The WUIWATCH research team at the Testing and Research Centre of the Entente (CEREN) in France have conducted a series of essays on the endurance of protective equipment used by firefighters of the SDIS 13 - Sapeurs Pompiers des Bouches du Rhône. An initial preparatory test has been carried out to determine the period of sustained heat flux above 20 kW/m2 emitted by a 2x2m fire panel, equivalent to a real exposure to radiative heat in a WUI situation. A second battery of tests have been performed to identify the damage intensity on the fire equipment actually used by firefighters. A first set of conclusions have been obtained, showing that the expected damage is uneven, being more intense in the upper part of legs. Some videos available at the WUIWATCH YouTube Channel :

Please visit the wuiwatch's Youtube channel and check the videos of the presentations given at the 2nd International wuiwatch Workshop, held in Lousã (Coimbra, Portugal) on the 20th of November 2015. You can see the presentations as given by each speaker (in portuguese or english) and a translated version (in english and portuguese, respectively): WUIWATCH_2nd_Workshop_videos. You can also find the PDF files from the presentations and the program here: WUIWATCH_2nd_workshop_presentations_(PDF)

20/11/2015. The past 20th of November we celebrated the 2nd wuiwatch Workshop on House Vulnerability in the WUI in the CEIF-ADAI Fire Lab, near Lousa, Portugal. Around 100 attendees participated in the lectures, round table and discussions. Civil Protection of Portugal (ANPC – District of Coimbra), National Guard (GNR-GIPS), National Laboratory of Civil Engineering, Institute for Nature Conservation and Forests (ICNF), Firefighters, private companies, municipalities and the wuiwatch Consortium among several others completed a multi-disciplinary, international group which shared knowledge and experience on house protection and vulnerability to forest fires. Several demonstrations were carried out and the workshop concluded with a visit to the Forest Fire Laboratory LEIF-ADAI.

08/10/2015 How can different types of window blinds protect windows against wild fire? WUIWATCH is trying to explore this subject. @LEIF (Lousã- Portugal). WUIWATCH experiments in LEIF

July has been a month with high activity in WUI Fires in all the Mediterranean Basin, but especially in Iberian Peninsula, Greece and France with some small fires in Italy. Here we’ve done a little... Pau Costa Foundation - Fires 2015 in WUI

14/07/2015 A sneak peek on the first set of experiments on embers, smoke and house vulnerability at the laboratory LEIF (Lousã - Portugal).

In July 2015 wuiwatch partners ADAI-CEIF have completed the design and installation of a dedicated infrastructure for the study of house vulnerability regarding the entrance of firebrands (flying embers) and smoke. The infrastructure consists of a 75% scale complete room with windows and doors, fully equipped with sensors and which is inserted in the wind tunnel of LEIF laboratory and which is exposed to a flow of burning firebrands generated by a dedicated device (the ‘micro dragon’). Monitoring is performed by visual and IR video cameras and a particle tracing software. CEIF-LEIF team has conducted a long list of experiments underlining the importance of open or closed doors inside the house as a relevant factor for the effective inflow of external smoke and firebrands. Full datasets, videos and pictures are available for a further detailed analysis to drive final conclusions. The results will be presented and published in the next wuiwatch workshop on house vulnerability which will be held in Portugal late November 2014.

10/07/2015. Final steps on preparing the experimental setup for studying some particular aspects of burning embers entering houses @LEIF - Lousã, Portugal.

09/07/2015. Within the second week of July, an international workshop on culture of risk and communication in forest fires was held in the frame of the eFireCom project took place in Solsona, Catalonia, Spain, in the premises of the CTFC. This was a great opportunity to create synergies between the two projects in the same program and transfer some of the findings about planning, communication and education in regard to fire risk in the WUI areas and interact with the international attendees, some of which were invited to join wuiwatch network. We thank very much to Eduard Plana (coordinator) from CTFC for this invitation! We hope this is just one of a series of interactions between eFireCom and wuiwatch projects. Solsona, Spain.

25/06/2015. In the frame of the one-week training course about operations in the WUI zone organised by the National School of Civil Protection (DGPCyE, Ministy of Interior, Spain) and the Military Emergency Unit (UME), some of the preliminary conclusions about prevention, risk mapping and vulnerability obtained within wuiwatch project were presented and discussed with UME commanders. Some in-field exercises were performed and a sandbox used as complementary training exercises. One of the main conclusions was the need of house triage prior to any decision on protection operations.

25/05/2015. Past May 25th, the First wuiwatch Workshop on Prevention and Risk Mapping took place in Alghero, Sardinia, Italy. This workshop was organised by University of Sassari (DIPNET) and chaired by Costantino Sirca. Several Italian entities participated very actively in the workshop, amongst them Corpo Regionale Volontari del Fuoco, Municipality of Alghero, Sardinia Forestry Corps, Porto Conte Regional Park Alghero, Civil Protection Sardinia, Ente Foreste della Sardegna and Nucleo Operativo Soccorsi. Besides two distinguished international speakers were invited, Gavriil Xanthopoulos (DEMETER, Greece) and Christophe Bouillon (IRSTEA, France) who gave interesting lectures on current state of the art on protocols, prevention, risk mapping and modelling in WUI areas in Europe. wuiwatch project was introduced by David Caballero, who presented also some unsolved questions and subjects about fire prevention in the WUI. An intense round table was conducted in which discussions were carried out on several subjects, particularly the role of agricultural lands in prevention. Proceedings of the workshop will be available soon.