NEW YORK—New York City Fire Department (FDNY) is setting controlled fires in vacated residential buildings on Governors Island for six days.
From Monday, FDNY started using high-tech sensors and heat-resistant cameras to document the dynamics of fires in different scenarios.
“As construction has changed in recent years, as well as the type of materials that are used in home furnishings, we have experienced fires that burn faster and reach high temperatures more quickly,” Fire Commissioner Salvatore Cassano said in a release.
Cassano said that while FDNY has adjusted how they operate over the years, this study will allow them to validate and improve their procedures to better protect firefighters.
More and more home furnishing products include petroleum-based and synthetic materials. A room that once took 20 minutes to completely ignite, can now ignite in about four or five minutes, according to FNDY data.
This will be the largest scale of test fires the FDNY has conducted in a live setting, allowing analysts and firefighters to study the fires from start to finish. The fires will take place in 20 wood-frame townhouses with brick exteriors in Brick Village—all have been slated for demolition.
Fires will be started in different areas of the townhouses, and firefighters will test different techniques, but the furniture in each scenario will be made from the same material.
“We want to learn more about the changing fire dynamics and how they grow and spread,” FDNY Battalion 49 Chief James Kane said in the release.
FDNY partnered with the National Institute of Standards and Technology, Underwriters Laboratory, and the Trust for Governors Island, to run the analysis.
The 18 townhouses formerly housed members of the Coast Guard.
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