by Mike Gallagher, Matt Hoehler, Inga La Puma, Nick Skowronski, Rory Hadden, Eric Mueller, Ken Clark, Zak Campbell, Carlos Walker-Ravena, and Simone Zen
In March of 2019, researchers from the USFS Northern Research Station’s Silas Little Experimental Forest, University of Edinburgh, National Institute for Standards and Technology, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Notre Dame, University of Michigan, West Virginia University, Rochester Institute of Technology and the Tall Timbers Research Station came together in the New Jersey Pinelands to conduct a series of innovative fire research experiments on New Jersey Conservation Foundation’s Parker Preserve with the help of New Jersey Forest Fire Service and students from the Northern Arizona University (NAU) SAFE program. The main research project was geared towards understanding how fuel and environmental conditions operate at different scales to produce variable fire behavior and ember production and funded by the Department of Defense’s Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program and the Joint Fire Science Program. The NAU students, visiting as part of a fire extern program, worked directly under NJFFS section fire wardens Thomas Gerber and Ben Brick to create a safe baseline, prior to the ignition of the research experiment area. While this research is ongoing and will produce interesting findings in the coming months, NIST’s fireproof 360 degree video camera collected this exciting interactive video which demonstrates what things are like inside a real prescribed fire!
Use your cursor to pan around during the video for different views of the fire coming through!