Feb. 5 Media Opportunity to Attend Live Fire Experiment in Montgomery County
Montgomery County (Md.) and Fairfax County (Va.) firefighters will be responding to a live residential structure fire in a Rockville, Md., test facility as part of the first experiments to study the effect of firefighter crew sizes and equipment arrival times on fire growth rate, fire victims and damage to property. The experiments will take place on Thursday, Feb. 5, 2009, at the Montgomery County Fire Rescue Training Center in Rockville, Md.
With funding from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) Assistance to Firefighters Grant Program, the Commerce Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is a collaborating organization in a national partnership conducting the study, which will provide data local governments can use to make informed decisions when matching firefighter crew sizes and mobile resources to the risk levels and needs of their individual communities.
Other participants in the study include (alphabetically):
Center for Public Safety Excellence (CPSE)
Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department
International Association of Firefighters (IAFF)
International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC)
Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service
Urban Institute (UI)
Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI)
| When: |
A media opportunity to view firefighting operations and learn about research on improving fire safety in communities. Fire crews will respond to and suppress a live fire in a “residential structure burn prop” constructed for the experiments. The experiment is part of research to measure the effect of firefighting crew size and fire equipment arrival times on the potential for saving human life and property. |
| Who: |
Presenters: Shyam Sunder, director of the NIST Building and Fire Research Laboratory, and NIST’s Jason Averill, study co-principal investigator.
Available for interview: Shyam Sunder; Jason Averill; Lori Moore-Merrell, study co-principal investigator, IAFF; Mark Light, Executive Director, IAFC; Ronald L. Mastin, Fire Chief, Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department; and Richard Bowers, Acting Fire Chief, Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service. |
| When: |
Thursday, Feb. 5, 2009
11 a.m. – Noon ET |
| Where: |
Montgomery County Fire Rescue Training Center
9710 Great Seneca Highway
Rockville, MD 20850
(Intersection of Great Seneca Highway and Darnestown Road)
Enter the campus from Great Seneca Highway and proceed toward the tall control tower. Follow signs to the briefing room.
Event may be cancelled or postponed due to inclement weather or other emergency circumstances. To find out the latest status of the event, call (240) 777-2442 on February 4 or 5.
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