Evolution and History of Fire Science in the United States

p INTRODUCTION

Fire is as old as civilization and fire fighting an old routine . But only during later 19th century the frequency and size of fires became objects of concern . Forests seemed to be getting less fire resistant resulting in erosion of forest fringes , ecological diss deforestation and land degradation . Over the years fire culture had changed . The nomadic Indians who were original inhabitants of forests had learnt to live in concert with the fire , moving out into new territories when fire broke out . But the new settlers were for protecting

their belongings , their log houses They managed fire by suppression , putting it out violently . Forest fire when thus put out left huge fuel loads behind feeding conflagrations . Post 1970s , America was recolonising ' its countryside , the wilderness and the uncultivated fields . Vacation homes and traffic flow along the highways near the forest areas paved way for man made accidents and these new Frontiers came to be called The Intermix or I Zone (Gary W .Mullins

Gradually 80 of the Americans lived in that Zone . Political policies encouraged promoting of houses in these zones but no laws yet framed for fire safety (Pyne , 2007

Like the US and Canada , Australia too had forests , and losses through forest fires . Australia was ravaged by great fires during 1983 The ash Wednesday Fires . It reorganized its fire fighting strategies quickly .They made scientific study into the role of combustible roofs , the way the wind set in after fire was put out , and the spark showers that followed and programs for householders were taught to evacuate their houses during fire emergencies . They put in place a sheltering program

But In the US fire fighting had only been a local issue . The protection burden had been shared by promoters and householders . There was no national agenda .This study traces the evolution of the Fire service into Fire science in the US

THE EVOLVING FIRE SCIENCE IN US

In 1997-98 , forest fires were calculated as causing 41 of the size of fossil fuel emissions (Cochrane , 2003 . The U .S FOREST Service was formalized only during the early twentieth century , much after the Great Barbecue fires of 1880 (Pyne , 1997 ) and a national approach to wild land protection formed . Resource management agencies led by federal states were founded and a national perspective of fire eradication started evolving

Invention of fire fighting hardware and redesigning of existing ones were a result of growing knowledge about Fire . Emergency communications also improved

Disaster management as a policy , shaped after the 2003 San diego fires For the effects of fire cascaded into other areas like agriculture and health . Smoke and Carbon emission were health hazards as the evolving medical sciences underscored

After October 2003 slowly , fire resistant building codes were established and Shelter-in-place programs were started . The Fire services strategies also underwent changes . Fire extinguishing is not just a hose and water pump action , but a lot of factors like Decision Making in Organization dynamics , Organizational culture , leadership Organizational learning , high reliability organizing...