- Author
- Snell, J. E.
- Title
- Fire Safety Engineering Research in the USA. Session 3: Fire Safety Engineering Research.
- Coporate
- National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD
- Book or Conf
- CSIRO. International Fire Safety Engineering Conference. Concept and the Tools. Presented for FORUM for International Cooperation on Fire Research. Supported by SFPE, NFPA, AFPA, AAFA. October 18-20, 1992, Sydney, Australia, 1-11 p., 1992
- Keywords
- fire safety | safety engineering | fire research | building design | fire risk | hazard assessment
- Abstract
- This paper describes fire research in the United States and particularly the fire research program at the National Institute of Standards and Technology. The United States has one of the highest fire death rates of the nations of the world and the total cost of fire safety to the nation is $128 billion per year. First, it comments on the background to this program, and then describes the context in which it functions, i.e., the building regulatory and product approval systems and other fire research activities in the USA. Next, it outlines the rationale for NIST fire research and notes some of the research products and their impacts. The fire research program of the Building and Fire Research Laboratory of the National Institute of Standards and Technology is aimed at reducing the heavy burden of these losses through developing the technical basis for fire safety engineering and helping to get these new tools used. This program focusses on three areas: scientifically-based tools for fire risk and hazard prediction; fire safe products and materials; and advanced sensing and suppression technologies. This is roughly an $8 million program involving the efforts of approximately 80 staff.