Matheson Announces Wildfire Research Grant for U of U

July 1, 2009

Washington, D.C. –Congressman Jim Matheson said today that a $99,258 federal grant has been awarded to researchers at the University of Utah’s Building and Fire Research Laboratory to improve predictions of the growth, spread and suppression of wildfires that occur where the forest and communities intersect.

The funding is the third installment of a grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

“Lives have been lost and millions of dollars in property damage have occurred in recent years from catastrophic wildfires in the West, particularly in those areas where development and forests meet,” said Matheson.  “U of U researchers are working on better computer simulations to help understand and predict how wind and geography combine to spread these fires.”

Matheson said the research project seeks to improve the ability of NIST’s wild land and Wild land Urban Interface fire code to simulate fires in a natural landscape setting and over a wide range of meteorological conditions. 

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