Research

Research for planning, plant selection, and fire.

Characteristics and Location of the Wildland-urban Interface in the United States

Susan I. Stewart, USDA Forest Service, North Central Research Station; Volker C. Radeloff, Department of Forest Ecology and Management, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Roger B. Hammer, Department of Rural Sociology, University of Wisconsin.

Community-scale Fire Spread

Proceedings of the California 2001 Wildfire Conference: 10 Years after the 1991 East Bay Hills Fire. Rehm, R.G.; Hamins, A.; Baum, H.R.; McGrattan, K.B.; Evans, D.D. Fire Research Division, Building and Fire Research Laboratory, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD.

Community Responses to Wildland Fire Threats

Research funded by the USDA Forest Service Southern Research Station. This research investigates the responses of communities in New Mexico, Colorado, and Arizona to wildfire threats. The research documents the actions taken to improve fire prevention and suppression, reduce hazardous fuels, rehabilitate and restore fire-adapted ecosystems, and promote community assistance.

Fire Danger Rating in the United States of America: An Evolution Since 1916

Fire scientists in the United States began exploring the relationships of fire danger and hazard with weather, fuel moisture, and ignition probabilities as early as 1916. Many of the relationships identified then persist today in the form of our National Fire Danger Rating System. This paper traces the evolution of fire danger rating in the United States, including discussions of significant developmental milestones, innovative instrumentation, and a succession of analogue fire-danger meters, or calculators.

Mulch Flammability

Wayne Zipperer, USDA Forest Service; Alan Long and Brian Hinton, University of Florida; Alexander Maranghides and William Mell, U.S. Display Consortium and National Institute of Standards and Technology.

Preliminary Evaluation of the Flammability of Native and Ornamental Plants with the Cone Calorimeter

Robert H. White, USDA Forest Products Laboratory, Madison, WI 53705.

Seasonal Changes in Selected Combustion Characteristics of Ornamental Vegetation

David R. Weise, Forest Fire Laboratory, Pacific Southwest Research Station, USDA Forest Service; Robert H. White, Forest Products Laboratory, USDA Forest Service; Susan Frommer, Frank C. Beall, and Matt Etlinger, Forest Products Laboratory, University of California.

Southern Wildfire Risk Assessment

Hosted by the Southern Group of State Foresters to provide current information about the Southern Wildfire Risk Assessment (SWRA) project. The SWRA project utilizes GIS and remote sensing technologies to enable agencies and organizations at the national, State, and local level to obtain a clearer picture of overall wildland fire potential and its associated problems within the 13 Southern States.

Standard for Reducing Structure Ignition Hazards from Wildland Fire

NFPA 1144: This standard provides a methodology for assessing wildland fire ignition hazards around existing structures, residential developments, and subdivisions and improved property or planned property improvement that will be located in a wildland/urban interface area, and provides minimum requirements for new construction to reduce the potential of structure ignition from wildland fires.

Understanding Fire Behavior

This factsheet is funded by the National Fire Plan through the Southern Center for Wildland-Urban Interface Research and Information, Southern Research Station, USDA Forest Service.