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At least 109 records · Page 6

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DOE OSTI2026

Multi-ignition fire complexes drive extreme fire years and impacts

Climate change is intensifying fire behavior, with the largest and fastest-spreading fires causing the greatest impacts on people and ecosystems. Yet the mechanisms driving variability and trends in large fires remain poorly understood. Using 12-hour satellite-derived fire tracking data from 2012 to 2023, we show that the merging of separate ignitions into multi-ignition complexes is a key process amplifying fire size and destructive potential across temperate and boreal ecoregions. Multi-ignition fires account for 31% of the burned area in California and 59% in the Arctic-boreal domain, spread faster and persist longer than single-ignition fires, and disproportionately contribute to extreme fire years in California, Canada, and Siberia. They also generate stronger atmospheric feedbacks, produce more pyrocumulonimbus events, and strain firefighting capacity by dispersing suppression resources. Recognizing and accounting for fire-merging dynamics are critical for improving wildfire prediction, risk assessment, and management.

Environmental sciences↗

DOE OSTI2025

NFPA Distributed Energy Resources Safety Training (DERST) For Emergency Responders

The National Fire Protection Association, with support from the Department of Energy, executed a multi-year initiative to develop, enhance, and disseminate Distributed Energy Resources Safety Training (DERST) tools for U.S. emergency responders. As Distributed Energy Resources (DER)—such as solar photovoltaics, battery energy storage systems (ESS), electric vehicles (EVs), and associated infrastructure—become increasingly prevalent, the NFPA identified a critical need for up-to-date standardized, accessible, and effective safety training tailored for the fire service and related public safety professionals. The project delivered a comprehensive suite of educational resources to improve responders’ abilities to safely manage DER-related incidents. This included: • Revised Modular Training Courses: Updated classroom-based DER safety courses, now modular and accessible nationwide through fire academies and the North American Fire Training Directors (NAFTD) network. • Live Burn Testing & Research: A full-scale controlled burn of a DER-equipped residential structure provided real-world data and insights, forming the basis for updated best practices. • A Gamified Simulation Tool – Firefighters Incident Response Simulation Tool (FIRST): A first-of-its-kind, multiplayer, scenario-based simulation using the Unreal Engine 5.0 to train responders in a realistic virtual, multi-DER incident environment. • Field Familiarization Software Tools & Prop Guide: Digital DER field familiarization evolutions software guide and a prop development manual to support field-based DER training exercises, enhancing responders' hands-on familiarity with DER infrastructure and collaboration on virtual incident responses. • National Dissemination Strategy: Strategic partnerships with NAFTD, Vector Solutions, and others enabled wide-scale distribution, with over 5,000 departments accessing resources and 1,100+ departments adopting the simulator in the first seven months. Also provided a web portal for easy access to all training and simulation programs developed under this grant for the U.S. responder community. Key findings from the project—particularly from the burn test—led to paradigm shifts in fire response tactics. For example, traditional approaches to garage fires may be hazardous if DERs are present, due to explosive off gassing and thermal runaway risks. The new training emphasizes scene assessment, stand-off approaches, thermal imaging verification, and careful post-incident cooling of DER components to prevent reignition. This initiative has had a significant national impact, raising awareness, enhancing preparedness, and supporting safer DER incident response practices. Significant engagement from the media, public safety organizations, and PBS coverage has further amplified the reach and adoption of NFPA’s DER safety training, tools, and simulations.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

DOE OSTI2025

Development of the Table of Initial Isolation and Protective Action Distances for the 2024 Emergency Response Guidebook

The transportation of hazardous materials creates numerous opportunities for the release of toxic substances into the environment, whether caused by traffic accidents, train derailments, equipment failures, or human error. Such releases can pose acute hazards to the general public and to emergency response personnel who are the first to arrive at the scene. To help first responders determine whether a shipment is potentially hazardous and decide what actions should be taken if a toxic spill does occur, the Emergency Response Guidebook (ERG) is published by the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), Transport Canada, and the Secretariat of Transport and Communications of Mexico; with contributions from Centro de Informaciòn Quìmica para Emergencias of Argentina. The most recent version is the 2024 edition of the ERG (ERG 2024), titled 2024 Emergency Response Guidebook (ERG2024). The ERG provides essential information about firefighting, spill response, and potential public health effects. For chemicals that are toxic by inhalation (TIH) and chemicals that produce TIH gases upon reaction with water (TIH by water reactivity or TIHWR), the ERG provides initial isolation distances (IIDs) and protective action distances (PADs). The IID defines the radius of the zone around the spill that should be accessed solely by people who are directly involved in emergency response. The PAD is the distance downwind of the source of the release within which persons should be either evacuated or sheltered in place, depending on the severity of the incident and the nature of the population (e.g., density, age, health).

