Center for Fire Research and Outreach at UC Berkeley

The devastation caused by the recent wildfires in California will continue to have impacts for years to come. The speed and severity of these fires has highlighted the fragility of our communities in the event of natural disasters. We have received many questions about where to get information on how to prepare for such an event. While no amount of preparation will can remove 100% of risk, UC Cooperative Extension has an assortment of materials regarding pre- and post-wildfire information. We will do our best to provide links to where to get the most up-to-date information, and if readers know of better information, we are happy to update it. This list should not be considered exhaustive, but we hope it will be helpful.

Nota: Recursos para desastres naturales en español estan disponible aquí

The fires awed Bill Stewart, a UC Berkeley forestry professor.

“These fires are off the charts,” he said. “There just aren’t enough firefighters in the West to fight that much fire. ... Those trees, on fire, were pure ember machines that really kicked things into a new level. We’ll be studying this for years to come.”

Center co-director Dr. Scott Stephens: "As a society, we have attempted to accommodate some of the natural hazards inherent to the landscapes that we inhabit. For example, buildings in earthquake-prone areas are designed to withstand events of a given magnitude. Building on ?oodplains is typically restricted, and land-use planners are familiar with the concept of the 100- or 250-year ?ood event. In California and the rest of the nation, we have yet to adopt this line of thinking for ?res. Instead, we focus much more on ?ghting ?re."