**TESTIMONY OF**

**DR. SHYAM SUNDER**\
**DIRECTOR**

**BUILDING AND FIRE RESEARCH LABORATORY **

**NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF STANDARDS AND TECHNOLOGY**

> **DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE**
>
> **BEFORE THE**
>
> **HOUSE SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY COMMITTEE\
> SUBCOMMITTEE ON TECHNOLOGY AND INNOVATION**

**"THE U.S. FIRE ADMINISTRATION REAUTHORIZATION ACT OF 2007"**

**OCTOBER 2, 2007**

 

Chairman Wu, Dr. Gingrey, and members of the Subcommittee, I appreciate
the opportunity to appear before you today to discuss the fire research
program at the National Institute of Standards and Technology's (NIST)
Building and Fire Research Lab (BFRL).  NIST conducts research to
promote U.S. innovation and industrial competitiveness by advancing
measurement science, standards, and technology in ways that enhance
economic security and improve our quality of life.  BFRL supports this
mission by anticipating and meeting these needs for the U.S. building
and fire safety industries. In relation to fire research, NIST was given
specific authority under the Federal Fire Prevention and Control Act of
1974 as amended (15 U.S.C. 278f(a)) for "*performing and supporting
research on all aspects of fire with the aim of providing scientific and
technical knowledge applicable to the prevention and control of fires*."

Fire remains a serious problem for our country as evidenced by the
continuing high rates of fire deaths in the U.S. Each year, more than
3000 people die in fires and per capita fire deaths are 70 percent
higher in the U.S. than in the European Union. Fire codes that are
overly prescriptive -- that is, detailed and restrictive -- can increase
the cost of construction and major renovations and possibly stifle
innovative new approaches without actually improving the fire safety of
the building and its occupants. There is much that we do not know about
how the fire-related characteristics of modern furnishings, building
materials, and designs affect the time available for safely exiting
buildings. This is an issue of particular concern in high rise office
buildings and for impaired populations, including those in hospitals,
nursing homes, residences, or other facilities. Manmade fire threats -
whether they are accidental, intentional, or due to new higher risk
technologies -- increase the need for strategies to prevent or limit the
flammability of materials and structures or to improve the ability of
occupants to exit or survive in buildings where fires take place.

NIST fire research is focused on reducing losses and risk by advancing
innovative fire protection technologies and increasing the safety of
buildings threatened by fire. This research has been highlighted as a
critical need in a National Academies study (*Making the Nation Safe
from Fire, a Path Forward in Research*, National Academies Press, 2003).

In addition to improving fire safety in buildings, NIST research
provides the science and performance measures that are critical for
developing and implementing the new technologies necessary to improve
the effectiveness and safety of emergency responders. This includes
developing science-based standards and testing protocols, fire fighter
training tools, and innovative new technologies. We go beyond developing
new tools and methods - NIST gets its research results into the hands of
fire fighters, incident commanders, and other emergency responders. Over
the last few years, NIST research has been used to develop entire
courses or has been integrated into modules for use in courses at the
United States Fire Administration's (USFA) National Fire Academy (NFA),
including the courses *Introduction to Fire Dynamics and Fire Modeling*,
*Management of Fire Prevention Programs*, and *Evaluating Performance
Based Designs*, as well as several courses in the NFA's Degrees at a
Distance Program.

NIST is developing strategies for cost-effectively reducing the nation's
fire losses, both human and financial, based on approaches for limiting
fire growth and spread. The vast majority of fire deaths occur in
residential settings. The key to reducing fire deaths lies in reducing
the chance for a fire to reach "flashover", a condition in which the
entire contents of a room begin to burn simultaneously and produce the
toxic smoke and hot gases that can kill people at remote locations
within a building. Flashover can be controlled by: 1) reducing the
flammability of the materials and products within our homes, 2) reliably
detecting a fire in its nascent state, and 3) automatic suppression
systems. NIST researchers have been pursuing -- and succeeding -- in all
three avenues for reducing the likelihood of flashover.

