00:00Mega fires wreak havoc on the forests but increasingly that is becoming a human
00:09problem too. Thanks in part to high prices and urban areas over the last 40
00:14years rural America has seen the most significant increase in housing
00:18development and now these areas are at risk. Almost 45 million units of housing
00:25have been constructed in what fire scientists call the wildland urban
00:31interface. The wildland urban interface it is the area where structures and other
00:39human development meet undeveloped wildland. Since 1980 40% of the homes
00:48constructed in the United States have been built in such areas.
00:55And so when you you know have 25 to 30 million more homes that's more power
00:59lines more infrastructure more everything that makes fires more expensive more
01:03complex and more dangerous more more damaging. When wildfire enters these
01:08communities the effects can be catastrophic loss of life overwhelmed
01:13response capabilities an environmental and socio-economic devastation. Yet the
01:19wildland urban interface or WUI continues to grow by 2 million acres a year.
01:24So in Colorado there is an increasing demand for housing of all kinds.
01:32People want to build their homes in the forest. They want to be close to nature.
01:38Over the last 25 years WUI areas have experienced extreme amounts of home building. Over 30 million units were constructed.
01:46And that's not necessarily a bad thing but it means two things that first it means that there are a lot more people in the forests now than there were before and 85% of our fire ignitions are human caused and the second problem it creates is that when you build a nice house in the woods if there's a fire the fire department's going to show up and put it out. The whole
02:16dynamic of both fire suppression as well as fire fighting it makes the fire fighting part
02:24of it extremely expensive as compared to fighting fires in uninhabited or less inhabited areas.
02:32Billions and billions of dollars of suppression costs property damage loss of life it's the perfect storm.
02:39Billions and billions of dollars I think it's the perfect storm.
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