Fire Shelter buildings - code development

[Yikes]

From the LA Times, saved here via archive: The Safest Place To Be: When Fleeing a Fire Is No Longer An Option
https://archive.is/80onb

Excerpt:
“…in an NIST report published in March, Eric Link and Alexander Maranghides, two NIST fire protection engineers, argue that emergency planners need to face the reality that in these dire evacuation scenarios, they have no choice but to use fire refuges — which means fire experts ought to develop standards for them that are designed to keep people alive.

They proposed three types of fire refuges within high-risk communities:

• Temporary fire refuge areas — parking lots, sports fields or open spaces with good brush clearance — would provide residents with some short-term protection in the worst scenarios but are still not truly safe.
• Larger outdoor safety zones, such as a large community park with significant brush clearance, would offer enough distance from flammable material that, while smoke and embers would make sheltering in them unhealthful and uncomfortable, residents could safely wait out a fire in them.
• Community fire shelters — buildings that would be designed to not only withstand flames but also provide residents with clean air, water and food throughout a firestorm.

But Link warns that no standards for the civilian use of fire shelters, safety zones or refuge areas exist yet, due mostly to a lack of research.”