“Our research was spawned by recognizing communities in the Eastern U.S. are not immune to wildfire risks and that these risks may be increasing. People woke up to fire in the East with the [Canadian wildfires] of several years ago. And then in 2024 and 2025, we had severe wildfires in Pennsylvania and Long Island. There is evidence that there were large fires in the Adirondacks and in Maine a century ago, so we know it’s possible for these places to burn. However, we don’t know if fire risk factors developed in the West—or nationally—are applicable to the East, nor whether they are informed by the East’s unique social, physical, and environmental factors that drive fire hazard, fire behavior, community exposure, and vulnerabilities. 

“On the East Coast, the fuels are different from [those in] the West. Our maple species, for example, compact well and hold moisture, so they just don’t burn. Yet the wildland-urban interface is very prominent in the Eastern U.S. Most people live in a forested environment because trees have been growing around us for the past hundred years. Fire weather conditions in the East are also changing with more flooding and wet periods—and with increasing periods of drought. That creates more fire risk.  

“One of our motivating factors is to create more prepared communities now. We are studying how to predict risk by studying weather conditions and fuel types, and national fire indices and weather models. We’re also trying to identify factors that would make communities more vulnerable to wildfire risks and see if we can map those vulnerabilities.”