Homes in New York Being Set on Fire Intentionally - as part of the news series by GeoBeats.

Firefighters on New York’s Governors Island are setting fires in 18 abandoned houses to run tests which will update their current techniques and practices. The homes have been filled with sensors to measure gas levels, temperature and air flow. Newer materials used on houses burn differently and much faster than older materials, so new methods are necessary. The New York Fire Department is working on the project with Underwriters Laboratories and the National Institute of Standards and Technology. A fire protection engineer said: “The real beauty of this is working with the fire service. We can do lots of things in the laboratories, but firefighters don’t fight fires in laboratories.”

The enormous wild fires in Colorado are being studied by fire behavior analyst Diana Allen, who tries to predict the conditions and movements of the fires while working with the firefighters every morning to help plan for preventative measures. Using weather patterns, and terrain, they incorporate technology into the fire fighting effort. They can’t always tell what the fire is going to do so further studies are integral for future wild fire prevention.