Learning From Wildfire Evacuations

In a piece for Wired, Aarian Marshall describes the growing field of wildlife evacuation research, which is becoming a more crucial piece of cities’ emergency plans as wildfires become more destructive and unpredictable.

When evacuations go wrong, they really go wrong. In LA’s Pacific Palisades neighborhood, panicked drivers stuck in traffic abandoned their vehicles in the middle of evacuation routes, leaving emergency crews unable to reach the fires. Authorities used bulldozers to push empty cars out of the way.”

Researchers are working to understand how people respond to evacuations and how to most effectively get key information across in emergency situations. “The research thus far suggests that reactions to wildfires, and whether people choose to stay, go, or just wait around for a while, can be determined by a bunch of things: whether residents have been through wildfire warnings before, and whether those warnings were followed by actual threats; how the emergency is being communicated to them; and how the neighbors around them react.”

While some residents who have experienced fires before are more likely to stay, others are more likely to evacuate. Lower-income people are less likely to flee, most likely due to reduced access to transportation and lodging. According to Marshall, “It’s a faint silver lining, that the horror Californians experienced this week might produce important findings that will help others avoid the worst in the future.”