In an effort to continue my education after graduating high school, I began studying Fire Protection Engineering at the University of Maryland. While attending school I also joined the College Park Volunteer Department where I lived in their student dormitory for four years. While there, I have held various positions on both the membership committee and as the live-in 'proctor' of the dormitory before being promoted to an officer role. I currently serve as a Lieutenant in the department and hope to finish my undergraduate degree in December. These past four years spent living in the firehouse and attending classes have provided me with a unique education in not only the science and theory of fire and fire protection but also practical hands on experience as well.

Between classes and keeping up with the latest news in the fire service I was exposed to the work that is done at the Fire Safety Research Institute (FSRI), part of UL Research Institutes. Seeing the research that is being done and how that work is driven by their mission, my interest was peaked. This led me to seek an internship this past summer. Firefighting is an inherently dangerous profession. We should leverage any way that we can to reduce the risks for the citizens of the communities we serve and for fellow firefighters. This past summer I was able to learn from the researchers and engineers at FSRI to see how they are able to use modern technology coupled with a fundamental understanding of fire dynamics to help keep firefighters safer.

Throughout the summer I was given the opportunity to work on various projects and get a wide range of hands on experience with the research that is done at the FSRI. The first project that I had the opportunity to work on was FireCARES. FireCARES is a community assessment and response evaluation system that uses national fire data to analyze departments. FireCARES uses NFIRS data that gets reported annually from over 23,000 fire departments across the country to provide response metrics to every department in the database. Being able to work on the website and to get an inside look at how the data is analyzed has provided me with a whole new perspective on the fire service as a whole. Across the country there are thousands of fire departments that all have the same common goal yet they go about accomplishing that goal differently. For example, differences range from the resources available (the number of firefighters that are on duty or number and type of apparatus) to the complex software aiding dispatch. While I’ve been aware of these variations across the country, after looking at hundreds of departments and all of the information about them I began to understand why the differences exist and why it is important to quantify them. By collecting response data and then analyzing it, FireCARES is providing valuable information to departments about how effective they are at protecting the citizens of their community.

Another project that I was able to become involved in was the coordinated attack study of various fires in multi-family dwellings. The garden style apartments located in Cobb County Georgia were used to study various tactics for fighting fires in multi-family dwellings. Although I was only able to see four of the experiments that were carried out, it was an invaluable experience. The first thing that struck me when I arrived at the experiment site was the size and scale of the project. I had known that they were full-scale apartments that would be used in the experiments, however I had no idea just what that would entail. Being able to see all of the work that goes into setting up the experiments was eye opening. Doing full-scale fire research takes serious planning and setup as well as ingenuity. The way that all of the data gets collected was the most interesting thing I was exposed to. Looking at all of the different sensors that are used only cemented just how thorough and complete the data collection is. This in turn only further validated the research that is being done and how it can be used to accurately analyze the fire scenario. I found it interesting how various sensors and data collection devices were carefully placed at key points throughout the buildings to make sure that nothing was missed. The scale of each experiment combined with the limited number of apartments, meant that there was really only one attempt for each test. Being a part of the meticulous setups and learning how the instrumentation was actually used was great experience. It also put into practice many of the concepts that I was exposed to in my lab classes at the University of Maryland.

The idea of data collection and analysis was one of the main concepts that was discussed on a much smaller scale during my fire assessment lab class that I recently took. This is just another example of using my experiences in school and applying them to a real life research scenario. In addition, I found it very helpful to just sit back and watch the experiments take place. Often times firefighters are so focused on their specific job or task on the fireground that they do not get to see the full picture of what is going on. I found this to be true after watching four of the tests solely from a spectator perspective. Getting to watch the fireground as a whole from a third party perspective was also great experience and was something that allowed me to look closely at the effects of various tactics.

The last project that I worked on was a data aggregation project. Over the last few years UL has set quite a bit of things on fire. They have burned everything from plastic tubing and sofa cushions all the way up to full-scale houses in the name of research. With every test conducted there is a set of data that comes with it. The goal of this work was to take the data that has been collected and make a database that can be used for a variety of purposes. To start this process I sifted through the hundreds of data files that were produced when something was burned in either the cone calorimeter or the room scale calorimeter to aggregate the peak heat release rate as well as the cumulative heat released. By compiling all of the data into one place it can then be further analyzed to identify trends for future reference in research.

This summer has provided me with the opportunity to continue to broaden my horizons and experiences related to my education and the fire service. I feel that through working on the various projects in the office with FireCARES as well as getting to participate in some of the coordinated attack testing I have gained unique experience that will provide more opportunities going forward.

Free Burn of a Chair in the Lab.