Disaster risk management tipping points: impacts of extreme wildfire events and the resulting need for layered disaster risk management solutions

Wildfire regimes are changing globally with an increase in global burned area and changes in fire characteristics. Recent research shows that the number of extreme fire events is increasing exponentially and events such as the most recent fires in Los Angeles in the U.S. (2025), the Hawaii fires (2023), Canada’s record-breaking fires (2023), the largest recorded fires in Greece-Europe (2023) and the 2025 European fire season underpin this observation.

Extreme wildfire events (EWEs) thereby pose new challenges and limits to managing disaster risk. This refers not only to response operations but also to “conventional” preventive measures such as the creation of buffer zones that may no longer be effective. This paper depicts several limits of conventional wildfire risk management measures towards EWEs and introduces the concept of disaster risk management tipping points (DRM TPs) as critical thresholds that necessitate a revised set of disaster risk management strategies.

Building on a bibliographic review, we depict the novelty of the concept and apply it to selected illustrative examples. We propose that this conceptualisation is useful when developing “layered” or diversified risk management approaches for different types of wildfire events including extremes. It may also leverage and shift the discussion around responsibilities in managing risk in terms of public versus individual contributions, the distribution of investments as well as related aspects of justice.