JH Fire/EMS shares new wildfire plan to protect town infrastructure
JACKSON, Wyo. — Jackson Hole Fire/EMS led a community discussion about what steps need to be taken to reduce wildfire risks to town infrastructure on Thursday, Oct. 3.
JH Fire/EMS Fire Marshal Raymond Lane said that the Teton County Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP), which has not been revised since 2014, needed to be updated to reflect the rise in extreme weather, population growth and updated science. The 2024 CWPP makes recommendations on what fuel treatments are needed on private and public lands and evaluates water supply.
According to JH Fire/EMS, new scientific studies have revealed that trees are not needed for embers to spread. Recent wildfires in Wyoming have shown that in treeless regions, grasses and sagebrush can launch fire embers as far as 20 miles.
JH Fire/EMS Wildland Fire Prevention Specialist Bobby Clauson told Buckrail that studies have shown that mature western sage can throw embers as far as a young Douglas fir.
"It changed my entire perspective for how wildfires spread," Clauson said.
This new information has altered experts' understanding of which regions could be impacted by a wildfire. According to Lane, one possible scenario was evaluating what could happen if a wildfire ignited on Snow King Mountain. Lane said that an ember shower would be the possible threat to Jackson, depending upon wind conditions. Embers could travel as far as the National Elk Refuge from the top of Snow King, Lane said.
"It's temping for folks to feel they are not at risk from wildfire unless they border a forested area," JH Fire/ EMS Interim Battalion Chief Chris Stiehl told Buckrail. "If community members think it can't happen here, I suggest they consider the Marshall Fire that destroyed over 1,000 structures in the suburbs of Boulder, Colorado in 2021."
As a result of these new findings, the CWPP has expanded the Wildland Urban Interface (WUI) boundary to include additional areas in Teton County. The WUI is the zone between homes and vegetation where wildfires can potentially occur. The WUI boundary is based on two criteria: fireline intensity (how hot an area will burn) and ember exposure (a region exposed to possible blowing embers). Lane said that lower elevations or regions across the valley floor have a higher rating for more intense burning.
"When wildland fires are burning, it's going to land embers on different areas of the town based on terrain and weather conditions," Lane said. "There's a good amount of ember exposure throughout the County. The studies have shown that the spread of embers has been causing a lot of the devastation that we've been seeing recently because the wildfires have been getting worse with the wind."
Lane said that the WUI will help guide the decision making of where to implement fire mitigation work. According to the WUI, all new construction will be subject to an International Wildland Urban Interface Code (IWUIC) hazard assessment. The IWUIC will require ignition resistant construction and vegetation management. Shake or wooden shingles roofs will no longer be allowed in Teton County because "they are really good ember catchers," according to Lane.
"JH Fire/EMS can handle a single structure fire," Lane said. "If 15 of those are going on simultaneously as result of a wildfire burning along the side of town, we are going to be overwhelmed," Lane said.
Lane said that there will not be a "blanket building code," instead it will be an individual parcel assessment to see what fire resistant measures are needed.
"We are eventually trying to get to wildfire resistance throughout the entire community," Lane said. "This isn't going to be an instant gratification thing, it might take 30 years because there is no retroactive requirement for homes. As people build structures or modify homes going forward, the hope is that they will all be wildfire resistant."
During the meeting, a few community members posed concerns about whether they could lose insurance coverage with the new construction requirements.
Clauson told community members that the CWPP should not impact insurance because it's not attached to an insurance policy. According to Clauson, the WUI map helps Teton County remain eligible for federal funding for wildfire risk reduction projects.
Lane added that the Fire/EMS department is aware of how insurance companies have responded to wildland fire regions and he said that it's a problem nationwide.
"Insurance companies are writing non-renewals across the country," Lane said. "They are going to make decisions based on their own assessments. I want to work to make us more wildfire resistent. If an insurance company is on the fence about writing a policy ... they could look at our CWPP and see that the local government is making efforts. It could then be easier for them to write that policy."
