Dave Winnacker recently joined James Gillespie (Fire Marshal, City of Newport Beach) for the latest session in The Institute for Local Government (ILG)’s Advanced Wildfire Risk Reduction series. The webinar, Creating the Right Wildfire Risk Reduction Plan for Your Community, focused on how local governments can use data, modeling, and community-driven strategies to build realistic wildfire plans that match local conditions and available resources.
The discussion centered on three key themes: understanding how wildfire behaves in specific landscapes, identifying the structures and neighborhoods most vulnerable to ignition, and building practical mitigation programs that communities can implement with the resources they have.
Understanding Local Wildfire Behavior
Wildfire risk varies widely across communities. Topography, wind patterns, vegetation, housing age, and neighborhood layout all influence how fire moves and where it is most likely to cause damage. The session highlighted the importance of grounding wildfire planning in local fire behavior, rather than relying solely on general hazard maps or resident perceptions.
Fast-moving, wind-driven fires ignite structures quickly and can overwhelm firefighting resources long before containment is possible. Understanding local weather patterns and the conditions that allow fuels to carry fast moving fire helps communities anticipate the scenarios that pose the greatest risk.
Identifying Where Wildfire Becomes Urban Fire
The most significant losses occur when a wildland fire transitions into an urban fire. Once structures ignite, they can produce enough heat and ember cast to spread fire rapidly from building to building. This risk is magnified in neighborhoods with older homes, combustible materials, limited defensible space, and dense parcel layouts.
Even communities separated by a short distance can have fundamentally different vulnerabilities, depending on construction age, defensible space availability, and surrounding fuels. By understanding where this transition is most likely, local agencies can focus mitigation on the parcels that have the greatest potential to drive structure-to-structure ignition.
Building Practical, Prioritized Mitigation Plans
Wildfire risk reduction plans must be realistic and actionable. Data and modeling help communities understand where wildfire will enter, how quickly it will move, and which parcels are most likely to ignite. This enables a shift from broad, activity-based strategies to prioritized mitigation programs that focus on the areas with the greatest potential to reduce loss.
Effective planning aligns defensible space, home hardening, fuel management, and community outreach with the actual pathways fire is most likely to take. By targeting interventions where they will have the most impact, local governments can use limited resources more effectively and demonstrate measurable reductions in vulnerability
Strengthening Community Engagement
Community participation is essential to achieving wildfire resilience. Residents vary significantly in their awareness, willingness to take action, and preferred ways of receiving information. Successful outreach meets these differences head-on by blending multiple communication methods, including neighborhood meetings, HOA engagement, property assessments, social media, direct mail, and trusted local ambassadors.
Visual tools that illustrate how fire could move through a specific neighborhood are especially effective. When residents can see their own streets and understand how mitigation efforts influence outcomes, they are more likely to participate and support broader community initiatives.
Scalable, Measurable Risk Reduction
Meaningful wildfire planning requires an integrated understanding of local fire behavior, structural vulnerability, and community capacity. By aligning mitigation actions with the conditions that actually drive loss, local governments can reduce the risk of urban fire, support long-term insurability, and invest in solutions that create measurable improvements.
Communities that begin with a clear picture of where fire will go and which homes matter most can build wildfire plans that are practical, targeted, and capable of bending the curve of loss.
Watch the full webinar to explore the complete discussion and learn how local governments can strengthen their wildfire risk reduction plans.
Ready to strengthen wildfire resilience in your community?
Contact us to learn how localized modeling and practical mitigation strategies can support your planning efforts.
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.