Investigating Structural and Human Factors of Wildland-Urban Interface Fires

Wildfires are increasing in number and severity due to multiple factors including climate change and increased interactions between people and the wildland. This thesis investigates structural and human factors of wildland-urban interface (WUI) fires with the goal of informing the design and creation of wildfire resilient communities. A review of building survival post-wildfires found that there are many structural and landscape factors that contribute to building survival, which are impacted by thevwildfire behaviour. There is a lack of post-wildfire data collection and data from diverse types of building performance in Canada. An ignition study of Eastern white cedar shingles found that increasing moisture content delays ignition. Video analysis of vehicular evacuations from the 2016 Fort McMurray Fire observed unusual traffic behaviour such as lane reversals, driving outside of marked lanes and bandwagon behaviour from other evacuees, which should be taken into account during evacuation planning.