Portland State University and the University of British Columbia

2026-2027 Cascadia Wildfire and urban smoke webinar series

The seventh year of the Cascadia Wildfire and Urban Smoke webinar series will include a diverse set of speakers and panels discussing critical research and policy issues related to the growing threat of wildfire. We continue to feature investigators funded by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation’s Wildfire Resilience Initiative.

All sessions are held Wednesdays at 1pm Pacific Time on Zoom. Video recordings of previous years’ webinars are available at: https://research.ubc.ca/cascadia-wildfire-urban-smoke

December 16, 2026: Why Do Wildfires Burn Houses?

Presenter: Michael Gollner, UC Berkeley

This webinar will examine how community layout, structural spacing, and ember-driven ignitions cause fires to spread from house to house, while also analyzing the resulting smoke toxicity in the wildland–urban interface.