1.6 million people live in high hazard areas. As the region continues to build in flammable landscapes, policymakers can protect communities with smarter building choices and the truth about rising risk.
We need to build so many more homes, but can we please do it where they won’t immediately burn down again?
For now, though political will for these types of changes is lacking. Oregon, for example, repealed its wildfire hazard map and related building codes after backlash from property owners. And, if California’s experience is any indicator, less than a year after the catastrophic 2025 fires in Los Angeles, city leaders moved quickly to rebuild in areas with very high wildfire risk and continue to push back on statewide defensible space requirements.
If comprehensive reforms remain politically infeasible today, policymakers can still lay the groundwork for them by giving northwesterners access to honest information about the rising risk of fire. This means helping renters and homebuyers know the hazard wildfires could pose to their homes and allowing insurance prices to adjust (both up and down) to reflect actual risk of a property burning down. All the while, legalizing more homes in safer parts of the Northwest can ease some of the pressure pushing people to move into harm’s way.
Yes. That’s how risk is mitigated as a social cost. It’s the same as insurance.
But, y’all could just stop building in risky areas, be it fire or flood or wind.