Taming the Dragon: The Path to the Development of the ISO Standard Firebrand Generator

During the course of large outdoor fires, such as wildland-urban interface (WUI) fires, it has long been reported that firebrand showers are a significant source of home ignition, leading to massive destruction of infrastructure.  Firebrand showers have been known to be generated from large outdoor fires for centuries, long before the WUI fire problem gained prominence and worldwide attention.  Yet, in the storied history of fire research, an international standard to generate firebrand showers safely in a laboratory setting has only been recently published in 2024 by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).  In this presentation, a review of the firebrand problem will be presented, including the path to develop the ISO standard firebrand generator, and provide a perspective on where current firebrand research is headed.