Are LA’s wildfires a look into Utah’s future?

On Jan. 22, the Hughes Fire exploded in northwest Los Angeles County. Fueled by roaring offshore winds, it’s grown to more than 10,000 acres and counting, forcing tens of thousands to evacuate. Across the county, Angelenos are still contending with the devastating Eaton and Pacific Palisades Fires that killed at least 28 people, leveled entire communities and left countless people homeless. At one point, 200,000 residents were under evacuation warnings.

In a warming climate, wildfires burn hotter, spread faster and pose a greater threat to densely populated areas across the West, including Utah. Emergency planners must rethink their disaster response protocols to account for unprecedented wildfire behavior.

Tom Cova, professor in the School of Environment, Society & Sustainability, gives us insight into the LA wildfire disaster response and best practices for keeping fire-prone communities safe. Cova studies environmental hazards emergency management, including wildfire evacuation. To contend with this new reality, he and collaborators proposed a new framework for simulating dire wildfire scenarios, a situation in which there is less time to evacuate an area than is required.