By Alan M. Petrillo

The United States Forest Service (USFS) Missoula Technology and Development Center (T&DC), in Montana, is working on a redesign of the emergency fire shelters used by wildland firefighters, making progress in both the materials being used to construct the fire shelters as well as their overall design.

1 The current design of emergency fire shelters used by wildland firefighters is the U.S. Forest Service M2002 regular fire shelter, left, and the large fire shelter. (Photos courtesy of U.S. Forest Service.)

One of the designs being considered comes from the National Aeronautical and Space Administration (NASA) Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, that incorporates high-temperature materials developed for space entry vehicles reengineered as flexible thermal protection.

Current Offerings

The current design of the emergency fire shelter, the M2002, was last updated in 2002, says Tony Petrilli, the Center’s fire shelter project leader. “The current shelter is a quonset hut with rounded ends and a rounded body so it reflects radiant heat much better than the old flat triangle-style pup tent it replaced that was designed back in the 1960s,” he says. “It offers three times more protection in convective heat environments and direct flame contact than the older model, and 24 lives have been attributed to being saved by the M2002.”

2 The U.S. Forest Service’s Missoula Technology and Development Center used the University of Alberta fire test facility, in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, to conduct a full-scale convective test on a fire shelter.

The USFS regular fire shelter is issued folded in a case that’s 8½ inches high, 5½ inches wide, and four inches deep. It’s designed for firefighters up to six feet tall with a girth not exceeding 53 inches at any point and, when deployed, is 86 inches long, 15½ inches high, and 31 inches wide. The large fire shelter deploys to 96 inches long, 19½ inches high, and 33 inches wide and is designed for firefighters taller than six feet one inch and with a girth of greater than 53 inches at any point. The regular size weighs 4½ pounds, while the large size shelter weighs 5.2 pounds.

Materials Update

Petrilli says that NASA’s Langley Research Center is one of a number of entities that has shown an interest in submitting materials to the Center for third-party testing at the University of Alberta’s fire test facility in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. “The current pattern and shape of the emergency fire shelter most likely will not change,” Petrilli observes, adding that the advances in materials technology is where he expects major modifications.

Mary Beth Wusk, game-changing development program manager for the Space Technology Mission Directorate at the NASA Langley Research Center, says the deaths of 19 Prescott, Arizona, Granite Mountain Hotshot firefighters on June 28, 2013, when they were overrun by the