W.E.S
For the past decade, California has experienced some of the most destructive wildfires in its history. A combination of human expansion and effects of climate change on California’s weather and topography have led to more frequent fires, more massive fires, and longer fire seasons. “A recent study found that the portion of California that burns from wildfires every year has increased more than five-fold since 1972.” In 2019 alone, there were 6,872 fires reported in California, which burned more than 253,321 acres, damaged 732 structures, and forced 200,000 people to evacuate. California lost an estimated total of $400 billion from wildfire damage in 2018, with the Camp Fire in Paradise, California, as the most expensive natural disaster in American history.
While we cannot wholly prevent wildfires from occurring, as they are essential to the health of California’s natural ecosystem, the evacuation process can be improved. The Wildfire Evacuation System (W.E.S) is a roadside light system that syncs with local fire stations to give real-time alerts for evacuation steps. Its design solutions were inspired by the communication and evacuation problems seen in the Camp Fire, which resulted in the most number of deaths caused by wildfire in the past decade. Through the use of the traffic color system of red for stop, yellow for prepare, and green for go. Residents follow the strobing light pattern along the roadside to safety. W.E.S. can be used to direct the flow of traffic remotely and lead different evacuation zones towards the closest exits available. The more efficiently people can get away from the fire, the more time firefighters can focus on putting out the fire.
MATERIAL: ABS, iron corten, synthetic rubber
RESOURCES:
https://www.businessinsider.com/california-wildfire-crisis-getting-worse-climate-change-2019-10 2 https://disasterphilanthropy.org/disaster/2019-california-wildfires/ 3 https://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-news/accuweather-predicts-2018-wildfires-will-cost-california-total-economic-losses-of-400-billion-2/432732
https://www.statista.com/chart/19807/california-wildfire-emergency-fund-expenditure/
