Standing on the shoulders of Dr. Jack Cohen.
Everything Malibu Brigade does in the field — the Home Ignition Zone, the no-combustion 0–5 ft band, the Zone 1 and Zone 2 prescriptions, the reframing of wildfire as a structure ignition problem — traces back to four decades of peer-reviewed research by Dr. Jack Cohen, retired Research Physical Scientist with the USDA Forest Service Missoula Fire Sciences Laboratory.
One insight rewired wildfire policy.
“Home destruction during extreme wildfires is not the inevitable result of an uncontrollable wildfire; it is the result of home ignitability.”
That single sentence — proven by Cohen’s crown-fire experiments and post-fire forensics from Los Alamos to Lake Arrowhead — is why Brigade assessments focus on the 100 feet around your structure, not the ridgeline a mile away.
Foundational papers
- 2000Preventing disaster: Home ignitability in the wildland-urban interfaceCohen, J. D.Journal of Forestry 98(3): 15–21Read paper
- 2008The wildland-urban interface fire problem: A consequence of the fire exclusion paradigmCohen, J. D.Forest History Today, Fall 2008: 20–26Read paper
- 2010The wildland-urban interface fire problem: A consequence of the fire exclusion paradigmCohen, J. D.USDA Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research StationRead paper
- 2014How risk management can prevent future wildfire disasters in the wildland-urban interfaceCalkin, D. E., Cohen, J. D., Finney, M. A., & Thompson, M. P.PNAS 111(2): 746–751Read paper
Field experiments & case studies
- 1998Modeling potential structure ignitions from flame radiation exposure with implications for wildland/urban interface fire managementCohen, J. D., & Butler, B. W.13th Conference on Fire and Forest Meteorology, International Association of Wildland FireRead paper
- 2004Relating flame radiation to home ignition using modeling and experimental crown firesCohen, J. D.Canadian Journal of Forest Research 34(8): 1616–1626Read paper
- 2008Home destruction examination: Grass Valley Fire, Lake Arrowhead, CaliforniaCohen, J. D., & Stratton, R. D.USDA Forest Service, Pacific Southwest Region, Tech. Paper R5-TP-026bRead paper
- 2011A case study of a community affected by the Witch and Guejito Wildland FiresMaranghides, A., & Mell, W.Fire Technology 47: 379–420 (extends Cohen's HIZ field method)Read paper
Lectures & framework documents
- 2019Why the Built Environment Matters: A Wildland-Urban Fire Problem (lecture)Cohen, J. D.Public lecture, Feb 27, 2019 — referenced in the Brigade framework
- n.d.WU Fire: A Structure Ignition Problem (whitepaper distributed by Malibu Brigade)Cohen, J. D.Foundational reading for every Brigade volunteer
Brigade volunteers are trained on this canon.
Every Certified Wildfire Mitigation Specialist (CWMS) we field has studied Cohen’s work directly. When a Brigade assessor walks your property, they are applying forty years of USDA Forest Service research, one parcel at a time.