As urbanites flee pandemic prone cities, wildfires in the Western U.S. may just give them a reason to come back. Suburb and foothill communities have seen increasing susceptibility to wildfires, and as infernos continue their blaze in California, Oregon and Washington, big cities in the region remain safer from the flames — despite witnessing unprecedented levels of smoke and pollution.
Jeffrey Chusid is an architect, planner, professor and department chair of city and regional planning at Cornell University. He explains city codes have made urban environments safer, and in the face of wildfires, it is easier to create safety perimeters around dense urban locations. But Chusid says, the lack of affordable housing remains a major issue keeping many from safe city living.
Bio: https://aap.cornell.edu/people/jeffrey-chusid
Chusid says:
“It used to be that the deadliest fires were urban. London, Lisbon, Chicago, San Francisco and other cities have infamous histories of deadly infernos. But as building codes have advanced, cities are far safer than they were. Even in Los Angeles, where people can build on hillsides covered in flammable chaparral, new codes mandating roads wide enough for fire trucks, sprinklers, non-flammable roofing, brush clearance, etc., have made the city less vulnerable to a known menace. The Bel Air fire of 1961 that destroyed over 400 homes in the city was one strong impetus for those changes. No one died in that, fortunately.
“In retrospect, the Oakland fire of 1991, could be seen as an early indicator of climate change, since the fuel was drought-struck eucalyptus. There, thousands of homes were lost, and 25 people died. Again, codes have been changed since.
“But the new devastation is so impactful because of the biggest planning issue facing California: housing affordability. Many of the people living in the far-flung suburbs and foothill communities that have been burning are there because they cannot afford to live closer to the cities where the jobs are, and which are much less likely to be affected by forest fires. Or they are retired, and on a fixed income, also requiring moving to more affordable communities. Of course, once a fire is big enough, it can advance over almost any kind of terrain, but it is certainly easier to create a perimeter around a city than to protect millions of square miles of western landscape.”
For interviews contact:
Jeff Tyson
Office: (607) 255-7701
Cell: (607) 793-5769
jeff.tyson@cornell.edu
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