Taking Measure Blog: Fire

Fire

Four men are protected by a net structure as they look away from the camera toward a drone flying in a large high-ceilinged room with street signs on the walls.

Drones in Disaster Zones: How Advanced 3D Mapping Technology Can Help First Responders Save Lives

January 29, 2025

NIST is working to help emergency workers have more information in a crisis by encouraging the development of advanced drones at an affordable price.

From Safer Skies to Fewer Fires: 10 Ways NIST Impacts Your Daily Life

December 19, 2024

If you’ve ever had a medical test, flown on an airplane, or needed to check the time, NIST’s work affects your life every day.

Esther Baumann leans over a lab table, surrounded with wires and scientific equipment.

A Laser Could Offer a Peek Into the Insides of Our Muscles or Look Through Fire

November 20, 2024

A NIST-developed laser system might someday check your muscle health when you flex your arm. These lasers can also see how an object changes during heat

A Christmas tree is engulfed in flames. To the left is a chair. In front is a coffee table, rug and fishbowl. To the right is a tall bookshelf. There are 3 wrapped presents under the tree. A timer reads 8:04 seconds.

Safety Moon Shot: How Fire Research Cut Deaths by Half in a Generation

October 29, 2024

NIST research helped make the smoke alarm a standard part of our homes, and it’s one of many ways our fire research has made everyone safer.

The Sound of Soot: How a Strange Noise Can Keep Us Safer From Fires

March 27, 2024

Where there’s smoke, there’s fire. Where there’s fire, there is soot. And where there is soot, there is … noise.

Building in a Changing Climate: A Q&A With NIST’s Joannie Chin

July 27, 2022

The director of NIST’s Engineering Laboratory discusses the role of buildings in creating and mitigating climate change.

A couch is in flames in a mocked-up room inside a large fire testing facility.

Saving Lives by Making Upholstered Furniture More Resistant to Fire

February 9, 2022

Fires that begin on upholstered furniture such as sofas are the leading cause of home fire fatalities in the United States, accounting for about 600 deaths per

A white telescope dish is surrounded by wooded mountains in autumn colors.

In Case You Missed It From NIST: 2021 Edition

December 21, 2021

While the pandemic still grips the world, researchers at NIST continue their work on COVID-19 related research, as well as the wide range of other science and

Inside the Towers on 9/11: My Story of Investigating the WTC Evacuation

September 3, 2021

The kickoff meeting On Nov. 1, 2002, in a small conference room on the Gaithersburg, Maryland, campus of the National Institute of Standards and Technology

20 Years Later: NIST's World Trade Center Investigation and Its Legacy

August 18, 2021

The collapse of the World Trade Center (WTC) buildings following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, was one of the worst-ever building disasters in

Taking Measure