Background
John J. Keetch, a fire researcher in the southeast, wrote:
"One of the prime objectives of the National Fire Danger Rating System (NFDRS) is to provide as accurate a measure as possible of the relative seriousness of burning conditions and thereby, NFDRS can serve as an aid to fire control programs."
In 1954 there were eight different fire-danger rating systems in use across the United States. Better communication and better transportation were beginning to make mutual assistance agreements between fire control agencies more practical than in the past. State compacts, and in the case of the Federal government, interagency and interregional agreements were bringing fire control teams together from widely separated areas of the county. It became necessary to establish a national system for estimating fire danger and fire behavior to improve and simplify communications among all people concerned with wildland fire.
Work on a national rating system began in 1959. By 1961, the basic structure for a four-phase rating system had been outlined and the fire phase (spread phase) was ready for field testing. However, since the remaining phases of the rating system - ignition, risk, and fuel energy - were not available, a number of fire control agencies preferred to remain with the systems then in use. Adaptations, interpretations, and additions to the spread phase quickly followed, making it obvious that the spread phase was not uniformly applicable across the country.
More research followed and in 1965 a research project headquartered in Seattle was established to provide a fresh look at the needs and requirements for a national, fire-danger, rating system. After canvassing many fire control agencies across the country, the Seattle research group recommended new directions for research that would lead to the development of a complete, comprehensive, National Fire-Danger Rating System. A target date of 1972 was established for getting a complete system ready for operational use.
In 1970, a preliminary version of the system was tested at field sites in Arizona and New Mexico. In 1971, an improved version of the system was used operationally in the Southwest. Field trials were also conducted elsewhere across the country at stations from Maine to California and from Florida to Alaska. The system then became operational nationwide in 1972.
When work started in 1968 on the NFDRS a framework was constructed. A philosophy had to be adopted in order to allow the development of the system to proceed. NFDRS provides a uniform consistent system that possesses standards which agencies with wildfire suppression responsibility can apply and interpret.
Read more about this topic: National Fire Danger Rating System
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