UNT professor works to predict a fire's probable pathway

Earl Zimmerman, chair of the biology department, spent part of his summer vacation observing firefighters battling blazes in the West.

Zimmerman and his former student Tom Alcoze, an associate professor of forestry at Northern Arizona University, are conducting research to help predict the path a fire will most likely take.

Zimmerman was in Durango, Colo., June 18-25, watching the destruction caused by some of the worst fire outbreaks in recent memory.

"In Durango, when the fire was at its peak, I spent time looking at the fuel loads (an overabundance of flammable material)," says Zimmerman. "The whole area was under severe drought conditions and the dry, dead vegetation provided fuel for the fire."

Zimmerman talked with firefighters who were on the frontlines of the wildfire battles.

"They were literally standing on the front porches of people's homes, protecting them from fire," he says.

Zimmerman says the fire behavior was different from anything firefighters had ever seen. The fire path was unpredictable because of the 100-year drought conditions and volatile fuel loads.

"In the wake of these intense fires," says Zimmerman, "we can examine ways to reduce fuel loads and save habitat, wildlife and even people from destruction."

BY CATHY CASHIO ccashio@unt.edu

Other web resources

• The science of a wildfire

Other featured articles in this issue

• Regents confirm Lee Jackson as new UNT System chancellor
• There's a new bird on campus
• Summer graduation is Aug. 10
• About the commencement speaker
• Mean Green Village to return to practice field for Homecoming 2002
• UNT enters agreement with Mexican university
• 2002 Summer II enrollment climbs 8.5 percent over 2001
• UNT group ranks among the world's best computer security teams

homepage