Breaking the Chain: Defensible Space, Home Hardening, and Preventing Urban Conflagration
With Vibrant Planet, XyloPlan, and Fire Aside
Washington has seen what happens when wildfire reaches the places people live. This summer, fire moved into Spokane neighborhoods twice.
In June, the wind-driven Upriver Fire destroyed homes and forced about 1,500 people to evacuate. Then in early August, three fires around the city destroyed over 600 homes and other buildings and forced roughly 60,000 people from their homes. These losses add to a growing record across the state, from the 2023 Gray and Oregon Road Fires, the 2020 fire that destroyed much of the town of Malden, the 2014 Carlton Complex and the 2012 Taylor Bridge Fire just down the road from Suncadia.
These fires share a pattern. Once wind-driven fire enters a community, embers ignite vulnerable homes, and fire spreads from vegetation to structures and from one home to the next. Homes become the fuel, creating conflagration zones that can overwhelm even well-resourced fire agencies. The good news is that this chain can be broken. Every hardened home and every well-maintained defensible space slows the spread and protects the neighbors next door. This field tour in Suncadia shows the necessary steps to reduce risk at the neighborhood level.
You’ll ride a shuttle to several stops across the Cle Elum Valley and get off at each one to see the work up close. Expect short walks on uneven ground at every stop.
It can’t wait for late arrivals. Please be in Owens B by 1:00 PM for the briefing.
Warm layers, closed-toe shoes for uneven ground, and water. November in the valley can be cold and wet.
What you’ll see
Stops, order, and timing may shift with weather, fire conditions, and road access. Field guides will adjust the route on the day to make the most of conditions.
Landscape planning with Vibrant Planet
Our tour will start with the big picture. The Vibrant Planet team will show how its platform combines fire simulation, forest data, and infrastructure data to plan fuel treatments across large landscapes, and how that work shapes the fire a community will face at its edge.
Fire movement through the neighborhood with XyloPlan
Next, we follow fire into the community. XyloPlan’s model traces how fire travels through vegetation, from vegetation into homes, and from home to home. Using a local neighborhood as the example, we’ll look at how fire could enter the neighborhood, where conflagration zones could form, which properties act as weak links, and how home hardening and defensible space change the outcome.
Wildfire risk home assessment with Fire Aside
At a Suncadia home, we will lead a live wildfire risk home assessment using Fire Aside. You’ll see how assessors evaluate defensible space and identify structural vulnerabilities such as vents, roofing, decks, and fencing, and how homeowners receive a personalized, detailed report with clear, prioritized steps to reduce their risk.
Fireside chat: how it all works together
We close with a fireside chat with fire service leadership and the teams from Vibrant Planet, XyloPlan, and Fire Aside. Together we’ll go over what we saw at the home, how the modeling connects landscape planning to neighborhood fire spread and individual properties, and what it takes to put these tools to work in the field so Washington communities can avoid the next conflagration. Bring your questions.