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Ignition Vulnerabilities of Combustibles around Houses to Firebrand Showers: Further Comparison of Experiments

Published

Author(s)

Samuel Manzello, Sayaka Suzuki

Abstract

Wildland fires and wildland urban-interface (WUI) fires have become a significant problem in recent years. The mechanisms of home ignition in WUI fires are direct flame contact, thermal radiation, and firebrand attack. Out of these three fire spread factors, firebrands are considered to be a main driving force for rapid fire spread as firebrands can fly far from the fire front and ignite structures. The limited experimental data on firebrand showers limits the ability to design the next generation of communities to resist WUI fires to these types of exposures. The objective of this paper is to summarize, compare, and reconsider the results from previous experiments, to provide new data and insights to prevent home losses from firebrands in WUI fires. Comparison of different combustible materials around homes revealed that wood decking assemblies may be ignited within similar time to mulch under certain conditions.
Citation
Sustainability
Volume
4

Keywords

WUI fires, Ignition, Firebrand Showers

Citation

Manzello, S. and Suzuki, S. (2021), Ignition Vulnerabilities of Combustibles around Houses to Firebrand Showers: Further Comparison of Experiments, Sustainability, [online], https://doi.org/10.3390/su13042136 , https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=929906 (Accessed March 29, 2024)
Created March 6, 2021, Updated April 6, 2021