires, including those in municipal and WUI contexts, to avoid the misleading conclusions that result from under-reporting and data bias. Crucially, the analysis extends beyond simple incident counts to quantify the full spectrum of losses, encompassing not only direct property damage but also the cascading economic impacts on regional economies, as well as the societal and financial costs, including those associated with firefighter injuries. By providing the methodological foundation to improve how we report, analyze, and estimate the consequences of fire, this research ensures that policymakers and fire managers can make evidence-based decisions regarding resource allocation, prevention strategies, and long-term community planning.

• Tracking the National Fire Problem: The Data behind the Statistics
  • Thomas, D. and Butry, D. (2011), Tracking the National Fire Problem: The Data behind the Statistics, Technical Note (NIST TN) 1717, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD. [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=909678
• Areas of the U.S. wildland–urban interface threatened by wildfire during the 2001–2010 decade
  • Thomas, D.S., Butry, D.T. (2014). "Areas of the U.S. wildland–urban interface threatened by wildfire during the 2001–2010 decade." Natural Hazards 71, 1561–1585 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-013-0965-7
• Wildland Fires within Municipal Jurisdictions
  • Thomas, D. and Butry, D. (2012), Wildland Fires within Municipal Jurisdictions, Journal of Forestry, https://doi.org/10.5849/jof.10-024 and  https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=904004
• Under-Reporting of Wildland Fires in NFIRS: California
  • Butry, D. T. and Thomas, D. S. (2017). Under-Reporting of Wildland Fires in the US Fire Reporting System: NFIRS: California. International Journal of Wildland Fire, 26(8), 732-743. https://doi.org/10.1071/WF17004
• Evaluating Potential Bias in Non-Randomly Reported Fire Incident Data
  • Butry, D. and Thomas, D. (2012), Evaluating Potential Bias in Non-Randomly Reported Fire Incident Data, Technical Note (NIST TN) 1770, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD. https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=912210
• The Economics of Firefighter Injuries in the United States
  • Butry, D. T., Webb, D., Gilbert, S., & Taylor, J. (2019). The economics of firefighter injuries in the United States (NIST Technical Note, 2078). U.S. Department of Commerce. https://doi.org/10.6028/NIST.TN.2078
• A Framework for Measuring the Impact of Wildland-Urban Interface Fires on a Regional Economy
  • Butry, D. T., Webb, D. H., O'Fallon, C. M., and Cutler, H. (2019), A Framework for Measuring the Impact of Wildland-Urban Interface Fires on a Regional Economy, Technical Note (NIST TN) 2026, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD. https://doi.org/10.6028/NIST.TN.2026
• The costs and losses of wildfires: a literature survey (NIST SP 1215)
  • Thomas, D., Butry, D., Gilbert, S., Webb, D., & Fung, J. (2017). The Costs and Losses of Wildfires: A Literature Survey (NIST Special Publication, 1215). National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD. https://doi.org/10.6028/NIST.SP.1215
• The Production of Large and Small Wildfires
  • Butry, David T., Gumpertz, Marcia, Genton, Marc G. The Production of Large and Small Wildfires. https://www.srs.fs.usda.gov/pubs/ja/ja_butry004.pdf