2023 | U.S. Fire Administrator’s Summit on Fire Prevention and Control 

Impact of 

Climate Change

Prepare all firefighters for the climate-driven increase in wildfires in the wildland-urban

interface (WUI) and in rural and suburban communities by providing them with the proper

training and equipment. 

Issue 

According to a June 2022 U.S.

Congressional Budget Office (CBO)

report, the intensity of wildfires has

increased, as has the number of

wildfires impacting the built

environment over the past 30 years1. As

our nation continues to grow and

develop in the wildland urban interface

(WUI), our communities face increased

wildfire threats associated with

increased populations, reduced land

management practices, dangerous

buildups in fuel, and climate change. 

Climate is further exacerbating

conditions. NASA’s long-term

temperature monitoring found July

2023 to be the hottest July since recordkeeping began in 18802. While

fluctuations are expected and normal,

data points to a warming climate, with

the five hottest Julys recorded in the

previous five years. 

Furthermore, an August 2023 NOAA

assessment of U.S. climate found a

record number of billion-dollar disaster

events to date in 20233. Among the

disasters identified by this report is the

August 8 wildfire on the island of Maui,

HI. Worsened by Hurricane Dora’s

winds, the wildfire has become the

deadliest in the United States in over a

century. 
2023 | U.S. Fire Administrator’s Summit on Fire Prevention and Control 

More 

Information4

______________________________

1 Wildfires. Congressional Budget Office. June 2022. https://www.cbo.gov/publication/57970

2 NASA Clocks July 2023 as Hottest Month on Record Ever Since 1880. Global Climate

Change/NASA. Published August 14, 2023. https://climate.nasa.gov/news/3279/nasaclocks-july-2023-as-hottest-month-on-record-ever-since-1880/

3 Assessing the U.S. Climate in August 2023. NOAA, National Centers for Environmental

Information. Published Sept 11, 2023. https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/news/national-climate202308

4 Fifth Needs Assessment of the US Fire Service. NFPA. December 2021.

https://www.nfpa.org/News-and-Research/Data-research-and-tools/EmergencyResponders/Needs-assessment

Impact Areas

Firefighting Resources

Wildfire knows no boundaries; fires can start and burn across federal, tribal, state, local, and private lands. That means

fires are often fought with a combination of agencies and firefighters from different backgrounds and employers.

These differences range from seasonal Federal firefighters to volunteer firefighters coming from a community-based

fire department to structural firefighters working in a local municipality who have little to no training for operating in

an urban or suburban conflagration with multiple structures burning simultaneously.

Advances in command and coordination, especially at large, long-duration events, have improved resource deployment

and operations on the ground. However, these resources often take time to get into place. Therefore, the initial

response comes from local fire departments that are often already dealing with strained, overworked staff. 

Local fire department responders are typically trained as structural firefighters, given that single-family dwellings are

the most common fire risk they encounter. Structural firefighters accustomed to fighting one structure fire at a time

are now confronted with multiple structures burning and must react and respond with different tactics and strategies

to mitigate the event safely and effectively.

The reality is that they must add urban

interface wildfire response to their

operational repertoire.

As the risk of losing entire communities from

wildfire extends to a year-round reality,

staffing resources and proper training are

necessary to fight these WUI fires.

Training and Equipment

With climate change and the expansion of

the built environment into the wildland,

each year fires grow larger and pose a

greater danger to the public. There is a need

to mitigate these incidents as quickly as

possible, placing even greater importance

on training and equipping traditionally

trained structural firefighters to respond to

urban interface incidents.

“The Fifth Needs Assessment of the US Fire

Service,” published by the National Fire

Protection Association (NFPA), found that

while 87% of structural fire departments respond to interface fires, just under half (47%) have training on interface

fires involving multiple structures4. In addition to firefighting, many departments are tasked with supporting other

needs, such as evacuations, creating even greater strains or overburdened systems.

Water Access

Particularly in the West, water is a limited and often contested resource. Drought conditions elsewhere in the country

have similar effects. The scarcity of water has a severe impact on firefighting efforts. Burn scars following a fire can

contaminate water resources as debris and other contaminants affect availability and treatment efforts.