Wildfires don’t affect the rich and poor equally
There has been widespread public attention to wildfires this summer and fall, and the fastmoving, late-season wildfires in California have been especially destructive. But much of the general understanding of wildfires misses that fact that they don’t impact the rich and poor equally.
In fact, wildfires, like all disasters, overwhelmingly harm those who are more vulnerable because of where they live or who they are.
The Northern California fires have been especially gripping. Images of firefighting crews, evacuating families and leveled houses have shared the media spotlight with burned wine chalets, estates and hotels.
The threats to California’s wine industry are real: even if wildfires don’t destroy vines or winery buildings, the smoke can permanently alter the chemistry of the grapes. Wines stored in smoke-filled facilities can acquire unpleasant tastes and become unsellable.
The general perception has been that wildfires tend to occur in bucolic rural areas and around tourist towns. But this past week has made it clear that wildfires also ravage low-income neighborhoods and mobile home parks.
The Tubbs Fire near Santa Rosa, for example, burned nearly all 160 homes in the Journey’s End mobile home park and destroyed blocks of modest homes in the Coffey Park neighborhood.
My own research shows that areas in Washington State impacted by wildfires have a higher proportion of vacation homes, but also a higher number of mobile homes, often the most vulnerable type of housing. While about 6 percent of all homes in Washington are mobile homes, they represent about 15 percent of homes destroyed by major fires.
Parts of Sonoma County also lack some of the prosperity of their neighbors to the south. In Santa Rosa, 27 percent of children live below the poverty line and the median household income is $53,000 per year, not a lot in a city where the median home value is over $540,000.
In adjacent Napa County, the median annual household income is nearly $18,000 higher. Yet many of the service industry workers that make Napa’s wine scene possible are pushed farther out or are crowded into marginal housing, making them more vulnerable to all types of disasters, including wildfires.
Once the fires are out and people start rebuilding, inequalities continue. Disruptions in school and work routines are especially hard for people without social networks and financial reserves. Renters are displaced at a higher rate than homeowners, a particular challenge in areas with already low vacancy rates.
And rebuilding from the ground up is typically too expensive for families living paycheck-to-paycheck.
What’s needed is widespread change to reduce physical and social vulnerability, especially in the wildland-urban interface where human development borders natural areas with potential for wildfires.
Homes in these places should be built and maintained to fire resistant standards. Neighborhoods should be designed with easy access for firefighters to get in and residents to get out, and with buffers between houses and wildland areas.
Land managers need a wide range of tools to reduce the risk of high-severity fire, including prescribed fire and thinning of overgrown forests. Residents need to be aware of wildfire danger and be prepared for these types of disasters.
True resilience—the ability of individuals and communities to recover from disasters— goes beyond wildfire preparedness. What’s needed: greater economic stability and social networks of people that can be counted on when a disaster occurs.
Recognizing that wildfires can be especially damaging to low-income people is an important first step.
Renters are displaced at a higher rate than homeowners, a particular challenge in areas with already low vacancy rates. And rebuilding from the ground up is typically too expensive for families living paycheckto-paycheck.