Dry Heat

Drought Conditions, Warner-Than-Average Climate Conditions Spark Wildfires from Coast To Coast

For some, fame is fleeting. For others, it’s a blessing and a curse. Take Suzanne Somers, for whom fame has lasted more than four decades. She’s best known for her breakout character Chrissy on the 1970s sitcom “Three’s Company.” During the 1980s, Somers became best known as the spokesperson for Thighmaster. The 1990s brought Somers back to television in the sitcom “Step By Step.”

Somers reentered the national spotlight on January 9, 2007, for an event that affected her on a more personal level when a wildfire ripped through the exclusive seaside neighborhood in Malibu, California, where she, her husband, and numerous other celebrities lived. The wildfire devastated her home – deemed a total loss – estimated to be worth between $2 million to $3 million.

While hurricanes may have claimed national and international headlines for natural catastrophes in the U.S. during the past decade, wildfires have remained below the media radar screen. But ask those who have been affected or confronted by wildfires, and they’ll be quick to tell you that 2006 was the most active wildfire season in history, and some predictions for 2007 are even worse.

According to the National Interagency Fire Center, the 2006 wildfire season set new records with more than 96,000 fires reported and 9.8 million acres burned. Federal agencies spent $875 million fighting fires in 2006, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Already this year, the wildfire on Sweat Farm Road in Ware County, Georgia, has consumed more than 600,000 acres on both sides of the Georgia/Florida state line. It is the largest wildfire in Georgia history and, according to the NIFC Wildland Fire Statistics report, the second largest wildfire in the lower 48 states since 1997, surpassed only by a 907,245 acre wildfire in 2006 in East Amarillo, Texas.

Drought conditions and increasing temperatures could have much to do with longer and more destructive wildfire seasons. According to the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, 2006 was the fifth warmest year in the past century. Number one was 2005, followed by 1998, 2002, 2003, and 2006.

“2007 is likely to be warmer than 2006, and it may turn out to be the warmest year in the period of instrumental measurements. Increased warmth is likely this year because an El Niño is underway in the tropical Pacific Ocean and because of continuing increases in human-made greenhouse gases,” said James Hansen, director of NASA GISS.

Conditions have been so bad in Georgia that Gov. Sonny Perdue proclaimed June 11 as a “Day of Prayer for Agriculture,” and on that day, he joined more than 250 people at the Georgia Farm Bureau Mutual Insurance Company, Macon, to pray for rain.

On June 1, Gov. Perdue issued an executive order calling for mandatory evacuations of more than 245 homes, two schools, and 100 businesses threatened by the wildfire’s path. More than 1,500 firefighters have battled the wildfires fueled by extreme drought conditions, low humidity, and gusty winds.

Since 1999, approximately 5.8 million acres of Nevada rangeland have been destroyed by wildfires, more than half of which burned in 2005 and 2006 alone.

“Nevada, along with other Western states, is facing unprecedented threats to the rangeland,” said U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev. “In the past, Nevada wildfires have devastated our rural families and ranches.”

“From Lake Tahoe to the Spring Mountains to the Sierra, Nevada is home to some of our country’s most pristine landscapes,” said Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev. “Recently, we lost millions of acres to catastrophic wildfires, and as a result, we lost valuable wildlife habitat and Nevadans suffered terrible economic losses.”

On June 14, scientists at the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration’s National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, North Carolina, said that the fifth warmest spring on record for the contiguous U.S. occurred in 2007, with a record dry spring in the Southeast leading to worsening drought conditions. It’s those extremely dry conditions east of the Mississippi River and in the far West, which have affected low streamflows and mountain snowpack, parched soils and pastureland, and numerous wildfires. The dry conditions across the Southeast worsened wildfire activity during May across Florida and southern Georgia.

According to a report published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change titled “Climate Change 2007: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability,” effects of regional climate change appear to be having an emerging impact on “agricultural and forestry management at Northern Hemisphere higher latitudes, such as earlier spring planting of crops, and alterations and disturbance regimes of forests due to fires and pests.”

The report also predicts that climate change-related exposures such as wildfires will lead to increased deaths, disease, and injury due to heat waves, floods, fires, and droughts; and “disturbances from pests, diseases, and fire are projected to have increasing impacts on forests, with an extended period of high fire risk and large increases in area burned.”

Supporting the climate change-wildfire link, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, in a news release issued on May 31, suggested that forest fires are increasing as a result of climate change, and they are affecting larger areas and becoming more severe in several regions of the world.

“Countries need to enhance collaboration, share their knowledge and increasingly target people, who are the main cause of fires, through awareness-raising and education,” said Peter Holmgren, chief of the FAO Forest Resources Development Service.

While many studies have been published linking wildfires and climate change, many detractors exist, suggesting that it’s simply too early to make those connections.

Like the coasts where more and more people and property are exposed to hurricane threats, more people are moving into rural areas and intermingling with undeveloped forests and rangelands, creating increased potential for economic and property damages, according to the USDA.

A Conference Statement published by the representatives of 13 regional wildland fire networks and participants of the joint regional sessions of the 4th International Wildland Fire Conference held in Seville, Spain May 13-17, 2007, pointed directly toward “demographic changes resulting in alterations of sustainable fire regimes, e.g. the consequences of rural exodus or – vice-versa – exurban migrations, coupled with a loss of traditional, sustainable land-use systems” as a global issue impacting fire occurrence and the consequences to the environment and humans.

The statement continued, pointing toward, “consequences of, and the contribution to, climate change, resulting in increasing occurrence of extreme droughts in most regions, desiccation of wetlands, thawing of permafrost sites, and a general trend of increasing area burned, fire intensity, fire severity, and longer fire seasons.”

Also, more people are pursuing outdoor recreation and activities in recent years, increasing the chances for man-made cause of wildfire. During 2006, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, more than 87 million Americans, or 38 percent of the United States’ population aged 16 and older, hunted, fished, or observed wildlife.

According to Gary Kerney, assistant vice president, Property Claim Services, ISO, since 1964, PCS has identified 18 wildland fire events as catastrophes resulting in an estimated insured property loss of $5.2 billion. The costliest wildland fire events are the 1991 Oakland Hills Fire resulting in $1.7 billion insured property loss, the 2003 Cedar Fire resulting in $1.06 billion in insured property loss, and the 2003 Old Fire resulting in $975 million in insured property loss.

“The PCS definition of catastrophe is an event that causes $25 million or more of insured property damage and affects a significant number of policyholders and insurance companies,” said Kerney. “As a result, wildland fires may cause large insured property dollar losses, but the number of claims evolving from a fire may not be sufficient for PCS to assign a catastrophe serial number.

“For instance, the currently burning Angora Fire near Lake Tahoe threatens multi-million dollar homes built on or near the lake,” explained Kerney. “Should they burn, the resulting insured property damage will be extensive. However, at this point PCS is only aware of less than 200 claims, including vehicles. We are closely monitoring the fire, and it is not extinguished or fully contained at the time, so circumstances may change.”

In this period of increased frequency of wildfires, protecting oneself from wildfires has become paramount. “Fires and wildfires are the second most important coverage in a standard home insurance policy and a very important financial protection for consumers,” said Sam Miller, executive vice president of the Florida Insurance Council.

Damage caused by fire and smoke are covered under standard homeowners, renters, and business insurance policies and under the comprehensive portion of an auto insurance policy, according to the Insurance Information Institute. Homeowners, renters, and business operators are also generally covered for water or other damage incurred by firefighters in the course of extinguishing the fire.

Posted: Tuesday, July 31, 2007 12:00:00 AM. Modified: Friday, August 31, 2007 3:12:05 PM.

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