63 RADIATION, THERMAL, AND OTHER ENVIRON. POLLUTAN↗

DOE OSTI2025

PFAS Waste Management for Industrial, Water, and Wastewater Treatment Facilities

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), including perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), are widely used in industrial and consumer products due to their unique water and oil repelling properties. These slow-degrading and bio-accumulating compounds, often called "forever chemicals," are not typically removed by conventional industrial and municipal water/wastewater (W/WW) treatment. This tip of the month provides comprehensive strategies for managing PFAS-contaminated waste streams. Understanding the various types of PFAS waste streams is the first step in managing them. Primary PFAS waste includes contaminated process W/WW and solid materials directly from the production and processing of PFAS-containing materials. These might come from manufacturing facilities, firefighting training areas, or other industrial operations where PFAS compounds are used or were historically present. Secondary PFAS waste results from treatment and disposal mechanisms of primary PFAS waste streams, including spent activated carbon, used ion exchange resins, membrane reject streams, PFAS-laden backwash water, landfill leachate, incineration residuals, etc. TABLE 1 lists examples of the most common PFAS waste streams in different industrial facilities.

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗

DOE OSTI2023

Automatic Rural Road Centerline Detection and Extraction from Aerial Images for a Forest Fire Decision Support System

To effectively manage the terrestrial firefighting fleet in a forest fire scenario, namely, to optimize its displacement in the field, it is crucial to have a well-structured and accurate mapping of rural roads. The landscape’s complexity, mainly due to severe shadows cast by the wild vegetation and trees, makes it challenging to extract rural roads based on processing aerial or satellite images, leading to heterogeneous results. This article proposes a method to improve the automatic detection of rural roads and the extraction of their centerlines from aerial images. This method has two main stages: (i) the use of a deep learning model (DeepLabV3+) for predicting rural road segments; (ii) an optimization strategy to improve the connections between predicted rural road segments, followed by a morphological approach to extract the rural road centerlines using thinning algorithms, such as those proposed by Zhang–Suen and Guo–Hall. After completing these two stages, the proposed method automatically detected and extracted rural road centerlines from complex rural environments. This is useful for developing real-time mapping applications.

Lourenço, Miguel (ORCID:0000000157673394)↗

DOE OSTI2023

Rapid Spaceborne Mapping of Wildfire Retardant Drops for Active Wildfire Management

Aerial application of fire retardant is a critical tool for managing wildland fire spread. Retardant applications are carefully planned to maximize fire line effectiveness, improve firefighter safety, protect high-value resources and assets, and limit environmental impact. However, topography, wind, visibility, and aircraft orientation can lead to differences between planned drop locations and the actual placement of the retardant. Information on the precise placement and areal extent of the dropped retardant can provide wildland fire managers with key information to (1) adaptively manage event resources, (2) assess the effectiveness of retardant slowing or stopping fire spread, (3) document location in relation to ecologically sensitive areas; and perform or validate cost-accounting for drop services. This study uses Sentinel-2 satellite data and commonly used machine learning classifiers to test an automated approach for detecting and mapping retardant application. We show that a multiclass model (retardant, burned, unburned, and cloud artifact classes) outperforms a single-class retardant model and that image differencing (post-application minus pre-application) outperforms single-image models. Compared to the random forest and support vector machine, the gradient boosting model performed the best with an overall accuracy of 0.88 and an F1 Score of 0.76 for fire retardant, though results were comparable for all three models. Our approach maps the full areal extent of the dropped retardant within minutes of image availability, rather than linear representations currently mapped by aerial GPS surveys. The development of this capability allows for the rapid assessment of retardant effectiveness and documentation of placement in relation to sensitive environments.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

NASA NTRS1971

Application of Infrared Scanners to Forest Fire Detection

The potential of using infrared scanners for the detection of forest fires is discussed. An experiment is described in which infrared and visual detection systems were used jointly to study timber fire detection. Many fires were detected visually but missed by the airborne IR system, and many fires were detected by the IR system but missed visually. Until more is learned about the relationship between heat output and smoke output from latent fires, the relative effectiveness of visual and IR systems cannot be determined. The 1970 tests indicated that IR used in combination with visual detection will result in a more efficient system than visual alone. Even with limited knowledge of the relative effectiveness of the two systems, operational use of a combined system can be used to substantially reduce total firefighting costs.

Hirsch, S. N.↗

NASA NTRS1972

Technology applications

A review was made of recent and current efforts to apply aerospace derived solutions to nonaerospace problems. Specific problems discussed include transportation, environmental pollution and abatement, housing and urban construction, firefighter equipment, and mine safety. Medical diseases and equipment are also discussed.

Source record↗

NASA NTRS1972

Fundamental advancements of the future.

General aviation encompasses all aviation except air carrier and military. This includes a broad spectrum of aircraft types ranging from amateur-built aircraft to jet transports, and includes missions such as transportation of people and freight, firefighting, power line patrol, agricultural, racing, and police patrol. The time span from discovery to broad utilization is such that for the next decade the majority of the innovations that will show up in the general aviation fleet will be derived from today's research efforts. A second area that has high potential is the modification of technology developments for military and transport aircraft to the needs of general aviation requirements of cost, complexity, and reliability.

