Temporal and spatial pattern analysis of escaped prescribed fires in California from 1991 to 2020

Prescribed fires play a critical role in reducing the intensity and severity of future wildfires by systematically and widely consuming accumulated vegetation fuel. While the current probability of prescribed fire escape in the United States stands very low, its consequential impact, particularly the large wildfires it causes, raises substantial concerns. The most direct way of understanding this trade-off between wildfire risk reduction and prescribed fire escapes is to explore patterns in the historical prescribed fire records. This study investigates the spatiotemporal patterns of escaped prescribed fires in California from 1991 to 2020, offering insights for resource managers in developing effective forest management and fuel treatment strategies. The results reveal that the months close to the beginning and end of the wildfire season, namely May, June, September, and November, have the highest frequency of escaped fires. Under similar environmental conditions, areas with more recor..., , # Temporal and spatial pattern analysis of escaped prescribed fires in California from 1991 to 2020

Dataset DOI: [10.5061/dryad 2v6wwq019](10.5061/dryad.2v6wwq019)

## Description of the data and file structure

#### **Data information**

Records of escaped prescribed fires in California from 1991 to 2020 are provided in spreadsheet format (.xlsx), with related environmental variables available as geospatial raster data in GeoTIFF (.tiff) format. 

**Note**: This dataset does not include any personally identifiable information. Coordinates have been generalized to 3 decimal precision to protect privacy. Incident names referring to private property or individuals were masked or removed.

**ExcapedRxfires_CA_1991-2020.xlsx**

Escaped prescribed fire records

* Spreadsheet list
* \"compiled\": the cleaned escaped fire records in CA from 1991 to 2020
* \"CALSTATS\": records obtained and extracted from the California Incident Data and Statistics (CalStats) Program, CAL FIRE. Data were colle...,