Housing Located at WUI Areas, Under Wildfire Risk Hazard. A Territorial and Normative Analysis from Chile

Abstract

Given the frequency and intensity of climatic events, it is essential to connect the territorial risk planning and management instruments with requirements to buildings located in risk areas. If buildings in rural and peri-urban areas with low technical specifications at wildland urban interface, fire safety are pre-emptively inspected, it is possible to plan preventive measures, under legally applicable standards. International experience indicates that houses can be safer, for example, establishing protection areas (30-60 meters) and acting on the density and spacing of combustible vegetation. In this sense, this study addresses protection considering the relationship of the immediate environment with the characteristics of the building under threat. For this purpose, the Chilean, American, European and Australian regulations are reviewed with respect to the guarantee of fire performance of buildings and their immediate environment, extracting quality standards and recommendations, considering the needs and regulations house in and house out. . Specific security measures such as fire resistance of structural and non-structural elements, non-combustible material, non-flammability, non-toxicity and opacity of fumes; increased massiveness and coverage with non-combustible elements; limitations of use of plastic materials and others that provide fuel load are passive protection aspects to be included in evaluation.