NFPA Journal - March/April 2018 - 22
Dispatches
Wildland firefighters from South Africa at the Fort McMurray Fire in
Alberta, Canada, in 2016. One of the innovations included in the
NFPA/Northeastern report is a digital map that includes information on
topography, plants, and other local features for wildland firefighters
who may not be familiar with a deployment area.
INNO-WUI
A NEW REPORT OFFERS "POP-UP
INNOVATIONS" FOR FIGHTING FIRES IN
THE WILDLAND/URBAN INTERFACE
By Angelo Verzoni
n 2017, following a string of deadly and devastating wildfires the year before-including
a Canadian fire that torched over 1.4 million
acres of land near Fort McMurray, Alberta,
and one that claimed over a dozen lives near
Gatlinburg, Tennessee-the U.S. Department of Homeland
Security asked NFPA and Northeastern University's Global
Resilience Institute to write a report on the North American
wildfire problem. The result, "Wildfire: A Changing Landscape," a 46-page document released in December, reinforces
the wildfire education and prevention messaging NFPA has
touted for years, such as the importance of community risk
reduction programs to mitigate the wildfire risk in the wildland/urban interface (WUI).
I
22 | NFPA JOURNAL * M A R C H /A P R I L 2 0 1 8
Also in the report are six ideas, some of which are already
being implemented, to address the challenges associated
with WUI blazes in new ways. The ideas, referred to in the
report as "pop-up innovations," were presented at a June
2017 workshop hosted by NFPA, and range from technological (in the form of a smartphone app and data mapping)
to grassroots (such as encouraging volunteerism in wildfire
prevention). They come from experts whose backgrounds
range from the fire service to the insurance industry to
higher education.
Here are summaries of three of the innovations:
Innovation: An app to close the five-foot gap
Innovator: Rob Galbraith, director of property
underwriting at USAA Insurance
When it comes to wildfire home ignition, it's the five feet of
space between a structure and anything else, like vegetation
or piles of trash, that matters most, according to Galbraith.
"If no ignition occurs in the last five feet, no ignition occurs
in the home," he says.
To that end, USAA has developed Fireshield/WDS, a
mobile application that allows homeowners to take photographs of these five-foot spaces around their homes and
send them to a trained wildfire expert, possibly a Firewise
USA™ assessor, who can then determine if there's a threat.
The system also allows for data collection on trends in
certain areas and for rewarding homeowners who display
GETT Y IMAGES
WILDFIRE
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of NFPA Journal - March/April 2018
Contents
NFPA Journal - March/April 2018 - Cover1
NFPA Journal - March/April 2018 - Cover2
NFPA Journal - March/April 2018 - 1
NFPA Journal - March/April 2018 - Contents
NFPA Journal - March/April 2018 - 3
NFPA Journal - March/April 2018 - 4
NFPA Journal - March/April 2018 - 5
NFPA Journal - March/April 2018 - 6
NFPA Journal - March/April 2018 - 7
NFPA Journal - March/April 2018 - 8
NFPA Journal - March/April 2018 - 9
NFPA Journal - March/April 2018 - 10
NFPA Journal - March/April 2018 - 11
NFPA Journal - March/April 2018 - 12
NFPA Journal - March/April 2018 - 13
NFPA Journal - March/April 2018 - 14
NFPA Journal - March/April 2018 - 15
NFPA Journal - March/April 2018 - 16
NFPA Journal - March/April 2018 - 17
NFPA Journal - March/April 2018 - 18
NFPA Journal - March/April 2018 - 19
NFPA Journal - March/April 2018 - 20
NFPA Journal - March/April 2018 - 21
NFPA Journal - March/April 2018 - 22
NFPA Journal - March/April 2018 - 23
NFPA Journal - March/April 2018 - 24
NFPA Journal - March/April 2018 - 25
NFPA Journal - March/April 2018 - 26
NFPA Journal - March/April 2018 - 27
NFPA Journal - March/April 2018 - 28
NFPA Journal - March/April 2018 - 29
NFPA Journal - March/April 2018 - 30
NFPA Journal - March/April 2018 - 31
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NFPA Journal - March/April 2018 - 33
NFPA Journal - March/April 2018 - 34
NFPA Journal - March/April 2018 - 35
NFPA Journal - March/April 2018 - 36
NFPA Journal - March/April 2018 - 37
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NFPA Journal - March/April 2018 - 40
NFPA Journal - March/April 2018 - 41
NFPA Journal - March/April 2018 - 42
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NFPA Journal - March/April 2018 - Cover3
NFPA Journal - March/April 2018 - Cover4
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