This guide outlines the essentials for establishing an arson strike force. It begins with a definition of the concept, presents a brief description of how such a unit might respond to an incident, proceeds through the planning steps for single and multi-jurisdictional strike forces, and outlines key elements in their organization and management.

This document discusses emergent health and safety issues for the volunteer fire and emergency services

The purpose of this report is to identify practices that have the potential to decrease the risk, as well as to reduce the number of injuries and deaths that occur while responding to and returning from incidents.

This document is intended to provide concise practical and technical guidance on arson prosecution. It draws heavily on state arson prosecutors' guides and other literature, and on presentations made at the first in a series of conferences for arson prosecutors at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Clynco, Georgia in November 1985. This document also contains a guide to key literature on arson prosecution. This guide, found in Appendix A, suggests specific readings for prosecutors desiring additional information on the topics discussed in this document. Full citations to materials cited in the text and in the guide to sources by topic may be found in the references at the end of the report.

This report compiles the best practices and common problems of fire protection and criminal justice agencies in identifying, investigating, prosecuting, and preventing arson. Trends, current challenges, and best practices are discussed.

This body of work provides detailed information on the nature of the fire problem for policymakers who must decide on allocations of resources between fire and other pressing problems, and within the fire service to improve codes and code enforcement, training, public fire education, building technology, and other related areas.

The purpose of this report is to update calculations, originally performed in 1993, that predict the downwind extent of smoke particulate from hypothetical in situ burns of spilled crude oil in Alaska. The reason for the update is that the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) have changed since 1993. These standards formed the basis for establishing, safe distances for separating potential burning sites from populated areas in Alaska."

Sixteen reference commercial buildings were defined by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and created as EnergyPlus input files. They were developed for use in assessing new technologies and supporting the development of energy codes. Infiltration rates were inputs to the models, rather than calculated based on established building airflow theory. In order to support more physically-based airflow calculations, as well as contaminant transport analysis, models of the 16 reference buildings were created in the multizone airflow and contaminant program CONTAM. A number of key inputs had to be defined for the CONTAM models, including changes to the interior zoning to account for more realistic airflows. Annual airflow and contaminant simulations were performed in CONTAM for six of the buildings. As expected, the assumed infiltration rates in EnergyPlus did not realistically reflect impacts of indoor-outdoor weather conditions. In contrast, there were clear relationships between the air change rates calculated by CONTAM and weather. The infiltration rates assumed in EnergyPlus were also generally lower than those calculated by CONTAM. Contaminant analyses were also performed for occupant-generated carbon dioxide and volatile organic compounds from indoor sources, as well as for outdoor particulate matter and ozone.

The objective of this report is to support the development of descriptive statistics and associated measures of uncertainty for characterizing, tracking, and better understanding the root causes of the U.S. fire burden by identifying the relevant costs and losses associated with fire, i.e., information needed to make cost-effective decisions for reducing the economic impact fires have on society, and identifying sources of data that would allow future statistical analysis, while highlighting areas where future research is needed. This data will be used to develop performance metrics, enabling future comparisons between the use of new fire mitigation technologies and their impact on the U.S. fire burde

The manual is designed as a comprehensive guide that helps fire and emergency service providers understand the concepts that form the foundation of risk management principles and practices, In addition, the manual directs the reader to sources of additional information and operational examples. The manual focuses on the practical application of risk management principles to fire department operations.

This body of work provides detailed information on the nature of the National Guard Plane Crash in Evansville, Indiana for policymakers who must decide on allocations of resources between fire and other pressing problems, and within the fire service to improve codes and code enforcement, training, public fire education, building technology, and other related areas.

This body of work provides detailed information on the nature of the fire problem for policymakers who must decide on allocations of resources between fire and other pressing problems, and within the fire service to improve codes and code enforcement, training, public fire education, building technology, and other related areas.

This special report examines seven case studies of tire fires that have been typical of those in the United States. The case studies were selected because they occurred in varied circumstances and locations. However, they reveal a common pattern of challenges in tire fire prevention and extinguishment.

As a part of the United Stated Fire Administration's Major Fire Investigation Project, this Special Technical Report has been produced to help inform firefighters of the particular danger of fires in agricultural silos and the hazards that may be encountered in fire operations in and around these structures.

This body of work provides detailed information on the nature of the fire problem for policymakers who must decide on allocations of resources between fire and other pressing problems, and within the fire service to improve codes and code enforcement, training, public fire education, building technology, and other related areas.

The specific objective of this study was to identify all of the on-duty firefighter fatalities that occurred in the United States in 1997, and to analyze the circumstances surrounding each occurrence. The study is intended to help identify approaches that could reduce the number of firefighter deaths in future years. In addition to the 1997 overall findings, this study includes special analyses on collisions involving vehicles operated by firefighters and fatalities that occurred when firefighters working at the scene of an emergency were struck and killed by civilian vehicles.

A series of experimental measurements were conducted and simple models were developed in an effort to provide an improved understanding of the influence of various parameters on the processes controlling flame stability in engine nacelle applications. The knowledge gained is compiled into usable tools which may assist suppression system designers determine the mass and rate of agent injection required for engine nacelle fire suppression. The Section is broken into several subsections. In Section 9.2, a description of the range of parameters which characterize engine nacelles is provided. The historical development of current halon 1301 fire protection systems is described. In Section 9.3, the results of four distinct experiments are discussed. First, the suppression effectiveness of candidate replacement agents (CF3I, C2HF5, and C3HF7) are tested on a turbulent jet spray flame. Second, suppression of a baffle stabilized pool fire is described. Third, measurements on the impact of the replacement agents on the ignition temperature of fuel/air/agent mixtures is discussed. Finally, measurements determining the flammability limits of propane/air/C2HF5 mixtures are discussed. The importance of agent entrainment into the recirculation/combustion zone of obstacle stabilized flames is emphasized. In Section 9.4, computational modeling of gaseous agent injection into a mock engine nacelle is described. The calculations are compared to measurements conducted in a wind tunnel. In Section 9.5, a simple algebraic model is developed which gives guidance on agent concentration requirements for flame suppression in generic nacelle configurations. Key findings and recommendations are compiled in Section 9.6. References are listed in Section 9.8.

A test program was conducted for the Fire Retardant Chemicals Association to quantify the effects of fire retardant chemicals on total fire hazard. Five different types of products, each made from a different type of plastic were used. The products were made up in analogous fire-retardant (FR) and non-retarded variants (NFR).

The purpose of this guide is to provide information for facilities managers and may be useful for those individuals who might need special assistance as to the notification of an emergency situation and/or in the evacuation of a building.

This body of work provides detailed information on the nature of the fire problem for policymakers who must decide on allocations of resources between fire and other pressing problems, and within the fire service to improve codes and code enforcement, training, public fire education, building technology, and other related areas.

A Fire Safety Campaign for People 50-Plus is a new campaign developed by the United States Fire Administration for our Fire Service partners. In this Campaign Guide you will find: 1) A "how to" introduction to using materials in the Campaign Guides; 2) Campaign fact sheet and flier - in English and Spanish - that can easily be copied and distributed in your community; and 3) Sample media materials, including a news release and live-read radio script, a print public service ad, and tips on how to get the media to use your fire safety materials