After siege of blazes, experts say California must improve wildfire evacuation plans.
This publication is downloadable and available free of charge from:
https://doi.org/10.6028/NIST.TN.2135
The Camp Fire. November 8, 2018, Butte County, California. The foothills of the Sierra Nevada, so much like our own inter-mountain Jefferson County, Colorado. Over 18,000 destroyed structures, 700 damaged structures, 85 fatalities. The numbers only tell part of the story.
Following the fire event, this in-depth case study was completed in an effort to better understand Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI) fire behaviour; how it spreads, why it behaves like it does, how to be better prepared to evacuate populations, and how to structure response to a WUI fire event.
This report also includes a tool to assess a community’s local wildfire hazard and readiness for wildfire. It covers questions such as :
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- Do you have an evacuation plan?
- What is the capacity of evacuation routes and are they lined with overgrown vegetation?
- Are there safe assembly areas if evacuation isn’t possible?
- What percent of the communities enrolled in opt-in warning systems?
- Do you have a way to relay warnings if there is a loss of power, phone or internet?
It’s a long read, it even takes a long time to download, but it does provide some really good guidelines for planners and leaders, as well as residents.
Download this publication at https://doi.org/10.6028/NIST.TN.2135