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In the chaos of a wildfire, heat, wind, flames and fuel interact to produce embers that are lofted into surrounding areas, starting new spot fires and spreading destruction and property loss in California's wildland-urban interface.

Researchers at the University of California, Irvine have conducted first-of-their-kind field experiments to better understand the physics of these firebrands, and their results can help authorities better model the outcomes of disasters that are happening with greater frequency in a warming climate.

In a paper published in the journal Physics of Fluids, UC Irvine team members describe their setup at the UC Berkeley Blodgett Forest Research Station in California's Sierra Nevada mountain range. They built a burn pile of wood from ponderosa pine and Douglas fir trees, including branches and needles—materials that are the main fuel supply in Sierra wildfires.

The scientists spread an array of sheet pans containing water around the fire, allowing them to collect firebrands cast out from the flames for later characterization of their size, shape and density in the laboratory.

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