Fire Behavior Assessment Team (FBAT)—Measurements
During Active Wildfires
Carol M. Ewell, Ecologist, USDA Forest Service, Adaptive Management Services Enterprise Team (AMSET), Sonora, CA;
Alicia L. Reiner, Fire Ecologist, USDA Forest Service, AMSET, Columbia, SC; Nicole M. Vaillant, Fire Ecologist, USDA Forest
Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station, Prineville, OR; Matthew B. Dickinson, Research Ecologist, USDA Forest
Service, Northern Research Station, Delaware, OH; Jo Ann Fites-Kaufman, Planning Ecologist, USDA Forest Service, Pacific
Southwest Region, Vallejo, CA.
Abstract—Fire behavior and fire effects models are used frequently to inform fire and land management
decisions despite their limited evaluation with field measurements, particularly from active wildland fires.
The Fire Behavior Assessment Team (FBAT), under the coordination of the Adaptive Management Services
Enterprise Team (AMSET, U.S. Forest Service1) and in collaboration with land managers and research groups,
is focused on collecting fire behavior data on active wildfires to advance three objectives:
1) Provide pre-, active-, and immediate post-fire data and active fire video useful for improving firefighter
safety and public information;
2) Measure fire behavior and effects on fuel treatments, past disturbances, and on archeological, botanical,
and biological resources; and
3) Build datasets useful for calibrating fuel consumption, smoke production, and fire behavior and fire effects
models.
In coordination with incident management teams, sampling sites are located opportunistically ahead of fires
accounting for expected fire behavior, safe access, and operational tactics. Measurements at each site consist of fuel consumption estimated from pre- and post-fire inventories, as well as wind, temperature, and fire
behavior data derived from heat-resistant equipment left on-site prior to, during, and following passage of
the active fire front. Fuel moisture data are collected, time-permitting, prior to the fire. Thermocouple arrays
are used to estimate fire spread rates and flame front residence times, and heat flux sensors measure radiant and total energy transport. Video imagery is used to estimate flame heights and describe general fire
behavior (e.g., flame depth, spot fire ignition) and cup anemometers measure wind speed at a height of five
feet above the ground surface. Several fire severity measures (e.g., crown scorch percentage and bole char
heights, understory vegetation and soil severity, and fuel consumption) are recorded post-fire.
Since the inception of the FBAT module in 2002 (Vaillant and others 2014), the full data complement has
been collected on 17 wildfires (109 sites) and two prescribed burns (32 sites). Collection of data under wildfire
conditions is challenging but has proven to be useful. Data collected by FBAT have been reported in wildfirespecific case studies of fuel treatment effectiveness and incorporated in a California study assessing modeled
fuel consumptions as related to wildfire emissions (Lydersen and others 2014). Conversations with the scientific and fire management communities are ongoing about methods and applications for FBAT data relative
to improving smoke modeling and remotely sensed fire severity maps, assessing fire behavior models, and
informing fuel treatment effectiveness evaluation and planning. This presentation outlined data collection
methods, described measured variables, and demonstrated the utility of these data for fire managers and
scientists. Data collected from the 2008 Clover and 2011 Lion Fires were compared to the BehavePlus fire
modeling system’s flame length and rate of spread outputs which indicated further adjustments are needed
for models to better predict active fire spread as captured in the field data.
In: Keane, Robert E.; Jolly, Matt; Parsons, Russell; Riley, Karin. 2015. Proceedings
of the large wildland fires conference; May 19-23, 2014; Missoula, MT. Proc.
RMRS-P-73. Fort Collins, CO: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky
Mountain Research Station. 345 p.
USDA Forest Service Proceedings RMRS-P-73. 2015.
The content of this paper reflects the views of the authors, who are responsible for the
facts and accuracy of the information presented herein.
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