Fire fighting

News and Updates

Four small dark glass ampules stand on a lab table, market with skull and crossbones danger icons.

NIST Researchers Develop Standards to Help Eliminate ‘Forever Chemicals’ in Firefighting Foams

September 18, 2023

These foams contain chemicals called per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) that have raised environmental and health concerns.

Groups of people sit or lie in a parking lot surrounded by low buildings as fires burn in the forest beyond.

NIST Issues New Guidance for Emergency Response During Wildfires

August 23, 2023

Lessons learned from the 2018 Camp Fire in California include strategies for protecting lives when there is not enough time to safely evacuate all residents.

AI Can Accurately Predict Potentially Fatal Cardiac Events in Firefighters

July 11, 2023

Training a machine-learning model with real-life data from firefighters was key.

Projects and Programs

Indoor Localization and Tracking

Ongoing

This web page is simply a pointer to another page that covers the extensive research program in indoor localization and tracking at NIST.

Smart Fire Fighting

Ongoing

In 2011, the fire departments in the United States responded to more than 484,5001 structure fires. These fires resulted in approximately 2,640 civilian

Low Heat Release Upholstered Furniture

Ongoing

To reduce the flammability of residential upholstered furniture (RUF), the fire safety community has developed test methods and mitigation strategies based on

Fire Research Grants and Cooperative Agreements

Ongoing

Fire Research Grants and Cooperative Agreements support extramural work to reduce the total burden of fire on the U.S. economy, which is estimated as greater

Publications

Towards Real-Time Heart Health Monitoring in Firefighting Using Convolutional Neural Networks

June 28, 2023

Author(s)

Jiajia Li, Christopher U. Brown, Dillon Dzikowicz, Mary Carey, Wai Cheong Tam, Michael Xuelin Huang

A machine learning-based heart health monitoring model, named H2M, was developed. 24-hour electrocardiogram (ECG) data from 112 professional firefighters was

Explainable Machine Learning Based Flashover Prediction Model Using Dimension-Wise Class Activation Map

June 26, 2023

Author(s)

Linhao Fan, Wai Cheong Tam, Qi Tong, Eugene Yujun Fu, Tianshui Liang

This paper presents the development of an explainable machine learning based flashover prediction model, named xFlashNet. Synthetic temperature data from more

Real-Time Flashover Prediction Model for Multi-Compartment Building Structures Using Attention Based Recurrent Neural Networks

March 17, 2023

Author(s)

Wai Cheong Tam, Eugene Yujun Fu, Jiajia Li, Richard D. Peacock, Paul A. Reneke, Thomas Cleary, Grace Ngai, Hong Va Leong, Michael Xuelin Huang

This paper presents the development of an attention based bi-directional gated recurrent unit model, P-Flashv2, for the prediction of potential occurrence of

Measuring Water Flow Rate for a Fire Hose Using a Wireless Sensor Network for Smart Fire Fighting: An Update Using Various Hose Conditions

January 26, 2023

Author(s)

Christopher U. Brown, Gregory W. Vogl, Wai Cheong Tam

A wireless sensor network was created to measure water-flow rate in a fire hose. An integrated electronic piezoelectric (IEPE) accelerometer was chosen as the

Software

FDS and Smokeview

Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS) is a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model of fire-driven fluid flow. The software solves numerically a form of the Navier

ToGS Turnout Gear Selector

Turnout Gear Selector (ToGS) helps the manufacturers, purchasers and users of fire turnout gear evaluate and select the turnout coat and pants ensemble that