Fire fighting

News

NIST, Partners Set Research Agenda for Protecting Firefighters from Harm

March 23, 2016

If there is anything common among the 1.1 million firefighters—both career and volunteer—serving in the United States,...

Why Firefighters Get Steam Burns: Exploratory Study Underway

April 27, 2015

A mystery has raged for decades surrounding accounts of firefighters who receive steam burns through their protective...

NIST Modeling Study Reveals the Lethal Dynamics of a San Francisco House Fire

January 30, 2015

A new computer-based fire-dynamics study by researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)...

NIST Tests: Firefighters Portable Radios May Fail at Elevated Temperatures

December 09, 2014

New test results* from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) confirm that portable radios used by...

Publications

Experimental and Modeling Study of Thermal Exposure of a Self-Contained Breathing Apparatus (SCBA)

June 10, 2015

Author(s):

Michelle K. Donnelly, Jiann C. Yang

An experimental apparatus designed to study firefighter turnout gears exposed to a thermal environment was developed. The apparatus consisted of an elevated...

Simulation of a Wind Driven Basement Fire - Riverdale Heights, MD

April 27, 2015

Author(s):

Craig G. Weinschenk, Kristopher Overholt, Daniel M. Madrzykowski

Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS), which is a fire model that is developed and maintained by the Na- tional Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), was used...

A Review of Test Methods for Determining Protective Capabilities of Fire Fighter Protective Clothing from Steam

February 05, 2015

Author(s):

Shonali Nazare, Daniel M. Madrzykowski

Primary focus of this paper is to review existing test methods that quantify steam burn injuries and to compare bench-scale test methods that use pre-wetted...

Simulation of a Fire in a Hillside Residential Structure - San Francisco, CA

November 13, 2014

Author(s):

Kristopher J. Overholt, Craig G. Weinschenk, Daniel M. Madrzykowski

Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS), which is a fire model that is developed and maintained by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), was used to...

Projects & Programs

Smart Firefighting Project

In 2011, the fire departments in the United States responded to more than 484,500 1 structure fires. These fires resulted in approximately 2,640 civilian...

Reduced Flammability of Upholstered Furniture Project

The long term vision for this project is to enable the prediction of the burning behavior of residential upholstered furniture (RUF) based on the furniture...

Fire Risk Reduction in Communities Program

To develop and deploy advances in measurement science to improve the resilience of communities and structures to unwanted fires through innovative fire...

Enhanced Effectiveness of Fire Fighting Tactics Project

Firefighting is hazardous. In 2011, the fire departments in the United States responded to more than 484,500 [1] structure fires. These fires resulted in...

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...