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Saturday, March 22, 2008

New High-Rise Fire Research Available Now


National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) fire protection engineers turned an abandoned New York City (NYC) brick high-rise into a seven-story fire laboratory last month to better understand the fast-moving spread of wind-driven flames, smoke and toxic gases through corridors and stairways of burning buildings.

In the photo:
Firefighters watch as a fan, simulating wind, changes airflow and smoke conditions during experiments in a seven-story high-rise abandoned apartment building on New York City's Governors Island. The NIST tests examined firefighting techniques such as the use of positive pressure ventilation fans, wind control devices and hose streams to control or suppress heat and smoke from wind driven fires. Click on the image to enlarge in a separate window.

Research findings from the experiments are expected to help improve fire service guidelines for combating high-rise fires, enhance firefighter safety, fire ground operations and use of equipment. NIST expects to issue a report on the high-rise experiments by November 2008. The Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) funded the Governors Island tests under its “Assistance to Firefighters” grant program.


For more information on NIST fire research in wind-driven fire research visit “Research Spotlight” at Fire.gov (www.fire.gov) and a recent NIST study reviewing six Positive Pressure Ventilation (PPV) experiments conducted in a Chicago high-rise building, “
Evaluating Positive Pressure Ventilation in Large Structures: High Rise Fire Experiments” (2008). See also coverage here in “Fans Clear High-Rise Stairwells of Smoke” (2007) and “NIST Test Fans the Flames for High-Rise Fire Safety” (2006).

You may read the full story at the
National Institute of Standards and Technology

.

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