back | home > fire > risk factors

Environmental Aspects of Fire Risk

There are a number of factors which influence the likelihood of a fire occurring in a particular area. FSC-1, the model being developed by this project, takes the following five factors into account:

1. Fuel Moisture Stress Index - A measure of fuel moisture condition to help decipher how easily vegetation will ignite and how fast and hot it will burn
2. Fire Return Interval Departure (FRID) - how long it has been since this area has experienced a fire in relation to how frequently it would be expected to burn in a natural state
3. Large Fire Ignition Probability - a measure of how easily different types of vegetation will ignite into a fire of greater than 250 acres
4. Lightning Probability - the likelyhood of a lightning strike causing a fire
5. Human Factors of Fire Ignition - how frequenty human-caused fires typically occur in this area