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Let it burn

Sept 4, 2013 - The U.S. Forest Service (USFS) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) recently released a study on one of California's most devastating wildland fires. It finds that damage and destruction were more prevalent in structures that measured as highest risk from fire and embers on the WUI Hazard Scale. Letting high-risk structures burn and focusing on lower-risk areas can save the lives of firefighters.

Measures for reducing damage and property loss from fires are most effective when bases on accurate assessments of exposure risks for the individual structures and the community as a whole. Defensive efforts were more than twice as effective in saving low-exposure sections of the community as opposed to areas that were determined to be high-risk.

Fore more information, go to http://nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/TechnicalNotes/NIST.TN.1796.pdf.

September 4, 2013  By  Amie Silverwood



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