Climate Change and Early Warning Systems for Wildland Fire - Reducing Disaster: Early Warning Systems for Climate Change - page 128

Table 7.1 (c ontinued)

Year Location Impacts

2003 3 lives lost

334 homes destroyed
45,000 people displaced
Suppression cost: CA$700 million
Canberra, Australia 4 lives lost
500+ homes destroyed
Estimated property damage: AU$600-1,000 million
California, USA 24 lives lost
3,640 homes destroyed
120,000 people displaced
Estimated damage: USD$2 billion
Portugal 21 lives lost
100+ homes destroyed
Estimated damage cost: EUR1,000+ million
2001 Sydney, Australia 109 homes destroyed
Estimated property losses: AU$75 million (~3,000 claims)
Estimated suppression costs: AU$106 million
1997-1998 Southeast Asia Estimated regional economic damage: US$8.7-9.2
billion
Sources: Goldammer ( 2010 ), Global Fire Monitoring Centre , fi re statistics for Australia, Canada,
Europe and USA
This represents a sample of global wildland fi re disasters; many jurisdictions do not keep wildfi re
records or have minimal documentation

British Columbia,
Canada

overwhelms fi re suppression capacity to the point that human life, property, and
livelihood cannot be protected. Besides the threat to human safety, these fi res can
also have serious negative impacts on human health, regional economies, global
climate change, and ecosystems in non-fi re-prone biomes (ADB and BAPPENAS
1999 ; Cochrane 2003 ; Goldammer et al. 2009 ; Flannigan et al. 2009a , b ). To miti-
gate fi re-related problems and escalate fi re suppression costs, forest and land man-
agement agencies, as well as landowners and communities, require early warning of
extreme fi re danger conditions that lead to uncontrolled wildfi res. Early warning of
these conditions allows fi re managers to implement fi re prevention, detection, and
presuppression action plans before fi re problems begin.

7.3.1 Fire Danger Rating and Early Warning

Fire danger rating 1 is the systematic assessment of fi re risk and potential impact, and
it is the cornerstone of contemporary fi re management programs. It is used to deter-
mine suppression resource levels (fi re fi ghters, equipment, helicopters, fi xed wing
airtankers), mobilization, and strategic prepositioning; to defi ne safe and acceptable
prescribed burn prescription criteria; and to establish fi re management budgets