Winblade, R. L.↗

NASA NTRS1974

System safety as applied to Skylab

Procedural and organizational guidelines used in accordance with NASA safety policy for the Skylab missions are outlined. The basic areas examined in the safety program for Skylab were the crew interface, extra-vehicular activity (EVA), energy sources, spacecraft interface, and hardware complexity. Fire prevention was a primary goal, with firefighting as backup. Studies of the vectorcardiogram and sleep monitoring experiments exemplify special efforts to prevent fire and shock. The final fire control study included material review, fire detection capability, and fire extinguishing capability. Contractors had major responsibility for system safety. Failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA) and equipment criticality categories are outlined. Redundancy was provided on systems that were critical to crew survival (category I). The five key checkpoints in Skylab hardware development are explained. Skylab rescue capability was demonstrated by preparations to rescue the Skylab 3 crew after their spacecraft developed attitude control problems.

Kleinknecht, K. S.↗

NASA NTRS1977

Fireman's lamp

Rugged lamp used by miners is adapted for firefighters by utilization of smaller, rechargeable 3-hour-life gel-cell battery. Lighter, maintenance free unit can be clipped to outer clothing for convenience. Small monitor circuit indicates need to recharge battery.

Britz, W. J.↗

NASA NTRS1978

A rationale for technology transfer

Specific contributions of the NASA Technology Utilization Program are outlined, including: improved firefighting equipment, electrical implants for medical purposes, and improved methods of weather forecasting. Cooperation between NASA and other organizations in both the public and private sectors is stressed.

Gray, E. Z.↗

NASA NTRS1978

Screening materials for smoke evolution

The density of smoke produced by burning or smoldering materials is a factor that affects the ability of occupants to escape from a burning structure and the effectiveness of firefighters. Accordingly, considerable effort is being spent on developing materials that minimize the amount of smoke without impairing their performance characteristics. In the present paper, laboratory tests on such materials are described and evaluated. It is seen that the National Bureau of Standards smoke test and the Ohio State University release-rate test are the most promising for screening materials for smoke evolution. It is shown that, for plastics, smoke obscuration is a more realistic concern than smoke toxicity.

Hilado, C. J.↗

NASA NTRS1980

Project FIRES. Volume 4: Prototype Protective Ensemble Qualification Test Report, Phase 1B

The qualification testing of a prototype firefighter's protective ensemble is documented. Included are descriptions of the design requirements, the testing methods, and the test apparatus. The tests include measurements of individual subsystem characteristics in areas relating to both physical testing, such as heat, flame, impact penetration and human factors testing, such as dexterity, grip, and mobility. Also, measurements related to both physical and human factors testing of the complete ensemble, such as water protection, metabolic expenditures, and compatibility are considered.

Abeles, F. J.↗

NASA NTRS1985

Status of warm fog dispersal research

A new concept for dispersing warm fog is presented. This brute force technique uses large volume recycled water sprays. Energy requirements for this technique are an order of magnitude less than those to operate a thermo-kinetic system. An important side benefit is the considerable emergency fire extinguishing capability it provides along the runway. Tests conducted to provide drop spectra measurements and temperature response measurements of suitable water sprays are described. Three mobile firefighting modules capable of spraying up to 630 l/s (10,000 gpm) to a height in excess of 50 m were utilized. Periodic operation of two parallel rows of nozzles in a heavy fog resulted in downwind-correlated increases in the visual range measured with a forward scatter visibility meter.

Keller, V. W.↗

NASA NTRS1985

Demonstration of a new method for dispersing warm fogs

Low visibility due to warm fog has caused costly disruptions in the case of aircraft schedules, and fog-related difficulties can arise in connection with Space Shuttle flights. As current methods of fog elimination are not entirely satisfactory, Kelley (1983) has proposed a new brute force procedure for warm fog dispersal. This procedure makes use of recycled water sprays. Fog droplets are removed by coalescence/rainout. Details regarding the involved approaches are described, and a demonstration of the method is discussed. Attention is given to tests conducted in October 1984, visual range improvement in response of water spray fog dispersal, a systematic investigation concerning a selection of firefighting nozzles, and histograms of fog droplet number concentration measured in the spray curtain outflow with a forward scattering spectrometer probe.

Keller, V. W.↗

NASA NTRS1987

Simulating Building Fires for Movies

Fire scenes for cinematography staged at relatively low cost in method that combines several existing techniques. Nearly realistic scenes, suitable for firefighter training, produced with little specialized equipment. Sequences of scenes set up quickly and easily, without compromising safety because model not burned. Images of fire, steam, and smoke superimposed on image of building to simulate burning of building.

Rodriguez, Ricardo C.↗

NASA NTRS1988

Mobile satellite communications in the Forest Service

There are usually some places within a forest that do not have adequate communication coverage due to line-of-sight or other reasons. These areas are generally known by the foresters and radio technicians and allowances are made for that when working or traveling in those areas. However, when wildfire or other emergencies occur, communications are vital because wildfires can require hundreds of firefighters and cover thousands of acres. During these emergency operations, the existing communications are not adequate and complete radio systems are moved into the area for the conduct of fire communications. Incident command posts (ICPs) and fire camps are set up in remote locations and there is constant need for communications in the fire area and to agency headquarters and dispatch offices. Mobile satellite communications would be an ideal supplement to the Forest Service's current communications system in aiding forest fire control activities.

Warren, John R.↗