{"id":14862,"date":"2025-06-09T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-06-09T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/?p=14862"},"modified":"2025-06-09T04:12:19","modified_gmt":"2025-06-09T04:12:19","slug":"wildfire-resilient-cities-buildings-fire-smart-design-june-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wildfire-resilient-cities-buildings-fire-smart-design-june-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"We design cities and buildings for earthquakes and floods \u2014 we need to do the same for\u00a0wildfires"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n<div class=\"theconversation-article-body\">\n\n  <span><a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/profiles\/ramla-karim-qureshi-2344985\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Ramla Karim Qureshi<\/a>, <em><a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/institutions\/mcmaster-university-930\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">McMaster University<\/a><\/em><\/span>\n\n  <p>We live in an age of increasing wildfire disasters because more of us are living in places where wildfires and human development collide. Right now, fast-moving wildfires are forcing mass evacuations and destroying homes across <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/canada-wildfires-smoke-deaths-evacuations-manitoba-saskatchewan-alberta\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Manitoba, Saskatchewan<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/news\/canada\/british-columbia\/bc-wildfire-alaska-highway-closure-june-3-1.7551498\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">British Columbia<\/a>, where entire communities are under threat.<\/p>\n\n<p>Despite the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.epa.gov\/climate-indicators\/climate-change-indicators-wildfires\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">growing impacts of extreme weather events<\/a>, including prolonged droughts and increasing temperatures, we continue building and even rebuilding homes in likely paths of destructive wildfires. <\/p>\n\n<p>As cities grow, the demand for new home developments in previously forested areas means that we\u2019re rapidly losing buffers between developed and natural land. Consequently, we\u2019re also losing much of our protection from wildfire.<\/p>\n\n<p>I\u2019m a structural engineer, and I was living in British Columbia during the 2023 Kelowna fires. I remember the smoke and anxiety about what was coming next. Seeing news coverage of January\u2019s fires in Los Angeles brought back those memories. Hearing people ask how this could have happened led me to ask in response: How could it <em>not<\/em> have happened? <\/p>\n\n<p>My <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eng.mcmaster.ca\/civil\/faculty\/dr-ramla-qureshi\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">research speciality<\/a> is in protecting structures from fires, earthquakes and explosions. From my work, I know that improved materials and engineering can protect homes much better than we do today.<\/p>\n\n<p>As we enter another wildfire season in Canada, I worry there will soon be new reminders of what we still haven\u2019t done and urgently need to do.<\/p>\n\n<figure>\n            <iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"440\" height=\"260\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/nUfeDZgbcy8?wmode=transparent&amp;start=0\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe>\n            <figcaption><span class=\"caption\">CP24 News covers wildfires burning from British Columbia to Ontario.<\/span><\/figcaption>\n          <\/figure>\n\n<h2 id=\"wildfire-risk\">Wildfire risk<\/h2>\n\n<p>Wildfires can ignite structures in three key ways: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.usfa.fema.gov\/blog\/protecting-structures-from-wildfire-embers-and-fire-exposures\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">direct fire flux from the forest, heat radiation from nearby burning buildings and wind-driven ember showers<\/a>. These embers can travel several kilometres and spark new fires far from the main blaze. <\/p>\n\n<p>Recent research shows that about <a href=\"https:\/\/www.researchgate.net\/publication\/392400126_Risk_Adaptation_in_Post-Wildfire_Building_Practices_Trends_in_Canadian_Wildland-Urban_Interface_Communities\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">14.3 per cent of all Canadian buildings sit directly in the wildland-urban-interface<\/a> \u2014 the area where development neighbours or intersects with wildland vegetation. However, if we expand this interface buffer by a kilometre to account for windborne travelling embers, over 79 per cent of all Canadian structures fall under some level of wildfire ignition risk.