Disproportionate Impacts of Wildfires among Elderly and Low-Income Communities in California from 2000–2020

Abstract

Wildfires can be detrimental to urban and rural communities, causing impacts in the form of psychological stress, direct physical injury, and smoke-related morbidity and mortality. This study examined the area burned by wildfires over the entire state of California from the years 2000 to 2020 in order to quantify and identify whether burned area and fire frequency differed across Census tracts according to socioeconomic indicators over time. Wildfire data were obtained from the California Fire and Resource Assessment Program (FRAP) and National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC), while demographic data were obtained from the American Community Survey. Results showed a doubling in the number of Census tracts that experienced major wildfires and a near doubling in the number of people residing in wildfire-impacted Census tracts, mostly due to an over 23,000 acre/year increase in the area burned by wildfires over the last two decades. Census tracts with a higher fire frequency and burned area had lower proportions of minority groups on average. However, when considering Native American populations, a greater proportion resided in highly impacted Census tracts. Such Census tracts also had higher proportions of older residents. In general, high-impact Census tracts tended to have higher proportions of low-income residents and lower proportions of high-income residents, as well as lower median household incomes and home values. These findings are important to policymakers and state agencies as it relates to environmental justice and the allocation of resources before, during, and after wildfires in the state of California.

Is Experience the Best Teacher? Knowledge, Perceptions, and Awareness of Wildfire Risk

“…In fact, our participant subsamples have a rather low average age, and, therefore, a predictable medium-high level of education. Such unbalanced stratification of the sample in favor of the most educated and youngest could leave aside important considerations on wildfire impact and management in at-risk communities, such as those with poor education, low income, and the elderly [44][45][46]. Future research aimed at evaluating the interplay between the characteristics of vulnerable groups and fire-related environmental variables, such as climate variability, forest fuel distribution, and topographic features is warranted [47,48].…”

Aging Hearts in a Hotter, More Turbulent World: The Impacts of Climate Change on the Cardiovascular Health of Older Adults

“…Furthermore, even when older adults have in-home air conditioning, which can be used to help filter airborne particulate matter and mitigate some of its health risks, they are less likely to use it, frequently citing financial considerations as barriers to their use [ 67 , 68 ]. Unfortunately, demographic trends do not favor a shift away from these concerns, as US census–based investigations suggest that aging populations may disproportionately reside in regions at highest risk of wildfire [ 69 ].…”

“…Although older adults living with heart disease are a generally vulnerable population, certain subgroups are likely to disproportionately suffer from the cardiovascular impacts of climate change. Multiple analyses have demonstrated both advanced age and low socioeconomic status to be independent determinants of poor cardiovascular outcome from air pollution, wildfires, heat waves, and natural disasters [ 20 , 27 , 32 , 69 , 128 ]. This may be attributable to greater baseline ambient pollution exposure, higher baseline prevalence of cardiovascular comorbidities and disease severity, and reduced financial access to specialty healthcare.…”

The Local Labor Market Impacts of US Megafires

“…Sociodemographic characteristics are related to both megafire activity and labor market outcomes [37,38]. To account for this, data on annual county-level household income and poverty rates were obtained from the US Census Bureau Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates (SAIPE) Program.…”