Monitoring and inventory to assess the effects of wildland fire is critical for 1) documenting fire effects, 2) assessing ecosystem damage and benefit, 3) evaluating the success or failure of a burn, and 4) appraising the potential for future treatments. However, monitoring fire effects is often difficult because data collection requires abundant funds, resources, and sampling experience. Often, the reason fire monitoring projects are not implemented is because fire management agencies do not have scientifically based, standardized protocols for inventorying pre- and post-fire conditions that satisfy their monitoring and management objectives. We have developed a comprehensive system, called the Fire Effects Monitoring and Inventory System (FIREMON), which is designed to satisfy fire management agencies' monitoring and inventory requirements for most ecosystems, fuel types, and geographic areas in the United States. FIREMON consists of standardized sampling methods and manuals, field forms, database, analysis program, and an image analysis guide so that fire managers can 1) design a fire effects monitoring project, 2) collect and store the sampled data, 3) statistically analyze and summarize the data, 4) link the data with satellite imagery, and 5) map the sampled data across the landscape using image processing. FIREMON allows flexible but comprehensive sampling of fire effects so data can be evaluated for significant impacts, shared across agencies, and used to update and refine fire management plans and prescriptions. The key to successful implementation of FIREMON requires the fire manager to succinctly state the objectives of the proposed fire monitoring project and accurately determine the available monitoring or inventory project resources. Using this information, the manager uses a series of FIREMON keys to decide the sampling strategy, methods, and intensity needed to accomplish the objectives with the resources on hand. Next, the necessary sampling equipment is gathered and dispersed to sampling crews. Field crews then collect FIREMON data using the detailed methods described in this FIREMON documentation. Collected data are then entered into a Microsoft(r) Access database. These data can be summarized, analyzed, and evaluated using the set of integrated programs developed specifically for FIREMON. FIREMON has a flexible structure that allows the modification of sampling methods and local code fields to allow the sampling of locally important fire effects evaluation criteri

This report details the response of the Mobile, Alabama Fire Department (MFD) to the derailment of a passenger train in a remote section of the Big Bayou Canot, nine miles north of Mobile

The articles and books listed here are a distillation of hundreds of possible entries that could have been included. They were selected by students, professors, on the ground fire practitioners, and federal researchers as excellent jumping off points for fire managers who want to become more knowledgeable about fire and the social sciences and more mindful about how human beings interconnect to make sense of the fire environment. vi Our philosophy of reading-why professionals in all walks of forest fire management can sharpen their leadership abilities through reading-parallels the "Professional Reading Program" described by the Wildland Fire Leadership Program at the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho: "This reading] is not busy work; this is not drudgery. These readings will provoke reflection, discussion, and debate. The selected titles have been chosen for their intrinsic excitement as well as their content. Many of the books will be hard to put down. Let this be your roadmap to an enjoyable and rewarding reading program" (Wildland Fire Leadership Development Program 2005).

This book is designed solely for the use of the fire service and is modular in form. Many departments' information needs can be met by studying only the first few chapters, while others with a more statistical bent may want to dig deeper.

This report describes the results of calculations using the NIST Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS) performed to provide insight on the thermal conditions that may have occurred during a wind-driven fire in a one-story ranch house on April 12, 2009 in Houston, Texas. The FDS simulations represented the building geometry, material thermal properties, and fire behavior based on information gathered from multiple sources. The simulation results are provided in this report. The FDS simulation that best represents the witnessed fire conditions indicate that fire spread throughout the attic and first floor developed a wind-driven flow with temperatures in excess of 260 C (500 F) between the den and front door. The critical event in this fire was the creation of a wind-driven flow path between a large span of failed windows on the upwind side of the structure, and the open front door on the downwind side of the structure. Floor-to-ceiling temperatures rapidly increased in the flow path, in which members were performing interior operations. In a simulation without wind, the flow path was not created after the large span of windows failed, and the thermal environment surrounding the location of interior operations improved.

The objective of this study was to compare the levels of hazard created by room fires in a dormitory building with and without automatic fire sprinklers in the room of fire origin. This report describes a series of experiments where fires were initiated in a dormitory sleeping room. The description of the experimental conditions includes: the geometry and construction of the building, the fuel load in the sleeping rooms, and the location of the instrumentation used to measure gas temperature, oxygen, carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide concentrations and heat flux. Smoke alarm activation and sprinkler activation times are also reported. Five experiments were conducted. In two of the experiments, the door between the sleeping room (room of fire origin) and the corridor was closed. In the other three experiments the door from the sleeping room (room of fire origin) remained open to the corridor. In each case, door closed or door open, one of the experiments was sprinklered. The results from the experiments comparing the sprinklered and non-sprinklered sleeping room are presented. The results from these experiments demonstrate the potential life safety benefits of smoke alarms, compartmentation, and automatic fire sprinkler systems in college dormitories and similar occupancies. These experiments were conducted by NIST in cooperation with the University of Arkansas and the Fayetteville Fire Department.

