Shelter-in-Place facts

Shelter-in-Place (SIP) is a strategy for protection against chemical, biological or radioactive contaminants released into the air (such as a chemical tanker spill). SIP was not intended for protection against fire.

SIP has never been tested under actual wildland-urban interface wildfire conditions. It is experimental and not an accepted standard of fire protection.

No matter how a house is built, smoke and radiant heat remain major problems. Radiant heat energy coming through the windows (assuming the windows don't break or blow out) is sufficient to ignite the contents of the house and kill the occupants. The house can be left standing and everything inside destroyed.

SIP defies the instinct to flee from fire. SIP advises people to do the opposite of what they have heard for decades: "Evacuate early, do not wait" and "Your possessions can be replaced; your life cannot." Very few will heed the advice to Shelter-in-Place. There will be mass panic and a stampede for the inadequate exit routes.

According to Karen Takai of the Sandia Ranger District: "Sheltering-in-Place is a really tricky thing to pull off. If one thing is off," she warned, "you are basically dead" (Albuquerque Tribune, April 21, 2006).

Up to 80% of deaths in fires come from smoke inhalation. In the SIP strategy, there may be a "fire-break" around the houses but there is no such thing as a "smoke break." Oxygen will be depleted in the atmosphere and the toxic products of wildfire will fill the air, including carbon monoxide, hydrogen cyanide, phosgene, aldehydes, benzene, phenols, etc. To have people Shelter-in-Place and be exposed to smoke inhalation and toxic effluents is something that SIP does not address.