About the Wildland Fire Lab

The hub of our research group's activity is the Humboldt Wildland Fire Laboratory located in Natural Resource Sciences 222. The Fire Lab is among the most well-equipped fire research facility in any university in the US. We are interested in collaboration and welcome visitors. See a feature on the lab here: http://now.humboldt.edu/news/fire-lab-on-the-cutting-edge/

Burning Facility

We have a 3 m x 3 m adjustable fume hood that can be raised or lowered above a 1 m x 1 m stainless steel platform or “burn table.” The platform can be modified, moved, or can support supplemental apparatus.

Thermal infrared imaging

We have a research-grade FLiR SC640 thermal iR camera with substantial still and video imaging capabilities. We use the camera extensively in the lab and during wildland fires. There are only a handful of these in US universities.

Equipment

The laboratory contains hardware that increases our capacity for field and lab research. We have: Campbell Scientific dataloggers, multiplexers, and thermocouples to measure the environmental conditions in field and lab burning;

  • VWR 28 cu. ft. forced-air oven and a Memmert programmable drying oven;
  • NextEngine scanner with ScanPro software to estimate fuel surface area:volume;
  • High-quality video camera utilized for field and lab burning;
  • Mettler analytical balances;
  • Campbell Scientific DMM 600 duff moisture meter;
  • Access to additional drying ovens and fuel chemistry analysis equipment; and
  • Fuel storage capacity, and have a collection of fuels collected from throughout the US and Central America.
  • High resolution scanner for leaf and wood imaging
  • WinFolia software for leaf and needle morphometrics
  • Increment borers and tree core processing equipment
  • WinDendro software for tree ring and resin duct analyses
Fire Lab Equipment