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The fire shelter has to be light enough to be carried while the fire fighter is working. The biggest problem is super heated gases that can burn the lungs. The problem with this type of safety gear is that it can give over confidence and unnecessary risk will be taken. There are no second chances. On the Fountain fire in 1997 while we were leaving Round Mountain the aerial tanker made drops on the engines. We still melted some of the tail lights and plastic that was inside the compartments. There are times when all you can do is get out of the way. Strong winds can be extremely dangerous. If a fire is large enough it will make its own wind even a type of tornado from the hot rising gases. Again if fire shelters have to be deployed major mistakes were made.
 
The anecdotal data that I have heard of is that the 1000 F is only for direct impingement of flames or hot air moving through canyons or up ridges. This is the sort of thing that causes houses to catch fire from the inside. Some articles say that if you can stay 100' away from the flames, you can stay and fight the embers. But, if you look at Paradise, many of the houses which withstood the fire are still unoccupied due to charring inside the walls. Also, many steel buildings failed structurally due to the heat, indicating temperatures in the several hundreds of degrees. I have a feeling that most of the time one would be fairly safe in a low cob or tin and earth root cellar in which the steel is not relied exclusively on for structural integrity. But, I don't know, since I have no expertise in the field. When I ask my wildland firefighter friends, we end up comparing a backpack carried foil structures against a half buried, multi-ton, safe room with foot thick walls.
 
We are talking two different things here, portable shelter for firefighters and a "safe room" for home owners. The second is definitely something that could be done. Good fuels management and maintenance, and noncombustible materials and 90% of the work is done.
 
I'm on my phone so hard to post links but the US Forest Service has done tons of research. Try searching the Missoula and San Dimas Forest Service Technology Centers.
 
I don't really see the point of making a shelter in your home. IMHO that effort would be much better spent preparing to evacuate if you live in fire country. For the price of what a realistic shelter would cost you could probably get a travel trailer and load it up with your valuables if any fires threaten. Then get the heck out of the way and let the firefighters do their job.

Maintain proper clearance around your home and it stands a good chance of being there when you get back. I had a trailer stored at my friends place when the fires came through Sonoma a few years back. The trailer survived even though they lost everything including their hundred + year-old Victorian house and a shop with ~3 dozen classic cars.

I just talked with my friend tonight and can't tell you how grateful I am that he woke up minutes before the fire got to their house. It burned everything except my trailer and an old truck that just happened to be in a clear area. Here's a picture.

trailer.jpeg

There's no amount of money you could pay me to have been inside that thing even with all the insulation in the world when that fire went through.

People who have storm shelters in tornado country really don't have any idea of what direction to run even if they have good notice, fires are going in the direction the wind is blowing and most of the time you have warning and can evacuate. My friends didn't but got very lucky, trying to stay and fight for your home is foolish in the extreme and puts firefighters and other first responders in unnecessary danger. Stuff can be replaced, lives not so much.

John
 
Money is better spent on cleaning and clearing brush and flammable materials 100 feet away from your home . A safe room??? I have seen fires hot enough to make concrete decompose. No one is going to survive that safe room or not.
 
Damn shame we can't bundle up and send our east coast Appalachian Smokies weather out west. (if only)
72% humidity this morning, that would help to subdue some of the fires.
The pictures @erikmannie posted plus what we've watched on the news is heartrending.
 
Here is a video I took today of the firefighting choppers taking water out of one of my customer’s lakes:
 
It looks like they may be getting a handle on the fires near me, cooler temps and some humidity in the air will help.

Here's a news story about the redwood forest BTW.

apnews.com

Redwoods survive wildfire at California's oldest state park

BOULDER CREEK, Calif. (AP) — When a massive wildfire swept through California’s oldest state park last week it was feared many trees in a grove of old-growth redwoods, some of them 2,000 years old and among the tallest living things on Earth, may finally have succumbed.
apnews.com apnews.com

John
 
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