NDLI: Characterizing Firebrand Exposure from Wildland–Urban Interface (WUI) Fires: Results from the 2007 Angora Fire

Content Provider	Springer Nature Link
Author	Manzello, Samuel L. Foote, Ethan I. D.
Copyright Year	2012
Abstract	This study examines the size distribution and other characteristics of firebrand exposure during the 2007 Angora fire, a severe wildland–urban interface fire in California. Of the 401 houses that received direct interface fire exposure 61% were destroyed and 30% did not burn at all. The ignition of buildings by wind-driven firebrand showers and the starting of “spot fires” in unburned vegetation ahead of wildfires have been observed for some time. Empirically quantifying the exposure severity or describing how many firebrands of what size and over what duration and distance cause ignition problems of concern has not yet been possible. However, a unique opportunity to gather empirical firebrand data from an actual interface fire evolved in the days immediately following the Angora fire. Digital analyses of burn patterns from materials exposed to the Angora fire were conducted to determine firebrand size distributions. It is probable that some burn patterns were larger in area than the firebrands due to progressive combustion or melting, but it was assumed that the overall size distributions of burn pattern areas were representative of actual firebrand sizes. This assumption was investigated by exposing sections of materials collected in the Angora fire to wind driven firebrands generated in the laboratory using the unique NIST Dragon’s lofting and ignition research facility (NIST Dragon’s LAIR facility). The firebrand size distributions reported were compared to firebrand size distributions from experimental firebrand generation in both recent laboratory building ignition studies conducted by NIST and from historical firebrand field studies. Such data is needed to form the basis of effective and appropriate interface fire hazard mitigation measures as well as modeling fire spread. Comparisons are made to current wildfire protection building construction regulations and test standards. The most salient result of this study is documentation of the consistently small size of firebrands and the close correlation of these results with the sizes of experimentally generated firebrands.
Starting Page	105
Ending Page	124
Page Count	20
File Format	PDF
ISSN	00152684
Journal	Fire Technology
Volume Number	50
Issue Number	1
e-ISSN	15728099
Language	English
Publisher	Springer US
Publisher Date	2012-09-22
Publisher Place	Boston
Access Restriction	One Nation One Subscription (ONOS)
Subject Keyword	Firebrands Wildland–urban interface (WUI) fire Firebrand exposure Civil Engineering Mechanics Characterization and Evaluation of Materials Physics
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article
Subject	Materials Science Safety, Risk, Reliability and Quality

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1	Ministry of Education (GoI), Department of Higher Education	Sanctioning Authority	https://www.education.gov.in/ict-initiatives
2	Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	Host Institute of the Project: The host institute of the project is responsible for providing infrastructure support and hosting the project	https://www.iitkgp.ac.in
3	National Digital Library of India Office, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	The administrative and infrastructural headquarters of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in
4	Project PI / Joint PI	Principal Investigator and Joint Principal Investigators of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in Prof. Saswat Chakrabarti will be added soon
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