As wildfire risk grows, communities need best-available data to prioritize mitigation efforts. In response to this need, Fire Aside and Vibrant Planet have expanded their longstanding partnership to offer structure exposure data that enables California communities to optimize defensible space inspections. Now, Fire Aside users can access the Structure Exposure Score from Pyrologix, Vibrant Planet’s industry leading fire science team. The Structure Exposure Score assesses a structure’s direct and indirect exposure to wildfire damage. Communities across California can now access this data on Fire Aside’s platform at no additional cost.
About the Structure Exposure Score
The Structure Exposure Score (SES) is a numerical rating of a structure’s exposure to wildfire. It measures the likelihood of fire occurring, the fire intensity, and the ember load at every structure in the state if a fire were to occur.
Fire Aside applies the Structure Exposure Score to identify the most-exposed homes in the community. The platform then informs communities how defensible space inspection resources should be prioritized given limited budgets and staff. With this information, agencies can create neighborhood treatment plans using inspection, messaging, financial assistance and more resources for maximum impact.
Structure Exposure Score History & Further Applications
The exposure score used today is the result of several rounds of improvement by Pyrologix. While the team originally used a seminal risk assessment framework, they saw a critical limitation: it only evaluated risk where resources and assets currently existed, not where they could potentially exist. In other words, the model could not support decisions like land use planning or new construction. To address this, Pyrologix developed a Hazard to Potential Structures dataset, which evaluates wildfire likelihood and intensity, whether or not a structure is present. In 2020, Pyrologix contributed this self-funded R&D data, now called Risk to Potential Structures, to the Wildfire Risk to Communities project. Since then, the dataset has been further refined to incorporate ember production and transport modeling–an essential ingredient given embers can be the driving force for home loss and urban conflagrations. The result is the Structure Exposure Score used today. Read more about the score.
SES and related metrics can help in identifying at-risk communities and homes. In practice, SES has been used to prioritize homes for inspection by CAL FIRE and is made publicly available as part of “regional resource kits” supporting large-scale landscape planning and restoration across the state. Further, in Utah, House Bill 48 codifies use of SES to delineate “High Risk WUI” areas. SES is used operationally, has been validated by fire experts and practitioners, and we believe will continue to support fire-adapted community wildfire planning.
Partnership at Work
Earlier in 2025, Vibrant Planet and Fire Aside piloted the integrated Structure Exposure Score with the North Lake Tahoe Fire Protection District, and these results helped inform a decision to more broadly roll out the solution to all agencies in Lake Tahoe. To date, over 20,000 structures have been prioritized and inspected using this data, and the number is expected to grow as select CAL FIRE Units pilot the program in early 2026. This is just one milestone for the two companies, with expanded plans to offer more integrated wildfire risk data and models to communities in the future.
“Communities need to see both exposure and vulnerability to understand their risk comprehensively, and the ROI of risk mitigation treatments provide to avoid loss and build long-term resilience,” said Allison Wolff, Chief Executive Officer of Vibrant Planet. “By combining Vibrant Planet’s capabilities in wildfire risk forecasting and creating prioritized, specific treatment plans with Fire Aside’s scaled ability to collect critical data on structures, our partnership can dramatically improve safer living in fire adapted landscapes. As an important first step, we’re making the Structure Exposure Score from Pyrologix available to Fire Aside users to support the prioritization of defensible space inspections, helping communities manage limited resources effectively.”
“Fire Aside is committed to protecting communities, and our latest collaboration with Vibrant Planet amplifies that mission. Providing access to the Vibrant Planet Structure Exposure Score enables agencies to help prioritize mitigations for maximum ROI on wildfire safety.” - Jason Brooks, Chief Executive Offer, Fire Aside
Communities facing high wildfire risk must continue to invest in leading models and data to accelerate wildfire mitigation at scale. Those interested in using Fire Aside to prioritize inspections can learn more here, or explore reducing their larger wildfire exposure with Vibrant Planet here.
