NIST, Forest Service Propose System to Help Communities Resist
Wildfires From NIST Tech Beat: December 12, 2012 Contact:
Michael E. Newman Federal researchers have developed the first-
ever rating system that allows communities to assess their risk
from wildfires—on a building-by-building basis—and then ties
that assessment to improved building codes, standards and
practices that could help reduce the threat. The proposed
Wildland Urban Interface (WUI) Hazard Scale addresses fires that
occur where developed and undeveloped areas meet. It is
described in a report* by the National Institute of Standards
and Technology (NIST) in collaboration with the U.S. Forest
Service (USFS). The new scale joins others that help to express
levels of risk from natural disasters—the Richter scale for
earthquakes, the Saffir-Simpson for hurricanes and the Enhanced
Fujita for tornados, according to NIST's Alexander Maranghides,
who created the new wildfire hazard assessment tool with William
Mell of the USFS. "Now, we have propose