Fire is a natural process integral to the order and function of our planet. It is both friend and foe to the human race, having strongly influenced our social development and success as a species, yet remains a serious threat to human life. Our planet is inherently flammable. Earth’s forests and vegetation provide a vast source of fuel, and wildfires consume huge quantities of biomass in all ecosystems ranging across all biomes, from tundra to savanna and from Boreal to tropical forests. Wildfires influence atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations and may even regulate the oxygen content of our atmosphere enabling us to breathe. The unique products that wildfires create, such as chars and soots are traceable in soils, sediments and ancient rocks which can provide us with information about modern wildfires as well as a record of Earth’s past wildfire history.

The group focuses on studying the influence of wildfire by using state-of-the-art experimental approaches to understand the flammability of vegetation and the nature of the materials that wildfires create. 

The wildFIRE Lab team work across a set of broad topics including:

Building the components for a UK Fire Danger Rating System (NERC funded)

Understanding plant traits and how they influence flammability and fire behaviour both in the modern day and throughout the evolutionary history of plant life. (EU funded)

Prediction of wildfire behaviour, particularly in UK ecosystems. Including moorland and heathland settings and consideration of fire risk associated with rewilding agenda’s and net zero afforestation goals. (NERC and GCRF funded)

Understanding the challenges of fuel management today and into our future and the tools that can be used including prescribed fire and mechanical means to mitigate against severe wildfires (NERC funded). 

Building toolkits to better understand fire impacts including tree mortality as part of developing quantitative fire severity metrics. 

We also work in stuctural fire including the development of new Forensic investigation tools using charring (EU funded) and testing new fire retardant products to improve structural and wildfire safety (industry funding). 

Keep up with the wildFIRE Lab Publications