MISSOULA — The U.S. Forestry Service Fire Sciences Laboratory in Missoula is the top research lab for fire behavior and fire science.
“People are our primary driver, people and the land that we manage. And that’s really the thing that motivates everybody here” said U.S. Forest Service research ecologist Matt Jolly.
The lab was created in the wake of the Mann Gulch Fire where 13 firefighters lost their lives with a goal of better understanding fire behavior to try and make sure an incident like Mann Gulch doesn’t happen again.
“So we have these experiments that we can, that we can do inside and we translate that work to, to bigger experiments outside or experiments on prescribed fires or we study existing wildfires. All with the intent of trying to better understand fire behavior” Jolly told MTN.
The fire sciences lab provides researchers the opportunity to study fire behavior in a controlled environment, helping create a base of knowledge of what fire may or may not do in different conditions.
“It’s great to, to work in here where we can really standardized conditions. You can’t do that in nature obviously. So like you just gotta take what you get outside,” Jolly said.
But beyond the experiments, the fire sciences lab has a greater mission of helping to manage and protect public lands that the U.S. Forest Service manages and trying to ensure that public lands are still available for generations to come.
“I guess it sounds cliche but, but it’s a, a big driver” Jolly remarked.
Some of the research and tools the lab has developed include the fire danger signs where Smokey the Bear points to the fire danger level.
All of the tools that the lab has come up with stem from the Mann Gulch incident which became a flash point for a better understanding of fire behavior in order to keep firefighters safe.
The research that’s been done at the lab — and the tools that have been created — have had a direct reach into the firefighting community. Whether that’s through instilling knowledge, providing new firefighting tools or bettering safety measures, there are countless examples of how the fire sciences lab touches those that fight fires on the ground.
“It’s not something that’s just purely for academic purposes — something that’s created in the papers to be published about it. It’s really about the connection that we have as Forest Service research and that connection to, to people in the field, or people at a district who are making decisions about how we respond to fire or people on a fire, deciding how they’re gonna engage that fire. That connection is really where we know that we’re making an impact there, we, we’re helping people be more aware of conditions.” – U.S. Forest Service research ecologist Matt Jolly
Many of those impacts have been breaking down common factors that firefighters often face and coming up with solutions to dealing with them. One example is how firefighters deal with potential entrapments. The lab helped developed techniques and methods to understand when entrapment may happen and then how to properly avoid it.
The unique thing about the U.S. Forestry Service Fire Sciences Laboratory is that the researchers aren’t sheltered away in their offices, as they often go out into the field to work with those on the ground and establish communications directly with field managers.
Practices like this stem from the deadly Mann Gulch Fire which has left a lasting impression on those who work at the lab.
“Those events are super powerful but they’re, they’re kind of the reason that I get out of bed every day is because we want to, to learn as much as we can. So we don’t have those things happen again.”
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