Scientists have come together to improve wildland fire fighting. The November 13-15, 2000 meeting was entitled Integrating Research on Wildland Fuels and Fires. Advancing the technology for suppression of wildland fires and protection of structures were highlighted. Some of those gathered at the meeting at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico lost their own homes to the fires during the 2000  urban-wildland fires. Ways to provide reliable predictions of fire spread were discussed in detail. The challenge was also posed to provide  technology that would

 permit safe fire fighting at night when winds are generally lower and the burning less intense.  A second meeting, entitled Forum on Urban/Wildland Fire, was organized by the National Disasters Roundtable for the National Academy of Sciences and Engineering, and was held in Washington, DC (January 26, 2001). This meeting featured presentations on wildland fires and risks, changing land use patterns, and a case study of the Los Alamos fire. It promoted communications between different parts of the fire safety communities. 

 Comments at the meeting indicated a need to understand better community-scale fires, where both structures and vegetation burn. The contribution of burning structures to urban-wildland firespread needs to be quantified. For more information, contact Dr. Michael Bradley, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, (1) + 925-422-1835 or mbradley@llnl.gov; Patricia Jones Kershaw, National Academy of Sciences, (1) + 202-334-1964 or pkershaw@nas.edu; Dr. Ronald Rehm, NIST, (1) + 301-975-2704 or ronald.rehm@nist.gov.

Work has been completed on the second phase U.S. Department of Commerce Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant for developing new methods for evaluating the thermal performance of fire fighters’ protective clothing. The research was lead by Dr. Ned R. Keltner of Ktech Corporation, Albuquerque, NM.  Contributing to the

research were Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Beck Engineering Consultants, and the Albuquerque Fire Department. The research effort included the analysis of skin simulant sensor technology for measuring and predicting the potential for burn injuries, and the development of methods for estimating thermal properties of materials used to make fire fighters’ protective clothing. 

 The thermal properties estimates are needed for computer models that predict the thermal performance of protective clothing systems. Ktech is currently moving to commercialize the technology developed during the SBIR project. For more information contact Dr. Ned Keltner, at Ktech Corporation, (1) + 505-998-5848, keltner@ktech.com.

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