To read this content please select one of the options below:

Assembling fire: beyond engineering solutions

Sandra Vaiciulyte (Departamento de Sismología, Instituto de Geofísica, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Col. Ciudad Universitaria, Alcaldía Coyoacán, Mexico City, Mexico)
Helen Underhill (Kindling, Boston, Massachusetts, USA)
Elizabeth Reddy (Colorado School of Mines, Golden, Colorado, USA)

Disaster Prevention and Management

ISSN: 0965-3562

Article publication date: 19 December 2023

Issue publication date: 28 May 2024

101

Abstract

Purpose

Fires have the potential to destroy, resulting in the loss of property and livelihoods, as well as injury, death and repeated trauma for those who are already vulnerable. However, fire as a hazard has been treated rigidly and un-critically, a model that has influenced how it is perceived by policy makers, first responders, engineers and academics and subsequently approaches to implementing and better understanding fire prevention, mitigation, response and recovery from the impacts of fire.

Design/methodology/approach

This article deals with fire, arguing that its case can help imagine what liberation might mean within and for disaster studies. The study argues against dogmatic, outdated, technological and solution-focused perspectives that have constrained how fire and its effects are understood and discuss what disciplinary liberation could mean for the study of fire and its integration within DRR. The study’s approach is based on the DRR Assemblage Theory, which points to fire as an issue at a societal level.

Findings

The study explores the themes of fire and liberation through contributions and insights that have emerged through the authors' professional experience in research and practice. It offers an original and timely engagement with disaster studies through the lens of fire, an increasingly pertinent phenomenon for disaster scholars and practitioners alike.

Originality/value

By drawing on the example of fire as a socio-technical-environmental phenomenon, this paper contributes a novel perspective on the intellectual and practical possibilities that can emerge from disciplinary liberation.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

The corresponding author acknowledges the support from the CONAHCYT Convocatoria 2022(1) Estancias Posdoctorales por México—Modalidad Académica, CVU 1109762. The authors would like to thank the reviewers and the editors for their thoughtful and constructive feedback.

Citation

Vaiciulyte, S., Underhill, H. and Reddy, E. (2024), "Assembling fire: beyond engineering solutions", Disaster Prevention and Management, Vol. 33 No. 3, pp. 237-249. https://doi.org/10.1108/DPM-05-2023-0126

Publisher

:

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2023, Emerald Publishing Limited

Related articles