Spring Issue -- 2003
Page 1
How Fast Can Fire
Spread?
CD Captures In Situ
Burning of Oil Spills Literature
Page 2
New Compressed Air Foam System for
Aircraft Hangars
Daily Wildfire Information on the Web
Page 3
Fire Service Emergency Vehicle Safety
Initiative
Page 4
Inexpensive Residential Fire Sprinkler System Developed in New Zealand
PRINT
FRIENDLY VERSION (PDF format) 
Deputy Fire Marshal Ray Scott of Prince William County (Virginia) Department of Fire and Rescue needed to understand if and how fast fire could spread from house to house in small lot, single-family dwelling communities. The 2003 edition of the International Residential Code (IRC) permits single-family houses to be erected with a separation of 6 feet between exteriors without restrictions on wall materials and openings. Knowing the practical limitations in present fire department response time, could adequate protection be assured? Searching the NIST fire research collection’s web database, FIREDOC (www.fris.nist.gov) Chief Scott found the published results of large-scale fire experiments and other technical data available from laboratories around the world that
helped him understand the potential impact of 6-foot building separation on fire spread. One important resource discovered was the 1999 Fire Engineering Research Report by James Clarke at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand, A Review of the Building Separation Requirements of the New Zealand Building Code Acceptable Solutions, [PDF file, 16,291 KB] in which building to building fire spread was analyzed to provide an engineering basis for performance code requirements. That report led to technical papers and videos of full-scale experiments conducted by the National Research Council in Canada in which flame from a room fire in a structure ignited a target wall 1.8 m away. In part based on the results of international research, Chief Scott has submitted an IRC
code change proposal that will be considered in September, 2003. Chief Scott would like to hear from fire departments that have encountered incidents of house-to-house fire spread in new communities.
Contact: Battalion Chief Ray Scott, (1) + 703-792-6487, rscott@pwcgov.org
Fire spread in the Belmont subdivision of Ashburn Virginia in 1994. (Photo curtsey of Melvin Byrne, Loudoun County Department of Fire and Rescue.)
In situ burning (ISB) is being used today as an oil spill response tool because of research and technology development in the past 20 years. This two-volume CD brings together for the first time a substantial portion of the research, development, planning and implementation undertaken by hundreds of individuals and dozens of organizations.
The collection was developed for the Minerals Management Service (MMS), U.S. Department of Interior, primarily to serve as a resource for to oil spill response professionals with knowledge
and training in the use of in situ burning as a response tool. The collection contains an enormous amount of information in a convenient format to be used in the planning, response, or research environment. It contains more than 350 documents with over 13,000 pages and nearly one hour of video.
Cont. page 2
In Situ Burning of Oil Spills: Resource Collection
