My summer as a wildfire science intern with fpinnovations

By Andrew Stack
This summer, I had the privilege of working with FPInnovations as a wildfire science intern. The Fire Science division is a small team of dedicated people working on a huge array of applied wildfire science projects. These projects cover important, topical issues such as firefighter survival and safety, advanced fire behaviour prediction, fireline gear and equipment testing, community protection techniques, wildfire tactics, and building and infrastructure upgrades. 

In the midst of editing papers and writing literature reviews, I had the opportunity to help the team prepare and execute a number of field experiments during their annual trip to their Northwest Territories test burn site. This exciting facility is a well-protected area of forest partitioned into test plots for all of FPI's large-scale burning experiments where deliverables are dependent on full crown fires.
 

FPI collaborates with numerous companies and agencies ranging from private enterprises, government bodies, the University of Alberta and other research institutions, isolated communities in the far north, and as far away as New Zealand. Overall my summer was nothing short of amazing, and I'd like to thank the team at FPI for taking me on and showing me real-world applications of the material I have studied in school, exposed me to community and wildfire relations, and put in better context past work I've done on the ground as a wildfire fighter. ​​