Officials Mull Austin’s High Wildfire Risk

A recent report from CoreLogic ranked the Austin region among the top five most wildlife-vulnerable metropolitan areas in the country. According to the rankings, 53,984 Austin residences are at high to extreme risk of wildfire damage, with an estimated $16.4 billion price tag if a massive blaze should take place.

In response, the city of Austin’s auditor office developed a report, recently presented to the city council. One main concern was wildland-urban interface, the transition zone between unoccupied, undeveloped land and human development; Austin has 647 miles of such land. Experts suggest this transition zone represents the areas with the highest wildfire risk.

Austin has been working on developing a wildland-urban interface code for several years, which would offer building and construction standards, while regulating brush and vegetation in these transition zones. Assistant fire chief Richard Davis said he hopes to get a final draft to the city council for a vote by late 2019.

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