Wildfires are getting faster in the Western U.S. — making them more dangerous. National-level risk assessments do not account for fire speed or provide insight into how communities can better prepare for rapid fire growth events, and the new Fast Fire Network aims to fill this critical gap.

CIRES Fellow Jennifer Balch, director of the Environmental Data Science Innovation & Impact Lab (ESIIL), developed the NSF-funded project. Over five years, a dedicated team will facilitate collaborative working groups to advance meaningful fast fire solutions. The network will bring people together across academia and industry to advance understanding of fast fires, create better model predictions, and improve responses to future fast fires.

“The pace of wildfire is changing faster than any one field can keep up with,” said Matt Bitters, research coordinator in the Balch Fire Lab. “By connecting experts across disciplines and sectors, the Fast Fire Network will build the partnerships needed to better understand, predict, and reduce fast fire risk.”

Until now, research has focused on the size of wildfires rather than speed. The Camp, Lahaina, and Marshall fires — all examples of fast fires — took over a hundred lives and destroyed thousands of homes. The lack of research on fire speed has made suppression and evacuation challenging. Balch and her team have authored groundbreaking research on fast fires, publishing a paper in Science in 2024. Their work reveals a 250 percent increase in the growth of fast fires over the past two decades.

“We need to forget megafires and focus on fast fires and rethink our fire risk in terms of speed, not size,” Balch said. “We built the Fast Fire Network because solving this challenge requires experts from across fields to translate science into practical solutions for communities.”

The work will explore innovative AI tools to leverage the big data revolution while diving deep into the key components of risk: hazard, exposure, and vulnerability.

“Considering all three reveals where risk originates, why similar fires produce different outcomes, and how social and economic inequities shape the capacity to prepare, respond, and recover,” said Virginia Iglesias, Earth Lab director. “This integrated perspective strengthens situational awareness and helps identify which interventions can most effectively reduce future losses.”

The network kicks off with an “ignition” virtual launch on September 1 at 10:00 am MDT. The event will include an introduction to fast fire risk framework, lightning talks, and breakout sessions. Following the launch, the Fast Fire Network will host a hackathon in 2027 to develop these themes and provide science-backed solutions to the increasing pace of wildfires.

The launch is open to anyone interested in learning more about the Fast Fire Network. Fill out this interest form, and a member of the network will reach out to confirm attendance.