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- Info
Fire spread and structural ignitions from horticultural plantings in the wildland-urban interface
| Author: |
Long, A.; Hinton, B.; Zipperer, W. [and others] |
| Date: |
2006 |
| Periodical: |
2006 Fire Ecology and Management Congress Proceedings |
| Abstract: |
Although high-intensity fires are often the recognized ignition source for structures in the wildland-urban interface, many structures are also vulnerable to lower intensity surface fires carried through nearby landscaping materials such as grass, mulches and shrubs. Significant numbers of homes were lost to such fires in the 2000 Cerro Grande fire (Cohen 2001) and in the multiple fires in Texas in late 2005. However, these landscaping materials around homes serve other important landscaping objectives, such as water conservation, soil protection and wildlife habitat. If mulches and plantings around homes are removed, this counteracts benefits of these other objectives. An improved understanding of the fire behavior of commonly used landscaping materials used within 'defensible space' should optimize the use of mulches and horticultural plantings for multiple landscaping objectives.
The research described in this paper was supported by the Building and Fire Research Laboratory (BFRL) at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, which is developing a Fire Dynamic Simulator (FDS) to predict fire behavior at the community scale (Rehm et al. 2002). One key set of information that is needed for the FDS is fire spread and behavior in typical landscaping combinations of mulch, small plants, and shrubs. This study was designed to provide flammability data for horticultural beds by evaluating the effect of mulch type, planting composition, and drought conditions on fire spread and heat release in both field and controlled environment conditions. |
| View: |
Fire Spread and Structural Ignitions.pdf
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