Fire Research Needs

Discusses the following topics on needed research in fire suppression and prevention: (1) economic analyses to investigate the efficiency of providers and users of fire protection, suggesting changes to increase economic efficiency; (2) field development of detector-alarms and communication systems connecting households to fire departments; (3) methods likely to reduce hazardous loadings of flammable material in buildings; (4) fire department labor efficiency improvement, because labor is the largest component of cost for fire departments; (5) studies to measure costs and benefits of consolidating fire departments; (6) investigations of potential for reducing costs of fire insurance, and how insurance can be used to influence individual and organizational behavior to minimize fire risks and losses; and (7) research into probability of fire cause, enabling more accurate insurance rate setting, thus tending to lower the social cost of insurance, and promoting safe practices by builders and occupants. (Presented at First Annual Conference of Fire Researchers, July 16, 1976, Applied Physics Laboratory, The Johns Hopkins University.)