Home Survival in Wildfire-Prone Areas: Building Materials and Design Considerations

Quarles, Stephen L.; Valachovic, Yana; Nakamura, Gary; Nader, Glenn; Lasaux, Michael J. De

doi:10.3733/ucanr.8393

Cited by 51 publications

(59 citation statements)

References 8 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Other preparative or reactionary measures could have helped reduce some of the impacts these fires had on losses including reverse evacuation calls [65], improved public communication [65,66], and better zoning and building codes to withstand spotting embers [67]. Most of the deaths and structures destroyed from these two events occurred in the North Bay, demonstrating the devastating effects of large, fast-moving wildfires moving into urban areas.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The 2017 North Bay and Southern California Fires: A Case Study

Nauslar

Abatzoglou

Marsh³

2018

Fire

138

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Two extreme wind-driven wildfire events impacted California in late 2017, leading to 46 fatalities and thousands of structures lost. This study characterizes the meteorological and climatological factors that drove and enabled these wildfire events and quantifies their rarity over the observational record. Both events featured key fire-weather metrics that were unprecedented in the observational record that followed a sequence of climatic conditions that enhanced fine fuel abundance and fuel availability. The North Bay fires of October 2017 occurred coincident with strong downslope winds, with a majority of burned area occurring within the first 12 h of ignition. By contrast, the southern California fires of December 2017 occurred during the longest Santa Ana wind event on record, resulting in the largest wildfire in California's modern history. Both fire events occurred following an exceptionally wet winter that was preceded by a severe four-year drought. Fuels were further preconditioned by the warmest summer and autumn on record in northern and southern California, respectively. Finally, delayed onset of autumn precipitation allowed for critically low dead fuel moistures leading up to the wind events. Fire weather conditions were well forecast several days prior to the fire. However, the rarity of fire-weather conditions that occurred near populated regions, along with other societal factors such as limited evacuation protocols and limited wildfire preparedness in communities outside of the traditional wildland urban interface were key contributors to the widespread wildfire impacts.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The 2017 North Bay and Southern California Fires: A Case Study

Nauslar

Abatzoglou

Marsh³

2018

Fire

138

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The use of flammable building materials increases likelihood of ignition, especially where flammable roofing material (or flammable debris on the roof) can be ignited by burning embers. Windows broken by thermal expansion [72] and attic vents [73] can also result in structure ignition by allowing embers to enter the interior of the structure. The protection level provided by a household could be parameterized by rating structure materials and design, and fuels surrounding the structure.…”

Section: Model Parametersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modeling Evacuate versus Shelter-in-Place Decisions in Wildfires

2011

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Improving community resiliency to wildfire is a challenging problem in the face of ongoing development in fire-prone regions. Evacuation and shelter-in-place are the primary options for reducing wildfire casualties, but it can be difficult to determine which option offers the most protection in urgent scenarios. Although guidelines and policies have been proposed to inform this decision, a formal approach to evaluating protective options would help advance protective-action theory. We present an optimization model based on the premise that protecting a community can be viewed as assigning threatened households to one of three actions: evacuation, shelter-in-refuge, or shelter-in-home. While evacuation generally offers the highest level of life protection, it can place residents at greater risk when little time is available. This leads to complex trade-offs involving expected fire intensity, available time, and the quality and accessibility of in-place shelter. An application of the model is presented to illustrate a range of issues that can arise across scenarios.

show abstract

“…A critical factor of home survival in the WUI is roof type (Haines et al, 2008;Quarles et al, 2010). Flammable roofing materials can provide a receptive fuel bed for wind borne embers (Cohen, 2000), as well as being a source of embers once ignited (Calkin et al, 2014;Herold et al, 2004;Paveglio et al, 2014).…”

Section: Remote Sensing Analysis Of Urban Featuresmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A structure can be fortified to be resilient against wildfire by using noncombustible building materials and ensuring resistance to ember penetration and radiant heat (Cohen, 2004;Cohen and Butler, 1996;Quarles et al, 2010). Ember entry to the structure should be of particular concern.…”

Section: Structural Materialsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, the modification of vegetation around the home can greatly reduce the risk of all three hazards of structure ignition. In order to make a home resilient to wildfire, an architect or homeowner should take into account all three of ignition hazards in the selection of building materials, garden landscaping and vulnerability assessments on existing homes (Quarles et al, 2010).…”

Section: Fire History In San Diego Countymentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Temporal Changes to Fire Risk in Disparate Wildland Urban Interface Communities

Leyshon¹

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Home Survival in Wildfire-Prone Areas: Building Materials and Design Considerations

Cited by 51 publications

References 8 publications

The 2017 North Bay and Southern California Fires: A Case Study

The 2017 North Bay and Southern California Fires: A Case Study

Modeling Evacuate versus Shelter-in-Place Decisions in Wildfires

Temporal Changes to Fire Risk in Disparate Wildland Urban Interface Communities

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About