A series of experiments are described in which helium was released at constant rates into a 1.5 m 1.5 m 0.75 m enclosure designed as a -scale model of a two car garage. The purpose was to provide reference data sets for testing and validating computational fluid dynamics (CFD) models and to experimentally characterize the effects of a number of variables on the mixing behavior within an enclosure and the exchange of helium with the surroundings. Helium was used as a surrogate for hydrogen, and the total volume released was scaled as the amount that could be released by a typical hydrogen-fueled automobile with a full fuel tank. Temporal profiles of helium were measured at seven vertical locations within the enclosure during and following one hour and four hour releases. Idealized vents in one wall sized to provide air exchange rates typical of actual garages were used. The effects of vent size, number, and location were investigated using three different vent combinations. The dependence on leak location was considered by releasing helium from three different points within the enclosure. A number of tabulated quantitative measures are used to characterize the experiments. The complete experimental measurement results for each condition are available on the internet as described in Appendix A (http: //www.nist.gov/el/fire_protection/buildings/upload/HeliumDispersionDataSets.zip.

As part of the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) technical staff program to determine the effects of emissions from imported drywall on residential electrical, gas distribution, and fire safety components, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has generated data to aid assessment of whether there has been a loss of functionality of fire smoke detectors exposed to those emissions. NIST tested four sets of smoke detectors in the Fire Emulator/Detector Evaluator (FEDE) and the UL 217 test apparatus. Set 1 (ionization only) detectors were provided by CPSC staff and described as having been installed in homes with imported drywall; Set 2 (ionization only) detectors (same models as Set 1 but different batches) were described as coming from contemporaneous homes without the presence of imported drywall; Set 3 smoke detectors were purchased new by NIST and tested as received; and Set 4 comprised detectors from Set 3 that had been subjected to an accelerated aging protocol to simulate 10-year exposure to the effluent from imported drywall. Detectors from Set 1 and Set 2 activated within UL 217 sensitivity test parameters. Tests using the FEDE found differences in sensitivity between Sets 1 and 2 and between the ionization detectors in Sets 3 and 4 that were numerically small compared to the allowable performance range. An even smaller improvement in sensitivity was found for photoelectric smoke detectors between Sets 3 and 4. Two of the Set 1 smoke detectors sensed the presence of smoke, but would not send the signal to activate interconnected alarms. Two other Set 1 smoke detectors failed to operate under AC power, but operated properly under the required 9V battery back-up. It could not be determined whether the observations of Set 1 detector performance could be attributed to exposure to the emissions from imported drywall or to other factors.

For the last forty years, NIST has led the world in fire metrology through research conducted at the Large Fire Laboratory, which is being expanded to enable experiments on real-scale structures under combined structural and fire loads. The combined capabilities of large fire testing and structural fire testing will be comprised in the National Fire Research Laboratory (NFRL), which is expected to be completed in 2013. Measurements of temperature, displacement, and strain at hundreds of points on a structural system in the fire zone are needed to validate analytical tools for fire conditions. However, the ability to measure the performance of structures during realistic fire exposures is severely limited due to a significant gap in measurement science. At present, temperatures are measured with thermocouples and strains are measured with high temperature strain gages. Each of these sensors requires a separate line for data collection during the experiment. Further, high temperature strain gages are unreliable and often do not perform as expected during fire tests. Significant improvements to structural measurement in fire conditions are needed to advance the validation of analytical tools and performance based design methodologies. Candidate methods for temperature, displacement, and strain measurements that could meet these performance requirements were reviewed. A demonstration test that employed a natural gas burner in the Large Fire Facility evaluated the potential of digital image correlation and high temperature strain gages to measure thermally induced strains.The technology review and the outcome of the demonstration test indicate that digital image correlation and fiber optic methods have great promise for temperature, displacement, and strain measurement. A four-stage development plan is proposed to overcome these challenges.

