DOI: 10.5061/dryad.2v6wwq019
title: Temporal and spatial pattern analysis of escaped prescribed fires in California from 1991 to 2020

description: Prescribed fires play a critical role in reducing the intensity and
 severity of future wildfires by systematically and widely consuming
 accumulated vegetation fuel. While the current probability of prescribed
 fire escape in the United States stands very low, its consequential
 impact, particularly the large wildfires it causes, raises substantial
 concerns. The most direct way of understanding this trade-off between
 wildfire risk reduction and prescribed fire escapes is to explore patterns
 in the historical prescribed fire records. This study investigates the
 spatiotemporal patterns of escaped prescribed fires in California from
 1991 to 2020, offering insights for resource managers in developing
 effective forest management and fuel treatment strategies. The results
 reveal that the months close to the beginning and end of the wildfire
 season, namely May, June, September, and November, have the highest
 frequency of escaped fires. Under similar environmental conditions, areas
 with more records of prescribed fire implementation tend to experience
 fewer escapes. The findings revealed the vegetation types most susceptible
 to escaped prescribed fires. Areas with tree cover ranging from 20 to 60%
 exhibited the highest incidence of escapes compared to shrubs and
 grasslands. Among all the environmental conditions analyzed, wind speed
 stands out as the predominant factor that affects the risk of prescribed
 fire escaping. These findings mark an initial step in identifying
 high-risk areas and periods for prescribed fire escapes. Understanding
 these patterns and the challenges of quantifying escape rates can inform
 more effective landscape management practices.
description: # Temporal and spatial pattern analysis of escaped prescribed fires in
 California from 1991 to 2020 Dataset DOI: [10.5061/dryad
 2v6wwq019](10.5061/dryad.2v6wwq019) ## Description of the data and file
 structure #### **Data information** Records of escaped prescribed fires in
 California from 1991 to 2020 are provided in spreadsheet format (.xlsx),
 with related environmental variables available as geospatial raster data
 in GeoTIFF (.tiff) format.  **Note**: This dataset does not include any
 personally identifiable information. Coordinates have been generalized to
 3 decimal precision to protect privacy. Incident names referring to
 private property or individuals were masked or removed.
 **ExcapedRxfires_CA_1991-2020.xlsx** Escaped prescribed fire records *
 Spreadsheet list * "compiled": the cleaned escaped fire records
 in CA from 1991 to 2020 * "CALSTATS": records obtained and
 extracted from the California Incident Data and Statistics (CalStats)
 Program, CAL FIRE. Data were collected from the National Fire Incident
 Reporting System (NFIRS). * "FRAP": records obtained and
 extracted from the Fire and Resource Assessment Program (FRAP), CAL FIRE.
 * Variable list * Compiled * Year * Month * Incident Start Date * Incident
 Name * Latitude * Longitude * Burned Area * CALSTATS * Unit: abbreviation
 of administration unit used by CAL FIRE * Incident Start Date * Incident
 Type Code and Description * Incident Name * Origin County * Total Acres
 Burned * Primary Vegetation Type * Estimated Property/Contents Loss *
 Latitude * Longitude * FRAP: * OBJECTID: Sequential unique number of the
 incident * YEAR: Year fire started * FIRE_NAME: Name assigned to fire by
 responsible agency * ALARM_DATE: Date the fire was called into the
 emergency command center * CONT_DATE: Date the fire was surrounded by fire
 line and forward progress was stopped, not necessarily when the entire
 fire stopped burning. If no contained date is present in the record, the
 field is left blank. * GIS_ACRES: Calculated area in acres based on
 Shape_Area. * Long: Longitude of fire perimeter centroid point * Lat:
 Latitude of fire perimeter centroid point **EnvironmentalVariables.zip**
 Spatial data for Environmental Variables * LANDFIRE_asp_2016.tif: aspect
 data representing the downslope direction in degrees across California,
 derived from the LANDFIRE 2016 Remap. * LANDFIRE_ele_2016.tif: elevation
 data representing land height above mean sea level in meters across
 California, derived from the LANDFIRE 2016 Remap. * LANDFIRE_slp_2016.tif 
 slope data representing the change of elevation in degrees over California
 extracted from the LANDFIRE 2016 Remap * LANDFIRE_FVC_2016.tif: Fuel
 Vegetation Cover data mapping continuous estimates of canopy cover for
 tree, shrub, and herbaceous lifeforms with a potential range from 0-100
 percent, extracted from the LANDFIRE 2016 Remap *
 LANDFIRE_NVC_2016.tif: National Vegetation Classification
 data representing the current distribution of vegetation groups within the
 U.S. National Vegetation Classification circa 2016. *
 Prism_PPT_30yr.tif: 30-year normals (1991-2020) precipitation in mm over
 California * Prism_tmax_30yr.tif: 30-year normals (1991-2020) max
 temperature in °C over  California * Prism_vpdmax_30yr.tif: 30-year
 normals (1991-2020) max vapor pressure deficit in % over  California *
 WIND_wind_10m: Multi-year (2007–2013) annual average wind speed in meters
 per second, at 10 m above surface level, extracted from the Wind
 Integration National Dataset (WIND) Toolkit