Get wildfire burn zones
get_wildfire_burn_zones.RdReturns spatial data on wildfire burn zones in the US from 2000-2025. This dataset harmonizes six wildfire datasets (FIRED, MTBS, NIFC, ICS-209, RedBook, and FEMA) to identify wildfires that burned near communities and resulted in civilian fatalities, destroyed structures, or received federal disaster relief.
Usage
get_wildfire_burn_zones(
file_path = file.path(get_box_path(), "hazards", "other-sources",
"wildfire-burn-zones", "wfbz_disasters_2000-2025.geojson")
)Value
An sf dataframe comprising wildfire burn zone disasters, with one row per
wildfire x affected county (a wildfire spanning multiple counties appears as multiple
rows). geometry, area_sq_km, and the other wildfire-level summary columns
(fatalities_total, injuries_total, structures_destroyed, structures_threatened,
evacuation_total, wui_type, density_people_sq_km_wildfire_buffer) are wildfire-level
and repeat identically across a multi-county wildfire's rows; de-duplicate on
wildfire_id before summing these columns or unioning geometries (e.g.
sum(area_sq_km[!duplicated(wildfire_id)])) to avoid over-counting.
Columns include:
- wildfire_id
Unique identifier for the wildfire event.
- id_fema
FEMA disaster identifier (if applicable).
- year
Year of the wildfire.
- wildfire_name
Name of the wildfire or fire complex.
- state_fips
Two-digit state FIPS code, derived from
county_fips.- county_fips
Five-digit county FIPS code for a single county affected by the wildfire.
- county_name
Name of a single county affected by the wildfire, sourced from Census's own canonical county names (joined on
county_fips) rather than the raw source data, to avoid mangling Mc-prefixed county names.- area_sq_km
Burned area in square kilometers (wildfire-level; see above).
- wildfire_complex_binary
Whether the fire is a complex (multiple fires).
- date_start
Ignition date.
- date_containment
Containment date.
- fatalities_total
Total fatalities (wildfire-level; see above).
- injuries_total
Total injuries (wildfire-level; see above).
- structures_destroyed
Number of structures destroyed (wildfire-level; see above).
- structures_threatened
Number of structures threatened (wildfire-level; see above).
- evacuation_total
Total evacuations (wildfire-level; see above).
- wui_type
Wildland-urban interface type (wildfire-level; see above).
- density_people_sq_km_wildfire_buffer
Population density in wildfire buffer area (wildfire-level; see above).
- geometry
Burn zone polygon geometry (wildfire-level; see above).