A Burning Paradise

By Ram Charan

Paradise is a seeming misnomer for a town incinerated by destructive wildfires during the record-setting 2018 wildfire season. The destruction of the city was part of the path of a larger blaze known as the Camp Fire, a fire started by a faulty PG&E power line. The fire was unparalleled in its devastation that it brought upon the people of Paradise and neighboring  regions.

The fire burned through nearly 153,336 acres; what is even more fear-inducing is that the fire spread 100,000 acres in the first two days. The scale of the Camp Fire remains the worst out of all recorded California wildfires. Close to 18,800 structures were destroyed, 30,000 people were displaced, and 85 people lost their lives. Aside from this, nearly $8.4 billion was staked in insurance claims by survivors. The increased severity of fires and worsening weather conditions due to global warming have made fire seasons in California almost apocalyptic.  

Fire Friendly Conditions

California is becoming dryer and dryer. Starting in 2011, a downwards trend in the total percentage of the Sierra Nevada Snowpack led to a record 4% of the original pack in 2015. The California drought, which was declared over at the start of 2017, was not just a drought. It seems to be a continued condition of dryness that will help to foster the growth of wildfires of incredible proportions. Following intense burning, the ashes of Paradise, that had previously been burned severely during the 2008 California wildfire season, once settled to the ground as a stark reminder of the condition of the earth’s climate. 

As global temperatures increase on a grander scale, more extreme weather patterns will continue to follow in its footsteps. This year, while not as intense as previous years, wildfires appeared again throughout the southern reaches of California. The intensity of these fires, best facilitated by longer summers, has led to the increase in scale of the destructive capability of wildfires. Although part of the reason must be attributed to climate change, the town of Paradise provides an interesting case study in how simple city planning can better protect California cities from wildfires.

The Wildland Urban Interface

In response to the Camp Fire, Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) began initiating Public Safety Power Shutoffs, in hopes of preventing energized power lines from sparking wildfires; fallen power lines are believed to have caused the Camp Fire in 2018. Such strategies helped avert any fatalities in 2019’s most destructive fire, the Kincade Fire. However, there is an even more fundamental flaw that prevents other similar towns to Paradise from being in high fire risk conditions during dry summer conditions.

The town of Paradise can be best described as a Wildland Urban Interface. This term is used to describe specific areas where the low density sprawl of suburban homes meet wildlife vegetation that consists predominantly of lower level shrubs typical of the California desert landscape. The result is a fire prone area combined with residential developments. The idea seems counterintuitive, since these areas are of incredible high fire risk and have been affected by destructive wildfires in previous years. However, the need for increased housing throughout California has pushed developers to ignore very realistic safety concerns. In 1990, Wildland Urban Interfaces constituted 30% of total housing in California. This figure is sure to have increased since then as Wildland Urban Interface is the fastest growing use of land in the United States.

Such environments can be found throughout the Bay Area, most notably in cities such as Oakland and Berkeley. The Bay Area has not had an incredibly forgiving history with fire. Examples are extreme in the case of the 1906 Great Fire of San Francisco and The Tunnel Fire in Oakland in 1991 when over 25 people were killed and nearly 3,000 homes were destroyed. Therefore, understanding the problem of Wildland Urban Interface is paramount in realizing how wildfires have become an even deadlier threat than they once were. The problem not only resides in the fact that people are unaware of the deleterious effects that such developments have, but also in how these areas continue to be developed in high-risk areas all over the nation. This issue, also extends into the territory of how Low Density Sprawl has evolved in the United States.

Low Density Sprawl 

The issue begins with a major form of development common to many developed towns in the United States: low density sprawl. This term is used to describe suburban neighborhoods, where cul de sacs, winding streets, and cookie cutter houses create intricate mazes of living arrangements. This sort of development evolved following the end of World War II and the beginning of the Cold War in the 1950s. Suburban housing became a way for the United States to provide living accommodations for a growing population and the returning body of veterans to the United States during the late 1940s. 

