Fire Investigation Data Portal

Knowledge of fire dynamics is critical for fire investigators to properly identify a fire’s origin. Fire dynamics depend on the relationship of the fuel, heat, and ventilation during a fire event. A change in ventilation as simple as a door left open by an occupant fleeing the fire, an open window remote from the fire, or a window that fails as a result of fire growth could greatly impact the fire damage inside the structure. 

The FSRI Fire Investigation Portal utilizes research results from the  National Institute of Justice (Award No. 2015-DN-BX-K052) funded project “Impact of Ventilation on Fire Patterns,” showing how ventilation impacts fire patterns and electrical system damage in single-family homes. Providing the opportunity for deeper dive into this research, our Fire Investigation Data Portal features technical reports, an online training, and interactive pages that allow viewers to experience different aspects of the individual experiments. All of the sensor data, photographs, and videos generated during the research are available, including information about the following key aspects: 

• Examination of how differences in ventilation to full-scale structure fires result in changes to the fire damage and fire patterns within the structure.
• Measurements of the fire environment within the structures and comparisons with the fire damage in the structures.
• Documentation of the repeatability or lack thereof of the fire conditions and fire patterns within a structure based on the available ventilation.
• Foundation for a discussion of basic fire dynamics in structures, specifically with regard to the impact of ventilation on the resulting fire patterns.

Use the Fire Investigation Data Portal to interact with sensor data

Click here to access the portal.