Historic wildfires shown on Risk Factor

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Understand the influence of historic wildfires on property-level Fire Factor risk assessments.

Fire Factor® provides information from previously recorded wildfires since 1984 and highlights the number of fires that have come within 20 miles of the property. Please note that the number of wildfires shown in the historic section includes all that came within a 20-mile radius of the property, however only the name of the most recent wildfire is shown.

Historic fires on Fire Factor 

The historic fires shown on Fire Factor and associated with properties are sourced from the Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity (MTBS) program. This dataset compiles footprints of fires that exceeded 500 acres in the eastern US and 1,000 acres in the western US through analysis of satellite imagery before and after fire activity. Properties that are within the perimeter of a wildfire or are within 20 miles of a fire perimeter are associated with those fires. Risk Factor™ then displays the total count of fires within 20 miles of the property and displays the location of the more recent fire within 20 miles of the property.

The MTBS data is updated regularly, and at the time of Fire Factor release, not all fires from the 2020 and 2021 fire seasons were yet available. Fire Factor’s data will be updated as more historic fires are made available through MTBS. 

The First Street Foundation National Wildfire Model is a first-of-its-kind, nationwide, behavioral wildfire model that shows a specific location’s probabilistic risk of wildfire based on the vegetation, topography, and fire weather in the surrounding area. It builds off of decades of peer-reviewed research and forecasts how wildfire risks will change over time due to changes in the environment.

Use Risk Factor to find property-specific wildfire risk assessments for any U.S. address.

To get information about wildfire events in this area, you can check your local fire station records or contact your regional USDA Forest Service.

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