Last month, Dave Winnacker joined Jonathan Holtzman (Founding Partner, Renne Public Law Group) led the session in The Institute for Local Government (ILG)’s Advanced Wildfire Risk Reduction series. The webinar, Building Fire-Adapted Communities in California’s Changing Landscape, explored the growing connection between wildfire behavior, community vulnerability, and the shrinking availability of insurance in high-risk areas.
The discussion focused on three key themes: understanding how a century of suppression and land-use patterns created today’s extreme fire conditions, identifying the factors that drive structure-to-structure ignition, and developing practical frameworks for local governments to reduce loss and improve insurability.
A Century of Suppression and Shifting Landscapes
Wildfire has always been a natural part of California’s environment, shaping ecosystems and renewing landscapes. But more than a century of human activity has disrupted that natural balance. Logging and regrowth increased forest density, while early fire exclusion policies halted the recurring, low-intensity burns that once cleared excess vegetation. Post-war firefighting efforts further suppressed natural fire, allowing fuels to build up over decades.
Meanwhile, development expanded into fire-dependent areas without consistent building standards or defensible space requirements. Combined with shorter rainy seasons, prolonged drought, and rising temperatures, these factors have produced ideal conditions for faster, more destructive fires that are increasingly difficult to control.
Understanding Structure-to-Structure Ignition
It is not always the largest fires by acreage that cause the most destruction, but the fastest-moving, wind-driven ones. These “fast fires” ignite multiple structures in a short period, overwhelming the fire fighting response capacity. Research from the University of Colorado shows that half of the structures lost in California since 2006 were destroyed in just four fires.
The most dangerous moment comes when a wildland fire transitions into an urban fire, where buildings themselves become the fuel. Once structural ignition begins, heat and embers can rapidly spread fire from home to home, creating a self-sustaining urban conflagration. Preventing this transition requires more than vegetation management. It demands strategic investments in home hardening, defensible space, and community-scale planning to break the chain of ignition.
Frameworks for Local Leadership and Insurability
Restoring community resilience and insurability requires aligning mitigation with how fire actually moves through the landscape and built environment. Local governments can direct limited resources to the areas of greatest impact by focusing on five interconnected priorities:
Coupled with local risk mapping, prioritization, and incentive-based compliance, this framework helps communities reduce large-scale loss, strengthen insurance availability, and direct funds where they deliver measurable results.
Creating Measurable Resilience
California’s fire challenge is not just ecological. It is structural, policy-driven, and deeply human. Communities that understand how fire behaves, where vulnerabilities exist, and how to target their efforts can bend the curve of loss. By integrating data, policy, and coordinated action, local governments can help ensure that living in fire-prone landscapes no longer means facing unmanageable risk.
Watch the full presentation to learn how local governments can apply these insights and frameworks to strengthen community resilience and insurability.
Ready to apply these insights in your community?
Contact us to learn how data-driven modeling and prioritized mitigation strategies can help reduce wildfire losses, strengthen resilience, and improve insurability.
About the Institute for Local Government
The Institute for Local Government (ILG) empowers local government leaders and delivers real-world expertise to help them navigate complex issues, increase their capacity, and build trust in their communities. The Institute for Local Government is the nonprofit training and education affiliate of three statewide local government associations (Statewide nonprofit affiliated with The League of California Cities, California Special Districts Association and the California State Association of Counties). Their mission is to help local government leaders navigate complexity, increase capacity and build trust in their communities.