SFE Webinar: Wildland Fire Entrainment - Should the Fire Triangle be Square?

September 8, 2026 at 10am PT/1pm ET

A free one hour webinar from the Eastern Innovation Landscape Network, USDA Forest Service, the Southern Fire Exchange, and the University of Florida IFAS. Society of American Foresters CFE Credit Expected.

Presenters:

Dr. Joe O’Brien, USDA Forest Service, Athens Prescribed Fire Science Lab

Brett Williams, USDA Forest Service Fire Management Specialist

Webinar Description: Wildland fires are more than passive reactions to their surroundings—they actively shape, and are shaped by, the environments in which they burn. This webinar introduces the concept of wildland fire entrainment (WFE), a critical yet often overlooked driver of fire behavior. WFE refers to the movement of air drawn toward a fire by pressure gradients created through strong updrafts and other nonlocal atmospheric effects. By integrating fuels, topography, ambient winds, and fire line geometry, WFE provides a comprehensive framework for understanding fire spread and energy release. Because it explicitly incorporates fire induced buoyancy, WFE helps connect cutting edge combustion science with real world wildland fire dynamics. Next generation coupled fire/atmosphere fire behavior models, such as QUIC-Fire, are becoming more accessible for managers to assess, visualize, and predict the influence of WFE for improved wildland fire planning.

Join us to explore how thinking in terms of WFE can improve fire managers’ ability to anticipate fire behavior and develop more effective firing strategies and tactics.

Webinar Recording: If you can't make the webinar, look for the recording to be posted on the Southern Fire Exchange YouTube Webinar Archive.

Questions? Contactus@southernfireexchange.org