The occurrence of deadly and destructive wildfires affecting wildland urban interface (WUI) communities in recent years has drawn attention to the need to better ensure the safety of those living in these vulnerable areas. Canada’s 2023 wildfire season has been described as “unprecedented” in the number of wildfires and area impacted, with over 100,000 people evacuated as of the start of June 2023. Our current research focus is on structural factors and human factors in WUI fires. Research is ongoing on material performance under radiant heat on both contemporary materials and heritage materials.
The group has done a number of studies relating to WUI fire evacuations and the role of human behaviour in fire and evacuation decision making. We have worked in collaboration with researchers from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in the United States and we are working to form partnerships with Canadian agencies and communities. Several publications are currently available in the publications section of our website with more in-progress.
Through our research, we developed a first-stage conceptual model of evacuation decision making using the Protective Action Decision Model (PADM). We are also looking at collecting Canadian evacuation behaviour data and how the data can enhance future WUI fire evacuation models.
YorkU Fire Research Team 