People experiencing a high degree of social vulnerability are also more exposed to wildfires in Oregon and Washington as wildfire risk increases, a new study shows.

Social vulnerability is a characteristic of a person or community, such as age, race or ethnicity or socioeconomic status, that affects their susceptibility to incur harm from a hazard.

From 2011 through 2021, the number of people with high social vulnerability who were exposed to wildfire in Oregon, Washington and California more than tripled compared to the previous decade. This compounding of physical and social risks underscores the necessity of incorporating the needs of at-risk populations into wildfire preparation and response planning, said Erica Fleishman, a professor at Oregon State University and a co-author of the paper.

“There has been general knowledge that the number of destructive wildfires and total impacted population are increasing and that hazards have inequitable effects on people,” said Fleishman, who is affiliated with OSU’s College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences and also directs the Oregon Climate Change Research Institute. “This research is helping us understand how much more risk people are facing, where and why.

“The risks are clearly higher for the people who are going to have more difficulty recovering.”

Read the full article about wildfire exposure by Michelle Klampe at Oregon State University.