As an increasing number of homes are built in the wildland-urban interface (WUI), it is important to understand how residential construction performs when exposed to wildland fires.
The American Wood Council will hold a Home Hardening in the WUI: An Analysis of Recent Fire Testing webinar on May 29th from 2 to 2:30 pm ET.
WUI zones are the areas where wildland – forests, chaparral, grassland, etc., meet or mix with human development. Home hardening is a term used to describe purposeful actions taken to help protect buildings in WUI zones. Home hardening provisions within WUI codes rely on a combination of prescriptive requirements and performance requirements based on standardized tests.
In the past several years, the American Wood Council (AWC), Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety (IBHS) and the Fire Safety Research Institute (FSRI), a part of UL Research Institutes, have independently conducted multiple series of both standardized and non-standardized fire tests to quantify typical WUI fire exposures and characterize the performance of various building envelope components and assemblies under those exposures.
In this webinar, Jason Smart from AWC will discuss the outcomes of the fire tests which have been multi-faceted with individual approaches to allow for wider industry understanding of performance. FSRI’s and IBHS’s fire tests have investigated the general performance of the entire building envelope, while AWC’s tests have focused specifically on hardening measures for exterior walls, projections, and intersections between these surfaces.
To take part in this webinar, register at Home Hardening in the WUI: An Analysis of Recent Fire Testing