43 million U.S. homes near vulnerable wildfire areas

“It’s all gone,” Jack O’Callaghan said in October as he stood in the charred rubble of what was his home in Glen Allen, Calif., following a deadly wildfire.

For folks like O’Callaghan, living in paradise has a cost: Americans are choosing to live in areas that are increasingly prone to devastating wildfires, a new study suggests.

Overall, as of 2010, some 43 million homes were located in what scientists call the “wildland-urban interface,” defined as the area where residential homes are built on or near wildland vegetation, such as trees and shrubs.

Twenty years earlier, 31 million homes were located in those areas for a whopping increase of 41%.

Living near the woods poses two problems when it comes to wildfires, according to the study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. First, more wildfires are likely to occur due to people accidentally — and purposefully — igniting blazes. Second, wildfires that flare up pose a greater risk to lives and homes because they are harder to fight. And letting natural fires burn becomes impossible.

NOAH BERGER/AP Flames from a wildfire consume a residence near Oroville, Calif., last July.