BY ADAM BAROWY AND DANIEL MADRZYKOWSKI
Part of the mission of the Fire Research Division at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is to develop and apply technology, measurements, and standards to improve the understanding of the behavior, prevention, and control of fires to enhance firefighting operations and equipment, fire suppression, fire investigations, and disaster response. NIST has previously used the Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS) to provide insight on the fire development and thermal conditions of other multiple-fatality fires.1-7 The overriding objective of all of these studies is to improve the safety of firefighters.
On April 12, 2009, a fire in a one-story ranch home in Texas claimed the lives of two firefighters. Sustained high winds occurred during the incident. The winds caused a rapid change in the dynamics of the fire after the failure of a large section of glass in the rear of the house. At the request of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) and the Houston Fire Department (HFD), NIST assisted with examining the fire dynamics of this incident. NIST performed computer simulations of the fire using NIST's FDS computer model and Smokeview, a visualization tool, to provide insight on the fire development and thermal conditions that may have existed in the residence during the fire. For the full details of the study, see the original report "Simulation of the Dynamics of a Wind-Driven Fire in a Ranch-Style House—Texas."8
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