Chelan Named to Top 10 List for Fire Risk

Chelan Ranks 6th in Burn Probability for Washington State

Compiled from USFS and Pyrologix Data

The city of Chelan ranked 6th a new report listing of Washington communities with the most exposure to wildfire danger. Leavenworth topped the list with Ellensburg, Wenatchee, Cashmere and Omak also making the top 10.

The analysis, done by Montana-based firm Pyrologix and the U.S. Forest Service, identified 100 communities in Oregon and Washington with the highest cumulative risk of wildfire, based on the probability of burning and the number of housing units exposed to fire.

The 90-page report details factors that increase “exposure of human communities to wildfire in the Pacific Northwest”, which cumulatively amounts to “the likelihood of wildfire burning a given location on the landscape.” Those 100 communities account for only about 15 percent of all the housing analyzed, but nearly 75 percent of housing exposed to wildfire, the analysis found.

The probability of wildfire affecting an individual housing unit in Leavenworth was calculated at 108 per 10,000, the report reveals. The figures are based on factors including annual occurrence of wildfire, housing density, and proximity to fire-prone landscape.

With the knowledge in the report, the authors write, homeowners and buyers can be better informed of risk, and governments and other agencies can “prioritize communities for home-loss mitigation efforts, allocate mitigation funding, inform building codes, and guide residential development.”

One of the coauthors, Forest Service fire analyst Rick Stratton, said recently “Here’s our list, here’s our concern. What are we gonna do about it? ‘We’ — meaning all of us. We can’t just look at the homeowner, or the state, or the feds. Everyone — that’s where we can be most successful.”

Fire seasons have grown longer and more intense in recent years, testing firefighting resources and community resilience. As communities across California are facing unprecedented wildfire devastation, this latest analysis represents an attempt to identify the potential for such devastation in Oregon and Washington.

Annual burn probability across the states of Washington and Oregon and exposed human communities in each state, as featured in a new report from the U.S. Forest Service and Pyrologix. Chelan County has four of top 10 cities with the most exposure to wildfire danger: Cashmere Chelan, Leavenworth, and Wenatchee.

U.S. Forest Service/Pyrologix