One of the first examples of a suburban development was Levittown in Long Island, New York. It was established in 1947 by businessman William Levitt. Levitt was a veteran from World War II who used his company, Levitt and Sons to help create this new form of living place. The process of building the homes involved creating houses in an almost mechanical way; it allowed for houses to be systematically and repetitively created with ease. The idea was revolutionary, and it has since spread, almost like wildfires, to the outskirts of various cities in the United States. The only problem is, now, wildfires are spreading through it.

There are a variety of problems with low density sprawl that extend outside of the fact that it has allowed for developers to move into areas which should have remained undeveloped to begin with. One of these problems is the simple inefficiency of their development. The irregular arrangement of roads and lots throughout a suburban neighborhood greatly contrasts the grid-like structure of a more urban, high-density city. These lots, which allow for more space for the house, become grotesquely shaped due to the curved nature of streets surrounding them. By curving the streets around a suburb, cars can travel faster without stopping between individual locations in the development. 

As these areas expand and become larger in scale, they help to create rigidly zoned cities. By placing housing in one part of the city, other developments are forced into areas that may be more convenient for housing. This leads to the creation of specifically zoned areas that allow for the increased proliferation of automobile transport. The city planning strategy behind creating these sprawls was poor and only occurred because it allowed for quick development. The result was major development of low density sprawl in high fire risk areas. Hence, the creation of the Wildland Urban Interface.

In the case of fire readiness, the intricate road map that low density sprawl creates is a hassle for firefighters to navigate. In the case of a large scale fire, trying to navigate between individual homes is incredibly difficult for those combating the fire. A severe housing shortage and crisis in California is one of the key factors that has allowed these kinds of developments to be built all over the state.

A Housing Crisis

Aside from the poor development of low density sprawl itself, the housing market in California has encouraged such poor development. As the prices of houses increase to a new median price of $600,000, the need for new houses is constantly increasing. As summarized by Bloomberg authors Noah Buhayar and Christopher Canon, “ California accounts for 12% of the U.S. population, but a quarter of its homeless population.”

With California’s current conditions, there is immense pressure to create housing for residents. Zoning laws placed into effect during the 1970s, made it much harder for urban planners to create developments in higher density urban areas such as San Francisco or Oakland. This led to the creation of huge amounts of sprawl. Aside from such policy, tax credits for first-time homeowners help to encourage the purchase of suburban housing. In turn, this has also encouraged a surge in housing prices. Wages for the average worker are simply not enough to provide families with the necessary funds to purchase homes. 

With a projected 3.5 million required housing units by 2050, a number procured by California governor Gavin Newsom, California is only going to find that it is faced with the potential of creating more Wildland Urban Interface based homes. 

Introducing mixed-use developments is the perfect way to help alleviate the burden of this housing crisis. Mixed use developments involves combining both residential and commercial areas into common areas of interest. This way, cities can become more integrated and linked. This could possibly allow for more easily accessible stores and micro hubs of commercial activity. At the same time, it may help to consider more fire-safe areas to build cities; this could simply be by restructuring current cities. By supporting such development, low density sprawl can become less of an influence on the housing crisis.

Fire seasons will become worse in scale as climate change worsens. The once characteristic green hills of Cailfronia have been left brown and scorched by rapid blazing infernos. Much like the city, California is in and of itself, a burning paradise. Finding a solution to this problem will be an incredibly arduous process, but by keeping in mind the roots of the problem, California lawmakers can better understand the feasibility of possible solutions. Taking Paradise into consideration, California needs to learn how to maximize housing efficiency, and more importantly, how to decide whether an area is under significant risk of wildfire outbreak. Shutting off the power from time to time can only do so much. 

Sources: [curbed.com, bisnow.com, citylab.com, pbs.com, pnas.org, guardian.com, britannica.com, bloomerg.com, washingtonpost.com]