Firebrand generation data obtained from a full-scale structure burn
Sayaka Suzuki A , Samuel L. Manzello A D , Matthew Lage B and George Laing C
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations
A Fire Research Division, Engineering Laboratory (EL), National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), 100 Bureau Drive, Gaithersburg, MD 20899-8662, USA.
B Vacaville Fire Department, 1850 Alamo Drive, Vacaville, CA 95687, USA.
C Contra Costa County, Fire Protection District, 2010 Geary Road, Pleasant Hill, CA 94523, USA.
D Corresponding author. Email: samuelm@nist.gov
International Journal of Wildland Fire 21(8) 961-968 https://doi.org/10.1071/WF11133
Submitted: 13 September 2011 Accepted: 1 February 2012 Published: 27 July 2012
Abstract
A full-scale, proof-of-concept experiment was conducted to investigate firebrand production from a burning structure. In this experiment, researchers from National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) were invited to set up instrumentation and collect firebrands using an array of water pans during a structure burn-down. The size and mass distribution of firebrands collected from the burning structure was compared with those measured from vegetation as well as historical firebrand investigations and found to be larger and broader than those of prior studies from historical firebrand investigations.
Additional keywords: mass distribution, size distribution, WUI fires.
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