A standard procedure is needed for obtaining smoke toxic potency data for use in fire hazard and risk analyses. Room fire testing of finished products is impractical, directing attention to the use of apparatus that can obtain the needed data quickly and at affordable cost. This report presents examination of the fourth of a series bench-scale fire tests to produce data on the yields of toxic products in both pre-flashover and post-flashover flaming fires. The apparatus is the ISO 5660-1 / ASTM E 1354 cone calorimeter, modified to have an enclosure and a gas delivery system allowing variable oxygen concentration. The test specimens was cut from finished products that were also burned in room-scale tests: a sofa made of upholstered cushions on a steel frame, particleboard bookcases with a laminated finish, and household electric cable. Initially, the standard test procedure was followed. Subsequent variation in the procedure included reducing the supplied oxygen volume fraction to 0.18, 0.16, and 0.14, reducing the incident heat flux to 25 kW/m2, and reducing the gas flow rate by half. The yields of CO2 CO, HCl, and HCN were determined. The yields of other toxicants (NO, NO2, formaldehyde, and acrolein) were below the detection limits, but volume fractions at the detection limits were shown to be of limited toxicological importance relative to the detected toxicants. In general, performing the tests at the reduced oxygen volume fraction led to small increases on the toxic gas yields. The exceptions were an increase in the CO yield for the bookcase at 0.14 oxygen volume fraction. Reducing the incident heat flux had little effect on the toxic gas yields, other than increasing variability. Reducing the gas flow rate reduced the limits of detection by half, but also resulted in reduced gas yields at lower oxygen volume fractions. In none of the procedure variations did the CO yield approach the value of 0.2 found in real-scale post flashover fire tests.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) initiated a program to determine the effects of emissions from problem drywall on residential electrical, gas distribution, and fire safety components. As part of this program, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) generated data to help determine whether there has been degradation in the activation performance of automatic residential fire sprinklers exposed to those emissions, as manifested by changes to sprinkler activation time. NIST tested three sets of sprinklers in the sensitivity test oven (plunge test apparatus), according to the oven heat test section of UL 199 / UL 1626. Set 1 (bulb type) residential sprinklers were provided by CPSC staff and described as having been installed in homes with problem drywall; Set 2 sprinklers (bulb and fusible types) were purchased new by NIST and tested as received; and Set 3 comprised new sprinklers, of the same models as Set 2, after they had been subjected to an accelerated aging protocol, the Battelle Class IV corrosivity environment. Sprinklers from all three sets were installed and tested in the UL 199 / UL 1626 plunge test apparatus.

This report documents a set of 9 full scale ISO 9705 room under-ventilated compartment fire experiments for the purpose of guiding the development of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) computer fire model - Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS). The gas species composition and temperature throughout the interior of the compartment was mapped during quasi-steady burning conditions using movable measurement probes. In conjunction with the gas species and temperature measurements, global heat release rate, global burning mass rate, and local heat flux measurements were taken. The tests yielded detailed maps. From the data collected, the mixture fraction (with and without soot included in the calculations), local equivalence ratio, carbon monoxide and soot yields, fractional carbon monoxide and soot ratios, and combustion efficiency for each test were determined. Results from ethanol (a low sooting fuel) and heptane (a mildly sooting fuel) are presented. The results collected in this set of experiments were also compared and contrasted to the results of similar tests done in the previous report in this series of testing, NIST Technical Note 1603: Experimental Study of the Effects of Fuel Type, Fuel Distribution, and Vent Size on Full-Scale Underventilated Compartment Fires in an ISO 9705 Room.

The dispersion and loss of helium inside a single-car residential garage attached to a single-family house was experimentally characterized by recording time-resolved helium concentrations at multiple locations in the garage and at a single location in the house during and following helium releases near the floor of the garage. Helium served as a surrogate for hydrogen for safety reasons, and helium release rates were adjusted to provide the same constant volume flow rate as that required to release 5 kg of hydrogen over a four hour period. Supporting measurements included compartment leakage, temperature, and atmospheric wind conditions. Helium was released upwards either as momentum- or buoyancydominated flows. Experiments were performed with the garage empty or with one of two conventional mid-sized automobiles parked over the release location. Six tests with the garage naturally ventilated and six tests employing forced ventilation with a fan are described. A variety of parameters were used to characterize the mixing behavior. Conclusions emphasized include: a) the role of Froude number on helium mixing behavior, b) the development of upper and lower helium concentration layers in the garage during a release, c) the measurable, but limited, effects of atmospheric wind on the results, d) the relatively efficient transfer of helium from the garage into the house during the releases, e) the ability of a vehicle to trap a high helium concentration in the engine compartment and, particularly, the undercarriage during a helium release and the relatively rapid drop in these levels to those of the surrounding garage at the end of the release, f) the relatively slow buildup of helium in the passenger compartment and trunk of a vehicle during a helium release and subsequent slow decay following cessation of the flow, g) the effectiveness of active ventilation in reducing helium concentrations in the garage to levels below those corresponding to flammable concentrations of hydrogen, and h) the trapping of helium/air mixtures corresponding to highly flammable hydrogen mixtures inside the vehicles even when active garage ventilation was employed.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) is concerned about the hazard of acute residential carbon monoxide (CO) exposures from portable gasoline powered generators that can result in death or serious and/or lasting adverse health effects in exposed individuals. As an initial approach to characterizing these hazards, CPSC measured the emissions from generators by testing them in a small test chamber (Brown 2006). CPSC subsequently contracted with the University of Alabama (UA) to develop and construct low CO-emission prototype generators using off-the-shelf technologies installed on commercially-available portable generators. Under an interagency agreement with CPSC, NIST conducted a series of tests to characterize the indoor time course profiles of CO concentrations resulting from portable generators operating in the attached garage of a home under various use and environmental conditions, to evaluate the performance of low CO-emission prototype generators, and to provide model validation data. The data was also used as input to a simulation analysis conducted to examine the potential performance of the low CO-emission prototypes under a wider range of operating conditions.