<\/p>\n\n<p>While researchers are working on developing more sophisticated technologies for early fire detection and monitoring, we also need to make homes safer in at-risk areas. Programs like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.epa.gov\/climate-indicators\/climate-change-indicators-wildfires\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">FireSmart Canada<\/a> educate communities about managing fire risk, but broader public engagement and co-ordinated action are still lacking.<\/p>\n\n<h2 id=\"primary-hazards\">Primary hazards<\/h2>\n\n<p>Historically, <a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/1-4020-4924-2_5\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">structural design has not treated fire<\/a> as a primary hazard in the same way it does earthquakes or wind. We\u2019ve designed and constructed buildings and bridges that can withstand earthquakes and high winds, but fire design is still largely governed by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfpe.org\/publications\/handbooks\/intlsfe\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">prescriptive, often overly simplified, insulation and building standards<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n<p>This mismatch in design priorities introduces vulnerability. Just as we wouldn\u2019t build in seismically active regions like Vancouver, Victoria or San Francisco without accounting for earthquake risk, or in flood-prone areas like Winnipeg or New Orleans without proper mitigation, we must begin to treat fire risk as an equally fundamental design consideration.<\/p>\n\n<p>It\u2019s certainly daunting to consider the expense of building or retrofitting homes and adapting properties to resist wildfires, but the consequences of not planning or preparing better \u2014 both in terms of lives lost and homes ruined and in terms of the financial costs of rebuilding \u2014 will only worsen if societies don\u2019t do much more.<\/p>\n\n<h2 id=\"alternative-materials\">Alternative materials<\/h2>\n\n<p>It\u2019s obvious that buildings at elevated risk from fire should not be made from combustible materials, like exposed timber. Now, there are impressive alternatives such as <a href=\"https:\/\/gccassociation.org\/essential-concrete\/fire-resistance\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">new forms of concrete<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/flash.org\/mitigation\/how-to-reduce-damage-caused-by-a-wildfire-invest-in-a-fire-resistant-roof\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">metal roofing<\/a> that can prevent fire from taking hold in a home, garage or other building. <\/p>\n\n<p>Improved <a href=\"https:\/\/anrcatalog.ucanr.edu\/pdf\/8680.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">land-use planning and community-scale design<\/a> can also meaningfully decrease the exposure and vulnerability of buildings to wildfire. What we need is a cohesive, risk-averse and data-driven framework that allows for architectural and structural design choices based on quantified fire risk.<\/p>\n\n<p>Research \u2014 only if we make it a funding priority \u2014 can give us such a framework.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"enhancing-safety\">Enhancing safety<\/h2>\n\n<p>In Jasper, Alta., which is in a national park, new federal guidelines for rebuilding after last year\u2019s devastating fire call for enhanced safety. These include new separations between buildings and flammable landscaping, including nonflammable buffers to separate homes from wooden fences and decks. <\/p>\n\n<p>If we continue to build (and rebuild) within forest boundaries, we have to expand standards, mandates and engineering efforts <a href=\"https:\/\/nrc.canada.ca\/en\/certifications-evaluations-standards\/codes-canada\/construction-innovation\/new-national-guide-wildland-urban-interface-fires\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">to protect people and their homes<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n<p>How can we make them safer?<\/p>\n\n<p>We can start by much-needed building code updates. And we can educate residents and home-buyers about reducing their risk.<\/p>\n\n<p>FireSmart Canada, for example, offers <a href=\"https:\/\/firesmartbc.ca\/landscaping-hub\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">practical advice<\/a> on what kinds of trees, shrubs and lawns are safest to use in landscaping, and how far they should be from one\u2019s house, depending on the degree of local fire risk. However, a more community-driven safety mindset is required for successful implementation of these guidelines; individual efforts alone are not enough to reduce the wildfire risk in interconnected neighbourhoods.<\/p>\n\n<p>For developers, designers and builders, improving safety may mean tighter new zoning rules and stricter building codes to govern where and how we build to protect against fire. Suppliers will need access to safer materials, some of which have yet to be developed.