Fire Science
With bombs and fires, you get only one mistake - Red Adair
image by: Andrew Magill
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How to fight wildfires with science
Are there better ways to fight extreme fires and limit their impact? How can emergency planners prepare better for scenarios where full evacuation is not possible?
This is a global challenge. Brazil, Indonesia, many parts of Africa and Canada typically experience larger wildfires (measured by area burned) than the United States on a yearly average. This year Chile and Portugal have also suffered enormous losses. Australia’s Black Saturday fires in 2009 were its worst fire event ever.
Fire is part of ecosystems in much of the world, so societies must learn to live with it. But key issues are still poorly understood. What is the right degree of fire management to decrease…
Resources
A Deadly Blaze in the Alps Made a Biker a Hero and Tunnels Safer for All
The lessons of the tragedy have guided tunnel design and engineering ever since, including recent American projects like the Port of Miami Tunnel and Seattle’s new S.R. 99 Tunnel.
Firefighters Are Focused on Flames, Not Climate Change
Departments face climate-driven changes to fire behavior, like a year-round season.
Is Big Data Analytics The Secret To Successful Fire Fighting?
Data comes to them from multiple sources simultaneously – radio contact from the control room, alerts via mobile devices and tablets, a touch screen information panel mounted in the response vehicle, or a mountain of technical manuals and literature on firefighting regulations and procedure. Now, forward-thinking fire services are looking at how this information can be best used to make sure that firefighters arrive at the scene fully equipped not just with the right tools, but the right data to get the job done.
Toxic Ego
I want to begin this with a challenge to each and every one of you out there reading this, it’s a simple phrase and think about how this makes you feel. “I am not here for me, I am here for we, and we are here for them”. Are these just words to you? Is there any action behind this?
Campfires, explained
Considering fire’s importance in human history -- and that it’s still how most of the developing world keeps warm and cooks food — we really should understand it. Here’s a science-backed history and guide to the ancient practice of building a campfire, from its importance for human evolution to the chemistry of how it burns to this age-old fuel’s impact on our health and our environment.
Firefighters do a lot less firefighting than they used to. Here's what they do instead
...firefighters now respond to many times more medical calls per year than actual fires. When you hear a fire engine's siren or see one speeding down the street, it's probably responding to a medical call, in addition to an ambulance that's heading to the same spot. Interestingly, there's actually a better chance it's responding to a false alarm than an actual fire.
Government Scientist Blocked from Talking About Climate and Wildfires
Critics are accusing the Trump administration of stifling the dissemination of taxpayer-funded science.
How Modern Furniture Endangers Firefighters
Consumer goods are increasingly made of synthetic materials and coatings. The carcinogens they give off when they burn could be driving high cancer rates among first responders.
How to fight wildfires with science
Fire is part of ecosystems in much of the world, so societies must learn to live with it. But key issues are still poorly understood. What is the right degree of fire management to decrease the impact of catastrophic fires? What is the most efficient way to protect the wildland-urban interface – the area where houses meet or intermingle with undeveloped wildland vegetation? And what is the best way to evacuate?
Fire Engineering
Fire Engineering began its life as the National Fireman’s Journal way back on November 17, 1877. It has gone by a few names since then, but our core mission statement remains fundamentally unchanged. We are still devoted to the interests of the firefighters of the country. And we always will be.
Firehouse
Extensive resources and breaking news for the firefighting, rescue and EMS community.
FireLink
FireLink brings members of the fire and rescue community together to promote firefighter safety, provide resources and services to advance careers, and to foster a community with exclusive benefits where information about the fire and rescue community is provided to the community by members of the community.
U.S. Fire Administration
As an entity of the Department of Homeland Security's Federal Emergency Management Agency, the mission of the USFA is to reduce life and economic losses due to fire and related emergencies, through leadership, advocacy, coordination and support.
Wildland Fire Lessons Learned Center
Our mission is to promote learning in the wildland fire service by providing useful and relevant products and services that help to reveal the complexity and risk in the wildland fire environment.
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