FASTLite is a collection of procedures which builds on the core routines of FIREFORM and the computer model CFAST to provide engineering calculations of fire phenomena for the building designer, code official, fire protection engineer and fire safety related practitioner. This manual provides documentation and examples for using FASTLite. It describes how to install the software on a computer and provides a guide for the use of FASTLite using an example.

This report examines fire and alcohol studies performed by medical scientists, fire investigators, and social theorists. The physiological effects of long and short-term alcohol use are described. Alcohol's effect on behavior and its role in unintentional injuries is examined. The demographics of alcohol use and abuse as well as societal factors influencing alcohol use are noted. Caretakers who are under the influence of alcohol are also studied in regards to how their impairment may affect a dependent individual. The demographics of fire and fire fatalities are described. The leading causes of fire fatalities are also discussed, specifically how and to what extent they are affected by alcohol.

Although these agents are typically employed in unoccupied sections of an aircraft, the possibility of human exposure still exists during handling, storage, and transport. Thus, it is important to know if the accidental release of the 12 agents in areas of typical occupancy would result in differing threats to life safety. At least two topics are important in assessing the impact of a potential release of an agent: 1) how does the agent distribute in an occupied space upon an accidental release, and 2) how does this release affect personnel who may be exposed? For the former, a series of tests was conducted to study the release of four of the twelve agents in a sealed compartment to measure the airborne concentration of agent that results from complete venting of containers of typical size into spaces of typical volume. These tests were augmented with field modeling to extend the range of the test results to other compartment geometries. For the latter, published toxicological results for chronic or acute exposure are summarized. It is important to note that in these tests, no humans were exposed.

This guide is intended to offer both small and large, career and volunteer departments, specific recommendations and example for applying ergonomics. The guide's contents includes an introduction to ergonomics, ergonomic-related disorders, developing an ergonomics program, ergonomic hazards, preventing and controlling ergonomic hazards, training, medical management, procedures for reporting injuries, implementing the ergonomic program, and evaluating program effectiveness.

The use of halon 1301 for fire fighting is being phased out due to its deleterious effects on stratospheric ozone. This report summarizes the findings of a three year study designed to characterize and identify super-effective thermal fire-fighting agents as possible replacements for these widely used compounds. Four distinct aspects related to the effectiveness of potential thermal agents have been considered. First, existing thermodynamic databases maintained by NIST have been searched in order to identify chemical compounds which are predicted to extract large amounts of heat from a combustion zone. Second, two liquids that were identified as being particularly interesting during the database search were tested experimentally for their extinguishing effectiveness. Third, detailed chemical-kinetic modeling and experimental studies of extinguishing volume fractions in simple flame systems were employed to improve the understanding of the effects of thermal agents on diffusion flames. Fourth, empirical heat transfer correlations for spray cooling of a surface were used to estimate the efficiencies of surface cooling by thermal agents. The database searches used two primary sources -- the Design Institute for Physical Properties database containing 1458 compounds from 83 family types and a smaller database, REFPROP, containing 43 compounds which is tailored to refrigerant applications. Additional substances were included that are not well represented in these databases. Compounds having high 1) heats of vaporization, 2) liquid-phase heat capacities, and 3) total heat absorption due to phase changes (if applicable), heating of a liquid (if applicable), and the heating of the gas phase to combustion temperatures were identified. The results are reported in tables of compounds ordered in terms of their ability to extract heat. The following recommendations are made based on the findings of the study: 1. The effectiveness of HFE7100 as a fire-extinguishing agent should be tested on full-scale simulations of aircraft fires. 2. Additional studies of the effectiveness of fire extinguishing agents released as liquids should be performed with a focus on confirming and understanding their enhanced performance relative to that expected based on simple heat extraction. 3. Experiments should be designed and performed with a goal of better understanding the interactions of liquid agent droplets with heated and reacting surfaces. Such an understanding is needed to better predict the effectiveness of liquid agents and could lead to improved approaches for delivering such agents to a fire.