COMPUTE THE RISK FOR YOURSELF SOFTWARE HELPS LOCAL RESIDENTS MAP FIRE DANGERS.

Byline: Amy Raisin Darvish Staff Writer

SANTA CLARITA - With drought-like conditions leaving hillsides parched, new and free interactive software is available which helps residents understand the fire dangers that exist around their homes and which offers suggestions to minimize the hazards.

Created by the Center for Urban Forest Research, a branch of the United States Department of Agriculture's Forest Service, FireWise allows users to place a virtual model of their home on a plot of land - complete with trees, vegetation, pavement and a swimming pool - and see how their landscaping effects fire danger.

``There are (county) regulations that require a specific amount of (fire) defensible space, but these regulations don't seem to be powerful enough to change the behavior of residents,'' said Greg McPherson, director of the Center for Urban Forest Research, located in Davis. ``This tool created a different approach to get fire on people's radar.''

Despite three major fires that charred more than 35,000 acres in Northern Los Angeles County this summer, fire officials warn that the actual fire season has not yet begun.

McPherson and his team hope that some of the residents of the estimated 42 million homes in the United States that are located in the wildland-urban interface - areas most susceptible to wildfires - will check out FireWise and make adjustments to their landscaping to decrease the chances of losing their homes to brush fires.

Accessible at www.ecosmart.gov, the software relies on a color-bar system to educate users about the fire risks surrounding their homes. Once a user selects the approximate dimensions of the home, the structure is placed on a plot of land. The user can then place trees, shrubs, rocks and other elements to match the actual yards.

As the elements are added - there are 40 species of trees to choose from, which can be further customized by age and size - the color bar indicates the home's susceptibility to fire. The color bar changes from green to yellow to red as the fire danger increases.

Launched less than three weeks ago, FireWise took four years to create, relying on more than 20 years of research conducted at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, McPherson said. That research included controlled burning of trees in a laboratory setting to measure the shape, size and radiant heat of the flames.

The software, written in Java by Earthview Computing, cost about $800,000 and was paid for by a grant from the National Fire Plan, a Forest Service Program.

McPherson said the software can be used when retrofitting existing

homes or for new homes still in the planning stages.

``Landscaping has traditionally been viewed as ornamental or aesthetic,'' McPherson said. ``This represents a shift from thinking of landscaping as just flowers or something beautiful trying to consider the scientific and functional uses, as well. But we wanted to create something our mothers could use.''

McPherson said his team plans to release an updated, more advanced version of the software in about a year.

Amy Raisin Darvish, [phone]

amy.raisin(at)dailynews.com