At first glance, it could be mistaken for a big, red, metal barn rising up on the horizon outside Waterloo. But the bank of huge fans at one end of the building suggests that something very different goes on inside.
This is the Live Fire Research Facility at the University of Waterloo. The facility allows researchers to set and study all kinds of fires in a controlled environment, and the fans add the final touch of realism: winds of up to 47 kilometres per hour. The cavernous main test space contains a two-storey “burn house”, but can also be configured to study fires in vehicles or even aircraft. Cameras and sensors in the room feed 380 streams of data to an adjoining lab and control room. The structure, and its state-of-the-art equipment, was funded in part by an investment from the Ontario Innovation Trust.
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| Fighting Fire With Fire Researchers at the University of Waterloo are setting fires to learn how to fight them. |
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The facility—unique in the world for its versatility—enables researchers to create a variety of fire scenarios, and then look at how those fires spread. Research here is already leading to new insights into fire prevention, detection and suppression, as well as occupational safety for fire fighters. One example: local Kitchener fire-fighters have changed the way they use fans to clear smoke from a burning building, based on lessons learned at the Live Fire facility. Every year, fire claims more than 330 lives in Canada, injures over 2,000 and causes almost $1.5 billion in property loss. By fighting fire with fire, however, researchers at the Live Fire facility are working to lessen the damage that fire does.
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A trust endowed by the
Ontario Government |
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