Introduction and Overview

There exist many handbooks that offer technical explanations and guidance on fire safety design and on safeguarding the environment, but not the combination. This handbook presents an introduction to fire, its impacts on the environment, and strategies for mitigating both fires and their environmental impacts. It presents examples of significant environmental impacts associated with fire and firefighting, some basics on the chemistry and physics of fire, and means to predict fire and smoke development and spread. The scale considers a range from individual buildings to wildland fires. Means to measure fire effluent and estimate fire impacts on the environment are overviewed, and mitigation strategies across the scale of fires is introduced. This chapter provides a brief introduction to the impact of fire on the environment and to each chapter in the handbook.