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WUI Fire Evacuation and Sheltering Considerations — Assessment Planning and Execution

For the best experience, we recommend completing the ESCAPE course on a desktop or laptop computer, as mobile devices may not fully support interactive features or display all content as intended.

ESCAPE

EVACUATION PLANNING

Learn how ESCAPE (WUI Fire Evacuation and Sheltering Considerations — Assessment, Planning, and Execution) provides crucial guidance for wildfire evacuation planning, enhancing life safety for civilians and first responders. Start the course at the
bottom of the page.

What is ESCAPE?

ESCAPE is a research-based method for community evacuation planning, developed from case studies of destructive wildfires in the Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI). It offers actionable insights and planning tools to enhance community evacuation strategies.

Who Can
Benefit From ESCAPE?

right arrow Emergency Management Professionals


right arrow Community Leaders and Volunteers
right arrow Local Officials in Fire Prone Areas


right arrow Residents Seeking Wildfire Evacuation Info

burned vehicles at Camp Fire

Credit: USFS

Why Wildfire
Evacuations Require
Special Consideration

Wildfires pose unique challenges for evacuations due to rapid spread and unpredictable behavior. Lessons from past disasters, like the 2018 Camp Fire, emphasize the importance of proactive evacuation planning. ESCAPE is designed to equip communities with essential knowledge and strategies for wildfire evacuation preparedness.

Get Started and
Explore Escape Modules

Take the course all at once or enjoy the modules each at your own pace, providing real world research and examples for you, your team, and your community to thrive upon.

burning shed from structure separation experiments

Credit: NIST

Why This Platform Exists

This platform serves as a training and educational tool for community officials, emergency managers, and first responders. It provides:

green fire and person A structured
understanding of wildfire
evacuation dynamics
green hand/gear/exclamation Scenarios highlighting
high risk situations and mitigation
techniques.
green clipboard/target Tools for assessing community
readiness and developing
robust evacuation plans.

DISCLAIMERS

Best practices for planning and operations are a work in progress by emergency management agencies and researchers to establish a desired standard of performance for evacuation plans that specifically address no-notice WUI fire events. Local implementations may vary depending on local laws and other capacity to achieve the desired performance, including:

  1. Authority for mandatory evacuation
  2. Local processes and requirements
  3. Notification/communication methods and authority
  4. Terminology
  5. Existing community programs, knowledge, and planning by both residents and first responders

Individuals should seek official evacuation information from their local authorities.