Wildfire safety from a fire engineering perspective

wildfire

It’s wildfire season.

According to the National Interagency Fire Center, large fires are actively burning almost 1,800,000 acres in 15 states across the U.S. right now.* California’s Mendocino Complex Fire itself is nearly 350,000 acres—the largest recorded fire complex in the state’s history. A U.S. national state of emergency was declared on July 28 due to the California fires, which have killed at least 14 people this year, including six firefighters.

The 2018 wildfire season is a crisis of staggering proportions—and it is far from over. But Michael Gollner thinks fire protection engineers can help.

Gollner, an associate professor in the Clark School’s Department of Fire Protection Engineering, is broadly interested in fire science problems. He and students in his University of Maryland lab utilize both experiments and combustion and fluid dynamics theory to help solve problems related to fire spread in the wildland and built environments (and other areas such as material flammability, sustainable/green building fire safety, and smoke and toxic product transport).

Watch the video above to learn how.

Are you are a member of the media interested in interviewing Dr. Gollner? Please email: clark-communications@umd.edu

* As of August 14, 2018.

Published August 15, 2018