Dugstad, Ann-Kristin ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0009-0116-9741, Geoerg, Paul ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7196-1245, Bénichou, Noureddine ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8878-2283, Gwynne, Steve ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2758-3897, Berthiaume, Maxine ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7144-0279, Kimball, Amanda ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0056-5197, Kubose-Peutz, Kamryn ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0007-1592-1792, Xie, Hui ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1019-2168, Ronchi, Enrico ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2789-6359 and Kinateder, Max ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1669-3900 (2026) Drilling for disaster preparedness: insights from a community wildfire evacuation exercise. Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment, 154:105258. ISSN 1361-9209 (Print), 1879-2340 (Online) (doi:10.1016/j.trd.2026.105258)

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Abstract

Community evacuation exercises (or drills) are one approach residents and authorities use to train wildfire emergency procedures in the Wildland Urban Interface (WUI). This paper presents results from a drill performed in Roxborough Park, a WUI community in Colorado, USA, in 2024. Observer and self-report data were collected to derive resident preparatory actions, pre-travel, travel, and total evacuation times, as well as route choice and the drill’s impact on their perceived preparedness. It took more than 28 minutes until 90 % of residents began traveling and more than 48 minutes until 90 % had completed their evacuation. Most of the participants reported following the instructions for the evacuation route, with a minority taking a shorter or more familiar route. The work underlines the value of drills for improving community disaster preparedness, providing data for developing/testing computational models, and deepening our understanding of human behavior in wildfire scenarios.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	This work has been conducted within the framework of the Resilience and Adaptation to Climatic Extreme Wildfires project, funded by the National Research Council of Canada, particularly through its contract with Lund University titled Data Collection During a WUI Community Evacuation Drill.
Uncontrolled Keywords:	wildfire, WUI, evacuation, disaster preparedness, drill, exercise
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General) H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor > HD61 Risk Management Q Science > Q Science (General) Q Science > QA Mathematics > QA75 Electronic computers. Computer science
Faculty / School / Research Centre / Research Group:	Faculty of Engineering & Science Faculty of Engineering & Science > School of Computing & Mathematical Sciences (CMS)
Last Modified:	13 Apr 2026 14:22
URI:	https://gala.gre.ac.uk/id/eprint/52826

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