Residents were overtaken by fire during their evacuation of the 2018 Camp Fire in Paradise, California. A small town may only have one or two major outbound roads. Temporary Fire Refuge Areas can increase the likelihood of survival if those roads become impassable.
Credit: Cal Fire
Wildfires move fast. They can reduce communities to ash in a matter of hours. To save as many lives as possible, officials must have an evacuation and shelter plan in place before an actual wildfire threatens their community.
To support planning efforts, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has just updated its guidance on preparing for wildfires based on the latest research and community feedback. Called Wildland-Urban Interface Fire Evacuation and Sheltering Considerations: Assessment, Planning, and Execution (ESCAPE), the report is now available on the NIST website.
This report is especially relevant to the estimated 115 million people in the U.S. who live in areas of high wildfire risk. Many wildfires do not stay confined in remote forests. They can invade neighborhoods and destroy homes, sometimes with only minutes of advance warning. Traditional approaches to evacuation are less effective during such aggressive fires, which can outrun emergency notifications and cut off roads before residents can escape.
“This report can save thousands of lives because it offers a science-backed approach to planning for worst-case scenarios,” said lead author Alexander Maranghides, a fire protection engineer at NIST. “We need a rigorous approach because we have seen, time and time again, that these fires are unforgiving.”
For more than 120 years
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