Fire fighting

News and Updates

Read about Fire Data Lab from the Western Fire Chiefs Association

Fire Data Lab: bringing fire service data analytics into the twenty-first century

August 16, 2019

As the volume of available data swells and analysis methods grow ever more sophisticated, a growing number of public

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) has

Industry Impacts

Photo of a burnt faceplate from a firefighter's gear

Firefighter Protective Equipment

Firefighters rely on self-contained breathing apparatuses (SCBA) to protect them from dangerous heat and toxic smoke. NIST research helped to improve industry

Projects and Programs

High Temperature Performance of Fire Fighter Equipment

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

Fire Risk Reduction in Buildings Program

The research in this program (Fire Risk Reduction in Buildings, FRRiB) will enable reductions in the two single largest components of this U.S. structure fire

Smart Fire Fighting

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

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

Publications

Generating Synthetic Sensor Data to Facilitate Machine Learning Paradigm for Prediction of Building Fire Hazard

September 20, 2019

Author(s)

Wai Cheong Tam, Thomas G. Cleary, Yujun Fu

This paper presents a learning-by-synthesis approach to facilitate the utilization of machine learning paradigm to enhance situational awareness for fire

Measuring Water Flow Rate in a Flexible Fire Hose using an Accelerometer

August 21, 2019

Author(s)

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

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 personal

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

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