Your ENTIRE City is on FIRE! What do you do Next? What should you have done Yesterday?

Abstract: Come to this session to understand how Civil Engineers are now responding to fast-moving urban megafires and explore innovative approaches to critical infrastructure and resiliency planning.

The goal of session is to explore “resetting” critical relationships, harmonize transportation and telecommunications infrastructure management with emergency incident command; and enhance coordination between Public Works officials with Public Safety – Fire, Police, Emergency Management officials with innovative, proactive approaches to enhancing transportation infrastructure resiliency and ultimately prevent loss of life.

Case studies will prominently highlight the Denver area’s “Marshall Fire” – where more than 1,000 homes and structures burnt in 2022 in the Denver suburbs of Superior and Louisville – as well as the Waldo Canyon and Black Forest fires in Colorado Springs, Four Mile Canyon in Boulder County (progressively Colorado’s most destructive fires), Paradise, California; Bastrop, Texas (suburban Austin, consuming 3,000 homes) as well personal assessments from the 2023 Lahaina, Maui, and the March 2024 Amarillo, Texas “Panhandle” fires.

What was unprecedented is – many of these urban megafires, including the Marshall fire, are not “forest fires” in rural settings; rather, 10 miles from downtown Denver, Colorado, two suburban communities were obliterated – destroying/damaging City Hall, urban shopping centers, hotels, public water and telecommunications infrastructure – even a Tesla dealership; all presenting unprecedented challenges.

Water, transportation and telecommunications systems collapsed, evacuations were chaotic; and fatalities occurred.

The audience will leave with a crystal clear understanding of the 34 things they must do now to enhance resiliency, create redundancy and operate “virtually everything – VIRTUALLY” as they build stable, future-proofed, resilient, critical “intelligent infrastructure” and safer, smarter cities/counties in coordination with incident command structures,

The presenter is a 2-time municipal Public Works director who believes the key to reducing fatalities in fast moving megafires lies largely in infrastructure resiliency in 5 areas –
1 - Maintaining critical transportation and evacuation corridors using emerging sensing technologies and dashboards,

2 – Ensuring redundant, real-time wayfinding systems for the travelling public during mass evacuations,

3 - Preventing what the media calls the “utter collapse” of telecommunications - often when creosote-soaked utility poles ignite, destroying the highly exposed and vulnerable aerial telecommunications infrastructure and wiring, disconnecting all personal/commercial cell systems as well as many public safety wireless and wireline telecommunications interconnections

4 – Remotely managing utilities – particularly water pressure when hundreds of homes’ water pipes ignite, depleting as much as 1,000,000 gallons per hour of municipal water storage and rendering hydrants worthless

5 – Proactively coordinating Electric “PSPS” – Public Safety Power Shutoffs while maintaining power to critical infrastructure, particularly telecommunications, transportation and utilities

Lessons learned, innovative approaches and emerging technologies will include:
• Dynamically managing utilities and firefighting water pressure,
• Ensuring telecommunications are hardened and resilient
• Creating cellular and pre-positioned wayfinding and evacuations systems
• Detecting fires and major hazards with remote sensing on existing Public Works infrastructure
• Managing traffic contraflow during responses
• Using A.I., digital twins and smart city technologies to assist Public Works response and recovery efforts