Torchbearers: The Next Generation of Fire and Emergency Research

A special issue of Fire (ISSN 2571-6255). This special issue belongs to the section "Fire Research at the Science–Policy–Practitioner Interface".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 July 2027 | Viewed by 379

Editors


E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
1. iCinema Research Centre, University of New South Wales, Sydney 2795, Australia
2. Strategic Capability Command, Fire and Rescue NSW, Sydney 2190, Australia
Interests: fire

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Gender and Disaster Australia, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
Interests: social policy; gender and inclusion; advocacy and advisory; program management

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The theme of this Special Issue is "research perspectives from the next generation of firefighters, fire engineers, and emergency managers". This Special Issue is targeted at early career researchers from diverse firefighting, fire engineering, and emergency management backgrounds, and presents an opportunity for the next generation of leaders within the field to highlight their work and contributions to the profession. We welcome original research articles and reviews to this Special Issue. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following: leadership, diversity, and culture within the fire service; wellbeing and safety; firefighting or rescue strategies and tactics; or fire safety engineering. Senior researchers may partner with early career researchers, as long as the main contributor is the latter.

Dr. Greg Drummond
Dr. Margaret Moreton
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Fire is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • firefighting
  • emergency management
  • fire engineering
  • future
  • leadership and culture
  • diversity and improvement
  • critical systems
  • early career research
  • emerging technologies
  • disruptive approaches

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

19 pages, 2531 KB  
Article
A Preliminary Assessment of Irrigated Green Firebreaks for Reducing Fire Spread and Intensity in Wildland–Urban Interface Landscapes: Noosa Shire, Australia
by Jady D. Smith, Anthony Power, Francis E. Putz and Sam Van Holsbeeck
Fire 2026, 9(8), 347; https://doi.org/10.3390/fire9080347 - 13 Aug 2026
Abstract
Climate change, altered ecosystems, and expanding development in fire-prone landscapes are increasing fire risk in the wildland–urban interface (WUI). This study uses Noosa, southeast Queensland, Australia, as a case study for a preliminary modeling assessment of irrigated green firebreaks (iGFBs). Using the AMICUS [...] Read more.
Climate change, altered ecosystems, and expanding development in fire-prone landscapes are increasing fire risk in the wildland–urban interface (WUI). This study uses Noosa, southeast Queensland, Australia, as a case study for a preliminary modeling assessment of irrigated green firebreaks (iGFBs). Using the AMICUS Vesta Mk2 fire-behavior model, fire spread rates and fireline intensity were compared across dry eucalypt control scenarios, non-irrigated green firebreak scenarios, and irrigated green firebreak scenarios receiving 1 and 2 mm m−2 day−1 of water. In line with future climate predictions, these scenarios were compared under progressively worsening fire-weather conditions. The drought-affected dry eucalypt control produced the highest predicted fire spread rates and fireline intensity, and although non-irrigated green firebreak scenarios reduced fire behavior, they may still exceed typical suppression thresholds under catastrophic conditions. In contrast, iGFB scenarios consistently reduced both fire spread rates and fireline intensity across all fire-weather classes. Sensitivity analysis indicated that the model outputs were most responsive to drought- and moisture-related assumptions, supporting the importance of fuel moisture in the performance of the iGFB concept. Although iGFBs are not a stand-alone solution suitable for all settings, the findings provide a preliminary region-specific proof of concept for iGFBs and support the need for further applied research. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Torchbearers: The Next Generation of Fire and Emergency Research)
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