Is it me, or does the whole Front Range seem to be catching fire lately?

A new study that came out last week confirms that wildfire in the West is suddenly a very urban problem.

One-third of people in Colorado and other Western states face a significant chance of wildfire exposure this year, according to the nonprofit First Street Foundation. That number will grow to about 39% by 2052, the study forecasts.

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That means in the state of Colorado, nearly 1 million properties have some risk of being in a wildfire this year, increasing to 1,443,200 properties with at least some risk within 30 years, or an additional 17.9% of properties in the state.

The places at the worst risk this year are not far up in the high country among the towering spruce, but rather right along the Front Range in corridors with a lot of houses near wildland.

In El Paso and Douglas counties, home of Colorado Springs, Castle Rock and Highlands Ranch, more than 80% of the homes and business properties face some risk of being in a wildfire this year. That translates to 200,100 structures at risk in El Paso County and 122,000 in Douglas.

Larimer County, home of Fort Collins, ranked third with 52% of properties, or 82,000 total, at risk.

Don’t get too comfortable, metro Denver. The county where the fire risk is likely to increase the most in the next 30 years is Broomfield, followed closely by Gilpin and Pueblo counties. More than 75% of Broomfield’s structures will face additional fire risk in that time.

The Marshall fire that wiped out more than 1,000 homes in a suburban subdivision in Boulder County during the winter showed that wildfire risk is changing.

The First Street analysis confirms that much of the country not typically associated with wildfires is under threat, and places you wouldn’t think would be at risk, like the South, will be at much greater risk in the near future because of record-breaking heat and drought that is drying our grasslands and forests and extending the fire season and range of wildfires.

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A Washington Post analysis of the data found that nearly 80 million properties in the United States stand a significant chance of exposure to fire this year, or about 1 in 6.

An estimated 16% of the country’s population now lives in hazardous areas, and over the next 30 years, that share will increase to 21%.

The study, for the first time, pinpoints how wildfires might put specific locations at risk by pulling data from federal wildfire databases and local information about each property’s age, building material and design.

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Fire Factor, the new model built by the First Street Foundation, provides a website where you can look up data for your address. You might want a good stiff whiskey before you do so.

I plugged in my house and it told me I have an 11.55% chance of being in a wildfire over the next 30 years.

The level of specificity on this thing is downright scary: The average expected flame length of a wildfire reaching my house within 30 years is 2 feet, with a maximum expected flame length of 7 feet, the model told me.

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It also told me that because of nearby vegetation, such as my scrub oak trees, and the flammable building materials used in my house, the likelihood of my home being destroyed by wildfire that could reach it in the next 30 years is 38%.

Woo and Hoo!

I also discovered there have been 16 wildfires recorded within 20 miles of my house since 1984.

But you know what? The site also gave me some advice on what I can do about it.

“Hardening your home in advance of a wildfire can help make it less susceptible,” it told me. “You can also prepare for evacuation and safety protocols.” And buy fire insurance.

The model made it clear I need to do something about my scrub oak. “Vegetation within 50 feet of the building provides fuel and increases burn probability by up to 50%.”

And it told me that it is important to keep something called the “home ignition zone,” designated as from 0-5 feet around the home, “clear of leaves and debris and use wildfire-resistant materials around home.”

I also learned about my wicked little “reentrant corners.”

“Also pay special attention to keep out materials that could ignite in reentrant corners,” the site said. “During a fire, the flow of air around these corners can create intense fire whirls that spread extreme heat and ignite walls. Consider removing or trimming nearby bushes and trees within 50 ft of your home.”

It also advised me not to use the area under decks for storage, and to replace any section of fencing that connects to my home with a 5-foot noncombustible section.

“If possible, choose open or lattice fencing or gates instead of solid privacy panels to allow embers to pass through rather than accumulate. Remove fence sections that overlap.”

This is the combustible world in which we live now, friends. So I guess I know what I’m doing for my summer vacation: fire mitigation.

Or, I could just move to Indiana or Ohio, which the model tells me have about a 0.00 risk of wildfire.

For now.