Skip to main content
Book cover

Encyclopedia of Wildfires and Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI) Fires pp 1–11Cite as

Wetting Agents and Foams

  • 109 Accesses

Synonyms

Surface-active agent; Surfactant; Wetter

Definition

Wetting agents as used in this contribution are either water or materials consisting mainly of water. They are used to pre-wet fuels exposed to wildland urban interface fires to prevent ignition and fire spread on these fuels.

Introduction

Wildland Urban Interface (WUI) fires have become a serious problem affecting most notably California, Colorado, Arizona, Texas, North Carolina, Tennessee, and numerous other states in the United States. These fires occur all over the world. Some of them result in catastrophes destroying a large number of buildings. Three recent examples in the United States include the “Tunnel/Oakland” fire in Oakland, California, in 1991 that destroyed over 2900 homes; the “Old, Cedar, etc.” fire in Southern California in 2003 that destroyed over 3640 homes; the “Witch, Slide, Grass Valley, etc.” fires in Southern California in 2007 that destroyed over 2180 homes (Cohen 2008), and the Chimney Tops 2 fire...

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution.

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8

References

  • American Society for Testing and Materials (2007a) ASTM E 1623-07: test method for determination of fire and thermal parameters of materials, products and systems using an intermediate scale calorimeter (ICAL)

    Google Scholar 

  • American Society for Testing and Materials (2007b) ASTM E108-07: standard test methods for fire tests of roof coverings

    Google Scholar 

  • Boundless (2016) “Evaporation.” Boundless physics boundless. 26 May 2016. Retrieved 5 Aug 2017 from https://www.boundless.com/physics/textbooks/boundless-physics-textbook/heat-and-heat-transfer-13/phase-equilbrium-115/evaporation-402-6300/

  • California Building Code (2007) January 1 (2009) supplement chapter 7a [Sfm] materials and construction methods for exterior wildfire exposure

    Google Scholar 

  • Cary GJ, Bradstoch R (2003) Sensitivity of fire regimes to management. In: Cary G., Lindenmayer, D. and Dovers. S. (eds) Australia Burning: Fire Ecology, Policy and Management issues. CSIRO Publishing, Melbourne, 65–81

    Google Scholar 

  • Caton ES, Hakes RSP, Gorham DJ, Zhou A, Golliner MJ (2016) A review of pathways for building fire spread in the wildland urban interface part I: exposure conditions. Fire Technol 53:429–437

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Cohen J (2004) Relating flame radiation to home ignition using modeling and experimental crown fires. Can J Forest Res 34:1616–1626

    Google Scholar 

  • Cohen J (2008) The wildland-urban interface fire problem. Forest Hist Today Fall 2008:20–26

    Google Scholar 

  • Glenn GM, Bingol G, Chiou B-S, Klamczynski AP, Pan Z (2012) Sodium bentonitebased coatings containing starch for protecting structures in wildfire emergency situations. Fire Saf J 51:85–92. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.firesaf.2012.03.005

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Hakes RSP, Caton SE, Gollner MJ (2017) A review of pathways for building fire spread in the wildland urban interface part II: response of components and systems and mitigation strategies in the United States. Fire Technol 53:475–515

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • International Association of Fire Chiefs (2006) In: Buckman JM (ed) Chief fire officer’s desk reference. International Association of Fire Chiefs and Jones and Bartlett Publishers, Sudbury

    Google Scholar 

  • Manzello S.L., Blanchi R., Gollner M., McAllister S, Planas E, Rein G., Reszka P., Suzuki S. (2017), Summary of workshop large outdoor fires and the built environment, NIST Spec Publ 1213:30

    Google Scholar 

  • Ronald GR, (2008) The Effects of Winds from burning structures on Ground-Fire propagation at the Wildland-Urban interface, Combustion Theory and Modeling. Vol. 12, No 3, June 2008, 477–496

    Google Scholar 

  • Ross W, Brackmort B (2012) Wildfire protection in the wildland-urban interface CRS report for congress congressional research service, RS21880

    Google Scholar 

  • Smalley J (2007) Rural and suburban life and property protection. NFPA J 101(6):36–44

    Google Scholar 

  • Urbas J (2013) Effectiveness of pre-applied wetting agents in prevention of wildland urban interface fires. Fire Mater 37(8):563–580. https://doi.org/10.1002/fam

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Urbas J, Desai P, Kimble J, Zhou A, Myers R (2011) Effectiveness of pre-applied wetting agents in prevention of wildland urban interface fires-full scale tests. Paper presented at the 12th international Fire and Materials Conference, San Francisco, USA, 31st Jan –2nd Feb 2011

    Google Scholar 

  • Winter GJ, Vogt C, Fried JS (2002) Fuel treatments at the wildland-urban interface: common concerns in diverse regions. J For 100(1):15–21

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Charlotte, NC, USA

    Joe Urbas

Authors
  1. Joe Urbas
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Joe Urbas .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. United States Department of Commerce, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, Maryland, USA

    Samuel L. Manzello

Section Editor information

  1. University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA

    Michael Gollner PhD

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

Copyright information

© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG

About this entry

Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this entry

Urbas, J. (2018). Wetting Agents and Foams. In: Manzello, S. (eds) Encyclopedia of Wildfires and Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI) Fires. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51727-8_30-1

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51727-8_30-1

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-51727-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-51727-8

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference EngineeringReference Module Computer Science and Engineering