7.3.1 Flash Fiction #1: Pyro-Evaders

The Flaming Stallions Fire, Yellowstone National Park, July 3rd 2030

Their smoking tails stretching all the way to the stratosphere, the wildfire’s several fronts raced like flaming stallions galloping towards fresh pastures aplenty. Rearing up mountainous slopes and kicking out innumerable embers as they went, thunderous was the sound of the, sometimes skittish, ephemeral equines’ burning hooves. Amidst the Lodgepole and other pines, ashes turned to architectural ashes and dust to disturbance dust, as from afar the region’s residents looked on. The intricacies of the wildfire’s spread tracked from within moments of its ignition, the evacuation orders had been instigated with expedience. Though homes and businesses were now burning, reassurance came in the knowledge that, in the seeds that had been sewn, futures were secured. As above The Flaming Stallions Fire had stampeded, below a mother had cradled her new-born. Her labour’s onset having coincided with that of the wildfire’s ignition, she and her partner had sought the safety of a subterranean shelter. But, the danger now passed, with their babe in arms, together they stepped out and onto the forest floor, as all about them shoots of renewal began to appear.

>Continue to 7.3.2 here.

The thesis is also available in PDF format, downloadable in several parts on Academia and Researchgate.

Note that figures have been removed from the digital version hosted on this site, but are included in the PDFs available at the links above.

Citation: Sterry, M. L., (2018) Panarchistic Architecture: Building Wildland-Urban Interface Resilience to Wildfire through Design Thinking, Practice and Building Codes Modelled on Ecological Systems Theory. PhD Thesis, Advanced Virtual and Technological Architecture Research [AVATAR] group, University of Greenwich, London.