<\/p>\n\n<h2 id=\"research-priorities\">Research priorities<\/h2>\n\n<p>To develop a framework, recommendations and guidelines to enhance fire safety and reduce loss, we need evidence, and that requires research.<\/p>\n\n<p>In Canada, we have excellent researchers working on forest fires. But as a fire crosses from a natural setting to an urban one, everything changes \u2014 the fuel, wind patterns and movement of the fire \u2014 so we need to study and model it differently too.<\/p>\n\n<p>These forms of knowledge are all within reach, but until we prioritize them, we are deciding to put lives and neighbourhoods at risk. The price of doing nothing will be much greater than the cost of taking action.<!-- Below is The Conversation's page counter tag. Please DO NOT REMOVE. --><img  loading=\"lazy\"  decoding=\"async\"  src=\"data:image\/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAEAAAABAQMAAAAl21bKAAAAA1BMVEUAAP+KeNJXAAAAAXRSTlMAQObYZgAAAAlwSFlzAAAOxAAADsQBlSsOGwAAAApJREFUCNdjYAAAAAIAAeIhvDMAAAAASUVORK5CYII=\"  alt=\"The Conversation\"  width=\"1\"  height=\"1\"  style=\"border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important\"  referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\"  class=\" pk-lazyload\"  data-pk-sizes=\"auto\"  data-pk-src=\"https:\/\/counter.theconversation.com\/content\/257297\/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic\" ><!-- End of code. If you don't see any code above, please get new code from the Advanced tab after you click the republish button. The page counter does not collect any personal data. More info: https:\/\/theconversation.com\/republishing-guidelines --><\/p>\n\n  <p><span><a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/profiles\/ramla-karim-qureshi-2344985\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Ramla Karim Qureshi<\/a>, Assistant Professor, Structural Engineering, <em><a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/institutions\/mcmaster-university-930\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">McMaster University<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n\n  <p>This article is republished from <a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/we-design-cities-and-buildings-for-earthquakes-and-floods-we-need-to-do-the-same-for-wildfires-257297\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ramla Karim Qureshi, McMaster University We live in an age of increasing wildfire disasters because more of us&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":1228,"featured_media":14864,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/0\/08\/16-storey_house_in_Sviatoshynskyi_District_after_shelling_on_15_March_2022_%2803%29.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[12069,12061,12057,12080,12071,12055,12054,12053,12064,12067,12065,12050,12052,12058,12078,12059,12081,12072,12076,12073,12062,12074,12049,12070,12068,12082,12075,12077,12083,12060,12048,12079,12066,12063,12056,12051],"class_list":{"0":"post-14862","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-engineering","8":"tag-building-code-updates","9":"tag-canadian-wildfires","10":"tag-community-fire-resilience","11":"tag-concrete-fire-resistance","12":"tag-ember-attack","13":"tag-fire-mitigation","14":"tag-fire-adapted-communities","15":"tag-fire-prone-areas","16":"tag-fire-resistant-building-materials","17":"tag-fire-safe-building-design","18":"tag-fire-smart-design","19":"tag-fireproof-construction","20":"tag-firesmart-canada","21":"tag-home-ignition-zone","22":"tag-land-use-planning","23":"tag-metal-roofing-fire-safety","24":"tag-national-park-wildfires","25":"tag-nonflammable-landscaping","26":"tag-structural-fire-safety","27":"tag-structural-vulnerability-to-fire","28":"tag-urban-development-and-wildfire","29":"tag-wildfire-detection-technology","30":"tag-wildfire-disasters","31":"tag-wildfire-engineering","32":"tag-wildfire-evacuation","33":"tag-wildfire-fuel-management","34":"tag-wildfire-hazard-reduction","35":"tag-wildfire-modeling","36":"tag-wildfire-public-education","37":"tag-wildfire-retrofit","38":"tag-wildfire-risk","39":"tag-wildfire-risk-mapping","40":"tag-wildfire-season-canada","41":"tag-wildfire-zoning-regulations","42":"tag-wildfire-resilient-homes","43":"tag-wildland-urban-interface-2","44":"cs-entry","45":"cs-video-wrap"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14862","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1228"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14862"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14862\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14863,"href":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14862\/revisions\/14863"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14864"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}