NIST research supports improvements to building and fire codes,
standards, and practices that reduce the impact of extreme threats to
the safety of buildings, their occupants and emergency responders. As
part of the President\'s American Competitiveness Initiative (ACI), NIST
is developing tools for reducing community losses in wildland-urban
interface fires. The U.S. faces extreme losses of life and property due
to wildland-urban fire. Since 1990 in Colorado, over 450,000 acres, 484
homes and 25 lives were lost to wildland-urban fires.[^1] In 2003 alone
in California, fires cost an estimated \$2 billion in insured damages
and destroyed more than 3600 homes.[^2] During 2000-2003, the cost to
Federal agencies fighting wildland fires averaged \$1.3 billion annually
(in 2004 dollars).^2^ The NIST tools will assist communities all across
the U.S. in their fire risk assessment and choices of
economically-balanced mitigation strategies that limit the ignition of
residences and improve firefighter and community safety.

Issues associated with the emerging use of hydrogen as a fuel in
transportation and domestic/commercial power generation are also being
examined by NIST as part of the ACI. NIST is working to remove technical
barriers that impede the implementation of a hydrogen economy, and to
provide the scientific and technical information, needed to support the
development of codes and standards for the design of engineered
containment and transport systems, and provisions for the mitigation of
potential fire and explosion hazards in both the residential and
commercial sectors.

[NIST Fire Grants Program]{.underline}

For the past 30 years, NIST has been supporting university research
through its fire grants program - currently funded at \$1.3 million per
year. NIST relies on the special expertise of the academic community to
assist in surmounting the complex physical, sociological, and economic
barriers to significantly reducing U.S. fire losses. This program has
been the primary Federal source for fire research in universities and a
source for training the next generation of fire protection engineers and
researchers.

[Fire Research Agenda Strategic Approach]{.underline}

NIST research priorities are determined in a deliberate and inclusive
fashion. We work with a broad range of industries (e.g., building
materials and contents manufacturers, fire protection equipment
suppliers), codes and standards developing organizations (*e.g.*,
International Code Council (ICC), National Fire Protection Association
(NFPA), American Society for Testing and Materials International
(ASTMI), Underwriters Laboratories (UL), FM Approvals (a business unit
of FM Global for commercial property and building insurance), fire
service organizations (*e.g.*, International Association of Fire Chiefs
(IAFC), International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF), National
Association of State Fire Marshals (NASFM), International Association of
Arson Investigators (IAAI), Conference of Fire Safety Instructors
(CFSI), National Fallen Firefighters Foundation (NFFF)), professional
societies (*e.g.*, Society of Fire Protection Engineers (SFPE), American
Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), American Society of Civil
Engineers (ASCE)), public safety groups (*e.g.*, Skyscraper Safety
Campaign, Operation Life Safety, Home Safety Council, Center for Campus
Fire Safety), universities, and other government agencies -- including
USFA, Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), Department of Homeland
Security (DHS), US Forest Service (USFS), Department of Transportation
(DOT), Department of Defense (DOD), National Aeronautics and Space
Administration (NASA), National Institute for Occupational Safety and
Health (NIOSH), and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF).

NIST identifies the needs of these customers and the capabilities of our
collaborators (national and international) through workshops, direct
contact at technical meetings, roadmaps, and established national
priorities. The NIST fire research program evolves from these needs
after considering the potential impact and probability of success, the
fit to the NIST mission, the match of the technical challenge to staff
capabilities, and the potential for leveraging the investment.

The Federal Fire Prevention and Control Act of 1974 as amended (15
U.S.C. 278f(a)) specifically stipulates that \"the content and
priorities of the \[NIST\] research program shall be determined in
consultation with the Administrator of the United States Fire
Administration." There are many examples of how the NIST research
program is coordinated with the USFA.

NIST regularly hosts joint workshops with USFA that include
representatives from the fire service, industry, and other laboratories
to establish priorities for fire service research.  Specific examples
include the *National Fire Service Research Agenda Symposium* hosted
jointly with USFA in Emmitsburg, MD; the *National Fire Fighter Life
Safety Summit* hosted by USFA; and workshops hosted by the National
Fallen Fighters Foundation in Tampa, FL; Indianapolis, IN; San Diego,
CA; and Washington, DC. The results of these workshops have helped set
the current research agenda for both NIST and USFA.  Other Federal
programs, such as the DHS Assistance to Firefighter Grants, are
incorporating these prioritized research areas as part of their proposal
evaluation criteria. Similar workshops are being considered to establish
priorities and timelines for the development of measurements, test
methods, and consensus standards.

