"Fire is a mysterious phenomenon" Movie that has infiltrated the laboratory "Fire Lab" exploring the mystery of the fire

A large wildfire fire is occurring every year in the United States, and its damage amounts to hundreds of billions yen in total. Forest fires not only damage people and property,Large-scale forest fires in Los Angeles that occurred in December 2017ByPart of the history of Silicon Valley "HP founder archiveIt may cause cultural damage such as burning down. In "Fire Lab (Fire Research Institute)" which studies to understand the fire mechanism such as mountain fires etc., the "mysterious phenomenon" caused by fire is studied every day. A movie about such Fire Lab "The Fire Lab"But foreign mediaAtlanticofOfficial YouTube channelIt is published in.

The Fire Lab - YouTube


This is Fire Institute of Fire Science in Missoula, Montana, also known as Fire Lab.


Mark Finney of Fire Lab conducts movies. Finney-Residential area fire in Missouri, USAFrom the time of belonging to the forestry research division.


Fire Lab was founded in 1960 to understand the mechanism of fire.


According to statistics of the Federal Government of the United States, about 355 billion yen of national budget is used annually by forest fires, about 16,000 square meters are burned down.


"And it is necessary to understand more about a lot of fire".


In the movie, some of the experiments being conducted at the laboratory will be introduced.


This is a tunnel of the wind tunnel experiment which can wind, this time we will conduct a fire experiment.


"In this tunnel, thick cardboards are aligned with exactly the same size by laser."


In this experiment, we will reproduce "Wildfire Fire" by putting fire on the floor with thick paper and fuel, and conduct experiments to elucidate the spreading of wildfire fire, or "fire spread".


We have installed cameras everywhere to shoot this experimental landscape.


Two of the installed cameras can shoot super slow videoHigh speed camerais. It is said that such experiments have made it easier for analysis to proceed due to advances in equipment such as digital video cameras.


"This experiment is a one-time match and I do not know if I do not see what happens."


The experiment started. In the movie, along with the BGM of the purely piano, the wilderness of cardboard flares up vigorously.


Fire Lab staff who observe the pattern.


I gaze at how the fire burns and observe it.


The experiment is over. Wild fields made of a large quantity of cardboard became large burning shells.


I will analyze the image taken with the digital video camera on the PC screen and analyze how the spread of fire spreads out laterally.


In the image, the flame caused by burning thick paper is divided into two large fire, and it becomes two mountains. In this experiment, it turned out that rising flames are responsible for spreading in the lateral direction.


Becomes large vortices two fire rotate in vertical inward turning and outer loop, respectively, pulling the fire from the side, that the "one another have produced a cycle comprising a large fire."


Through this experiment, it was found that "spreading fire" is not a phenomenon spreading one big flame but a phenomenon with a certain pattern.


Moreover, it is known that the way of burning "liquid surface burning" caused by fires of oil storage tanks and fire of wooden buildings and how burning wildfires of 100 meters in diameter are close.


The result of this research is based on the long-standing research results conducted by Fire Lab, and it is said that it will be the key to elucidating the fire spread of wilderness fire.


This woman,Sara McAllisterIs studying the physical fire process.


In this laboratory McAllister is investigating how the "tree crown fire" where the thick leaf "crown" burns, next the whole tree is covered with flames.


"One thing we really do not understand is how the plants that are" living fuels "burn,"


According to McAllister, leaves and trees burning with fire are alive, so sugar, fat and protein are created in leaves and needles, converted and preserved.


The moisture contained in the leaves and the trunk "explodes" by heat, and it is possible that a fire may be occurring by igniting the flammable sugar content or starch, etc. which was revealed by the rupture.


"But, we'd better presume that these are just guesses."


This manJack CohenHe is an expert in physics.


According to Mr. Cohen, if we do not know how the fire will occur on the laboratory scale, we can not obtain a highly reliable hypothesis for the fire that works on the scale of nature. At that time society will be frightened by forests and fireballs that are likely to cause a fire.


"To elucidate how the fire spreads far exceeds the academic meaning"


"It means that we can start dealing with forest fires as a natural disaster like a part of institution and society, there is no need to take it as a human disaster."


Finney finally talks about the fire. "Fire is inescapable, in reality extreme situations beyond our control will occur"


"There are so many contradictions in the mechanism of fire, and therefore fire is a mysterious phenomenon."