Fire fighting

News and Updates

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

Mechanical properties and off gassing characteristics of new and legacy SCBA facepieces

December 11, 2018

Author(s):

Richard Kesler, Constandinos Mitsingas, Adam G. Quiat, Tonghun Lee, Daniel Madrzykowski, Gavin Horn

In todays structure fires, evolving fire loads and higher heat release rates mean that fires grow larger and faster than ever before. Firefighting...

Community Risk Ratings for the FireCARES System

October 15, 2018

Author(s):

Stanley W. Gilbert

The FireCARES project is a web-based tool intended to help fire departments effectively match resources to community risk. Among other things that includes...

A Study on the Effect of Repeat Moderate Intensity Radiant Exposures on SCBA Facepiece Properties

July 31, 2017

Author(s):

Gavin Horn, Richard Kesler, John Regan, Daniel Madrzykowski

Propane Gas Fire Experiments in Residential Scale Structures

February 27, 2017

Author(s):

Joseph M. Willi

Nine full-scale fire experiments were conducted in two residential-scale structures to study how different fire fighting tactics, specifically horizontal,...

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...

High rise building with smoke coming out of upper windows. Two people in bucket trucks.

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...

Fire Research Grants and Cooperative Agreements Project

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...

High Temperature Performance of Fire Fighter Equipment Project

The performance of fire fighting equipment and gear is critical for the safety and effectiveness of fire fighters. Current equipment standards and test methods...

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...