The Facade of Safety in California's Shelter-In-Place Homes

What is it about?

This article examines the seemingly incongruous ways in which Shelter-in-Place (SIP) practices have been sold, deployed, and discussed in Southern California to battle wildfire. In particular, this will be a critique of the technical literature and application of fire safety in housing, as well as the anthropocentric hubris that humans can outsmart wildfire. Rather than focus on the success or failure of SIP, I am situating the SIP within the context of architecture, the history of fire safety,

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