After millennia of harnessing, fighting, and simply being mesmerized by fire, humans still know little about how wildfire actually spreads, research forester Mark Finney . How are flames able to travel horizontally and spread? Why do live plant materials combust so easily when they are essentially all water?
With high-speed cameras and digital imaging tools at the ready, Mr. Finney and his fellow researchers routinely set experimental fires in wind tunnels, combustion chambers, and fire-whirl generators at the Missoula Fire Science Lab in Missoula, Mont.
By studying flame structures and fire dynamics in the laboratory, scientists can help firefighters better predict how a wildfire might spread in the field.
