A growing number of Californians now live near wildfire danger zones as the state builds more homes to combat its housing crisis, according to a July 28 report by Chapman University.
Nearly 13 percent of the state’s population lives in areas “at-risk” for wildfires like those threatening structures and scorching thousands of acres in Northern California, the Bay Area, and near Yosemite National Park, according to the university’s science and engineering student researchers using U.S. Census data.
Rapid housing development in response to the state’s housing crisis has driven the increase, according to project mentor Shenyue Jia, a postdoctoral researcher with the Institute for Earth, Computing, Human and Observing at Chapman University.
“In California, such pressures are largely driven by the increase of human populations and rapid real estate development in response to the housing crisis,” Jia said. “Understanding which regions ... experienced significant population growth over the past decade can identify communities at greater risk of wildfire, especially when using the most recent demographic data.”
Areas at-risk of wildfires in Contra Costa, Alameda, and Riverside counties grew the most in the past decade. Riverside has the highest number of residents living in housing tracks in the wildfire danger zones, according to the study.
Meanwhile, firefighters continued to make progress on the Oak Fire near Yosemite National Park this week. The fire has consumed more than 19,000 acres and was nearly 40 percent contained July 28, according to state fire officials.
