The devastating wildfires in the Los Angeles area exemplify the dangers of wind-driven fires in inhabited areas. WPI’s Department of Fire Protection Engineering is leading research designed to understand how fires spread with the goal of contributing to measures that can better protect communities and firefighters. WPI’s research, which involves faculty and ongoing experiments conducted by students in a state-of-the-art wind tunnel on campus, was featured by several media outlets. NBC Boston's report was re-aired on more than a dozen television news stations in cities around the U.S. including Washington, DC, Minneapolis, Dallas, Albuquerque, Spokane, Yakima, WA, Fresno, CA, Albany, NY, Topeka, KS, Greenville, SC, Abilene, TX, and Elmira, NY.

“Since lithium-ion batteries are a high energy density fuel, there is a possibility of an explosion hazard,” Ali Rangwala, a professor of fire protection engineering and director of WPI’s first-in-the-nation explosion protection engineering master’s program, provided analysis for a Wall Street Journal article on the risks associated with a fire at one of the world’s largest battery storage facilities. Lithium-ion battery fire and explosion dangers are among the topics being studied by WPI students in the explosion protection engineering program.