WUI Fire Evacuation and Sheltering Considerations — Assessment Planning and Execution
Existing buildings are not adequate fire shelters
When fire exposures are extreme, even hardened buildings can be compromised. Infrastructure—e.g., schools, hospitals, and fire stations—that may be used as shelters for other disasters are inadequate during WUI fires.
The damage to Ponderosa Elementary School (top) and Feather River Hospital (left) from the Camp Fire 2018, and Santa Rosa Fire Station 5 (right), destroyed in the Tubbs Fire in 2017, illustrate several examples. Despite having more robust construction than typical residential structures, they are not currently designed to withstand WUI fire exposures.
Both the school and hospital buildings ignited and were actively defended by firefighters, largely saving the structures. Even with significant efforts by firefighters, the damage to the buildings was extensive. One defended hospital building was destroyed.
School children, hospital patients, and other susceptible populations cannot shelter in place in existing infrastructure that is not designed specifically to withstand WUI fire and ember exposures.
Credit: CAL FIRE, annotations NIST
Credit: CAL FIRE