NIST's and USFA's research plans are coordinated through an established
liaison arrangement. Together, NIST and USFA jointly fund high-priority
research topics, transfer research results to the fire service, and
conduct investigations of fire fighter fatalities. Recent research
projects include characterizing the performance of personal protective
equipment, developing structural collapse prediction technology, and
assembling the components of a virtual fire fighter trainer for next
generation fire fighting. The research results are transferred to the
fire service via incorporation into training courses at the National
Fire Academy, an electronic newsletter for fire service personnel
(FIRE.Gov), and electronic publications distributed directly to fire
departments and training academies. A USFA employee participated as a
member of the team formed and led by NIST under the National
Construction Safety Team Act to perform a building and fire safety
investigation of the Rhode Island Station Nightclub fire in 2003.
Currently, USFA and NIST are working together to analyze the Charleston
furniture store fire that resulted in nine fire fighter fatalities. The
objectives of this study are to understand the unusual and rapid fire
spread, the impact of smoke and gases on human life, the effect of
ventilation on fire growth and roof collapse, and the possible influence
of a sprinkler system had one been installed. In addition, the study is
considering fire service response and operations with a focus on
establishing a timeline for reconstructing the fire, and to identify
areas in building and fire codes, standards, and practices that warrant
revision. The recommendations from these kinds of investigations are
communicated to the fire service and national voluntary consensus
standards organizations to improve the safety of first responders and
the public.

NIST continues to work closely with standards organizations to support
the development of consensus standards.  NIST provides an unbiased
source of technical information and data, which is critical to the
success of standards development. Recent NIST research has characterized
the performance of personal alert safety systems (PASS), demonstrating
that serious flaws can cause the alarm signal generator to failed at
high temperatures \-- precisely when this safety equipment is most
needed. Based on data collected at NIST, a joint safety warning was
issued nationwide by USFA, NIST, NIOSH, NFPA, IAFC, and IAFF. NIST
research has provided the technical basis for rewriting the test
standards for the PASS device, increasing the likelihood that the device
will work under the extreme conditions typical of a fire environment.

In a similar fashion, NIST research funded internally and by USFA and
DHS has led to the development of a complete suite of performance
metrics and standard test protocols for thermal imagers for first
responder applications. During the last 5 years, thermal imaging cameras
have become more readily available to fire departments for tracking fire
spread and locating fallen fire fighters or building occupants.
Previously, there were no performance metrics or standard test protocols
for fire fighter thermal imagers. The NIST research has provided the
technical basis for the development of a new NFPA standard for thermal
imagers. With this standard in place, the performance of this critical
piece of technology can be evaluated to ensure that thermal imagers are
as effective as possible.

Each year, a significant number of fire fighter fatalities are due to
structural collapse. USFA and NIST- funded research has identified a
promising new technology to continuously monitor the structural
integrity of buildings experiencing fire. This emerging technology, when
fully developed, could provide incident commanders with early warning of
an impending collapse, allowing first responders more time to safely
evacuate from the interior of structures before collapse occurs.

Positive pressure ventilation fans are available to many fire
departments and could provide cooler and smoke-free stairwells for fire
fighter operations or occupant egress. Unfortunately, in the past, this
ventilation technology has been under-utilized due to lack of scientific
data on the interaction between ventilation and fire growth. A current
USFA and NIST collaborative effort has characterized the fan/building
interaction in single story residential structures, high rise
apartment/office structures, and warehouse type structures. NIST
research provides a science-based set of guidelines for the deployment
and operation of positive pressure ventilation fans to improve the
effectiveness of fire fighting activities and evacuation of building
occupants.

As the Nation's primary measurement laboratory, NIST is proud of its
roles as a partner and science and technology resource for USFA, helping
to play a significant role in the development of science-based consensus
standards and reliable, safe, and effective firefighting equipment and
techniques.

I am delighted to have had the opportunity to describe the fire research
program at NIST. The problems we tackle affect people every day, and the
technical challenges require the resources and expertise of institutions
like NIST, working together with the USFA and other organizations to
improve fire safety and the effectiveness of firefighting in America.

Thank you and I would be happy to answer any of your questions.

[^1]: http://csfs.colostate.edu/library/pdfs/fire/statistics/fire_history.pdf

[^2]: http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d05380.pdf