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Wildland-Urban Interface Fire Group
The Wildland-Urban Interface Fire Group develops, advances, and deploys measurement science to reduce risk of fire spread in wildland-urban interface (WUI) communities.
Welcome
The Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI) Fire Group conducts research to reduce the risk of fire hazards in WUI communities. This research includes mission-related measurement science research and services to develop WUI fire risk exposure metrics, predict the spread of fires in WUI communities, assess the fire performance of structures and communities, and mitigate the effects of WUI fires on structures and communities through science-based codes and standards.
The WUI Fire Group accomplishes this work with the collaboration of various stakeholders, including:
- Federal agencies (e.g., FEMA, USFA, USFS)
- State agencies (e.g., CAL FIRE)
- Codes and standards organizations (e.g., NFPA, ICC, ISO)
- Fire research community (e.g., numerous academic institutions)
Highlights
The NIST WUI Fire Group hosted their most recent WUI Fire Days through the month of July 2022. The event was virtual for the first time and occurred over four consecutive Wednesdays. The event provided NIST the opportunity to share current research with a large, diverse audience dedicated to protecting people and structures from WUI fires. Presentations and content from the series can be found here.
NIST, in collaboration with CAL FIRE and IBHS, has compiled a detailed list of mitigation actions to protect structures and parcels from ember and flame exposures in WUI fires. The methodology considers spatial relationships with parcel and neighboring parcel hazards to mitigate structure-to-structure fire spread in applicable scenarios. All structures must be protected from ember ignitions – the methodology presents 40 identified ember mitigation needs. See more at the project webpage.
NIST WUI Fire Group is leading a multi-agency collaboration investigating the safe structure separation distance of structures in the WUI. In Phase 1, dozens of sheds are being burned to measure heat release rate, flame lengths, heat flux and thermal exposure to target walls. See more at the project webpage.
Continuing investigation of the 2018 Camp Fire in Butte County, CA. Recent publications provide a detailed fire progression timeline and fire behavior findings. See more at the project webpage.
More than 200 experiments have been conducted with common detached combustibles found on residential parcels, including mulch, fencing, woodpiles, and landscape timbers. A comprehensive report is in progress. See more here.
Development of the emberometer, a firebrand measurement device, is ongoing. Updates include system components and hardening for field/experimental usage, as well as analytical updates for ember sizing and uncertainty quantification. See more here.
NIST's Firebrand Generator (also known as the "Dragon") produces showers of burning embers—or firebrands. Ingesting wood chips and exhaling firebrands, the novel equipment is used in research to better understand the behavior of wildfires that spread to communities.
