Introduction to this Special Issue

Abstract

Over the past two decades, there have been two annual workshops that convened researchers and practitioners in the field of fire suppression. The Halon Options Technical Working Conferences began in 1990 under the sponsorship of the New Mexico Engineering Research Institute and continued under the leadership of the Next Generation Fire Suppression Technology Program (NGP). The focus of the conferences was to bring together the world s leaders in developing and implementing the technology to replace ozone depleting fire suppressants. The Fire Protection Research Foundation (FPRF) began holding its Fire Detection and Suppression Symposia in 1997. These technologically broader-based meetings were designed to promote interchange of ideas in the fields contributing to fire control. When the NGP completed its mission in 2006, there was clear evidence of continuing interest in following any new developments and applications in fire suppression science and engineering. Thus, the organizers of the two conferences agreed to merge their programs under the FPRF aegis. The result was the first Fire Suppression and Detection Research and Applications—A Technical Working Conference (SUPDET). Some 150 experts gathered in Orlando, Florida, March 5–8, 2007 to hear and discuss 24 papers on fire suppression and 21 papers on fire detection. This issue contains six of the best fire suppression papers from SUPDET 2007. They have been enhanced and subjected to the regular peer review process of this journal. In process is a similar issue containing fire detection papers. The full complement of the original SUPDET 2007 papers can be found at http://www. nfpa.org/Foundation.