Skip to main content

Firebrand Processes in Wildland Fires and Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI) Fires

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Wildfires and Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI) Fires

Definition

Firebrands signify any hot object in flight that are capable to ignite other fuel types. Firebrands are produced or generated from the combustion of vegetative and structural fuels. Firebrand processes include generation, transport, deposition, and ignition of various fuel types, leading to fire spread processes at distances far removed from the original fire source. While the term ember has been used to sometimes indicate the same connotation as firebrand, these terms are in fact slightly different. Spotting, a term most often used with wildland fires, refers to fire spread processes ahead of the main fire front due to firebrands. The term spotting has also been used to indicate structure ignition by firebrands in WUI fires.

Introduction

Wildland fires that spread into urban areas, termed wildland-urban interface (WUI) fires, are becoming more and more common across multiple locations of the world (Manzello et al. 2018). The 2018 WUI fires in the US state of California...

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Barr BW, Ezekoye OA (2013) Thermo-mechanical modeling of firebrand breakage on a fractal tree. Proc Combust Inst 34:2649–2656

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kortas S, Mindykowski P, Consalvi JL, Mhiri H, Porterie B (2009) Experimental validation for a numerical model for the transport of firebrands. Fire Saf J 44:1095–1102

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Manzello SL (2014) Enabling the investigation of structure vulnerabilities to wind-driven firebrand showers in wildland urban interface (WUI) Fires. Fire Saf Sci 11:83–96

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Manzello SL, Suzuki S (2017a) Experimental Investigation of Wood Decking Assemblies Exposed to Firebrand Showers. Fire Saf J 92:122–131

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Manzello SL, Suzuki S (2017b) Generating firebrand showers characteristic of burning structures. Proc Combust Inst 36:3247–3252

    Google Scholar 

  • Manzello SL, Cleary TG, Shields JR, Yang JC (2006) On the ignition of fuel beds by firebrands. Fire Mat 30:77–87

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Manzello SL, Maranghides A, Mell WE (2007) Firebrand generation from burning vegetation. Int J Wildland Fire 16:458–462

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Manzello SL, Park SH, Suzuki S, Shields JR, Hayashi Y (2011) Experimental investigation of structure vulnerabilities to firebrand showers. Fire Saf J 46:568–578

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Manzello SL, Blanchi R, Gollner MJ, Gorham D, McAllister S, Pastor E, Planas E, Reszka P, Suzuki S (2018) Summary of workshop large outdoor fires and the built environment. Fire Saf J 100:76–92

    Google Scholar 

  • Suzuki S, Manzello SL (2017) Experiments to provide the scientific-basis for laboratory standard test methods for firebrand exposure. Fire Saf J 91:784–790

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tarifa CS, del Notario PP, Moreno FG (1965) On the flight paths and lifetimes of burning particles of wood. Proc Combust Inst 10:1021–1037

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Samuel L. Manzello .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Section Editor information

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this entry

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this entry

Manzello, S.L. (2019). Firebrand Processes in Wildland Fires and Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI) Fires. In: Manzello, S. (eds) Encyclopedia of Wildfires and Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI) Fires. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51727-8_261-1

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51727-8_261-1

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-51727-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-51727-8

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference EngineeringReference Module Computer Science and Engineering

Publish with us

Policies and ethics