Austin ranks 5th in major cities vulnerable to wildfires

Those who were in Austin in 2011 remember the tragic wildfires that hit Bastrop, Steiner Ranch and Spicewood that summer. The fires collectively burned through thousands of acres of land and destroyed over a thousand homes.

“You can still drive down 21 in Bastrop and see where the trees were,” Travis County Fire Marshal Gary Howell said. “The scar is still there. And it’s starting to grow back up, but you can still see some of the trees that were burned… they’re like toothpicks sticking up out of the ground.”

In the wake of the devastating wildfires that have blazed through more than 40,000 acres in the Los Angeles area, local officials are warning about the growing risk of similar fires in the Austin region.

According to an August report by property data company Core Logic, Austin is ranked fifth in the nation in homes at risk of being destroyed by wildfires. The report asserts Austin has more than 94,000 homes with elevated risk. The top four cities are all in Southern California.

Central Texas doesn’t have the same high-powered winds that are accelerating wildfires in Southern California, but there are similarly hot and dry conditions and dense vegetation that can fuel fires.

Those conditions are projected to get worse over time. By 2036, Texas is expected to quadruple the amount of 100-degree days compared to the ‘70s and ‘80s, according to a 2024 report from climate researchers at Texas A&M University.

Who is at greatest risk?

Houses within the city’s wildland urban-interface, or WUI, face a greater threat of being destroyed in a fire. WUI refers to the space where human development meets untouched natural land on the outskirts of the city. (You can check this map to see if you live in Austin’s WUI).

Both sides of Austin face wildfire risk, but Randy Denzer, a member of the Austin Firefighters Association, said the folks living on the west side of Travis County face a particularly high risk of intense wildfire.

“I’ve been warning about this for years,” he said. “What you see on TV right now in LA, can and most likely will, in time, happen if we don’t do anything in West Austin.”

Denzer said parts of West Travis County near Bee Cave and Lago Vista have record levels of fuel loading, a term for the amount of combustible material in an area.

The Austin Fire Department regularly performs prescribed burns and “shaded fuel mitigation,” a fancy term for thinning out vegetation to slow down a fire. But Denzer says those practices are not enough to stop a wildfire, and the department’s current code doesn’t support creating fuel breaks, or strips of land that are cleared of all vegetation to stop an intense fire from spreading further.

Is Austin prepared for wildfires? 

Austin has learned a lot of lessons since 2011.

In 2020, the AFD adopted a new code for people living in the wildland urban-interface areas, which requires new and remodeled homes and buildings to be “hardened” with fire-resistant materials. The rules have been in place since 2021, and so far 5,000 structures have been built up to code.

That only accounts for a small percentage of the homes susceptible to wildfire risk in Austin, but Carrie Stewart, the wildfire division chief for the Austin Fire Department, said hardening your home yourself can be easy, inexpensive, and potentially life saving.

She recommends cleaning out gutters and creating a “defensible space” between the house and any vegetation or combustible materials. She also recommends covering vents with a ⅛-inch mesh screen to prevent embers from catching inside the house.

“It is worth it, regardless of where you are in the city… because we know these embers can travel a mile and a half or more during a wildfire event with high winds and can affect homes that are very distant from the actual flame front,” Stewart said.

You can also request a free structural ignition zone evaluation from the city. The fire department will visit your home and assess potential wildfire risks and provide recommendations on how to better protect the property. Stewart said AFD has received more than 70 requests for evaluations since the LA-area fires started.

The AFD also monitors wildfire conditions and will temporarily boost staffing on days when risk is high, Stewart said. The department will alert residents of wildfires, evacuation notices and other emergencies at warncentraltexas.org.

Residents can use this link to sign up for alerts.