Fire | November 2025 - Browse Articles

25 pages, 5766 KB

Open AccessArticle

Early-Stage Wildfire Detection: A Weakly Supervised Transformer-Based Approach

by Tina Samavat, Amirhessam Yazdi, Feng Yan and Lei Yang

Fire 2025, 8(11), 413; https://doi.org/10.3390/fire8110413 (registering DOI) - 25 Oct 2025

Smoke detection is a practical approach for early identification of wildfires and mitigating hazards that affect ecosystems, infrastructure, property, and the community. The existing deep learning (DL) object detection methods (e.g., Detection Transformer (DETR)) have demonstrated significant potential for early awareness of these events. However, their precision is influenced by the low visual salience of smoke and the reliability of the annotation, and collecting real-world and reliable datasets with precise annotations is a labor-intensive and time-consuming process. To address this challenge, we propose a weakly supervised Transformer-based approach with a teacher–student architecture designed explicitly for smoke detection while reducing the need for extensive labeling efforts. In the proposed approach, an expert model serves as the teacher, guiding the student model to learn from a variety of data annotations, including bounding boxes, point labels, and unlabeled images. This adaptability reduces the dependency on exhaustive manual annotation. The proposed approach integrates a Deformable-DETR backbone with a modified loss function to enhance the detection pipeline by improving spatial reasoning, supporting multi-scale feature learning, and facilitating a deeper understanding of the global context. The experimental results demonstrate performance comparable to, and in some cases exceeding, that of fully supervised models, including DETR and YOLOv8. Moreover, this study expands the existing datasets to offer a more comprehensive resource for the research community. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Innovative Applications of Remote Sensing and Machine Learning in Forest Fire Detection and Prevention)

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16 pages, 4244 KB

Open AccessArticle

Case Study on Investigation of Electrical Cabinet Fire Caused by Poor Electrical Contact

by Jing Zhang, Changzheng Li, Guofeng Su and Wenzhong Mi

Fire 2025, 8(11), 412; https://doi.org/10.3390/fire8110412 - 24 Oct 2025

Abstract

Electrical cabinet fire is a prevalent type of electrical fire. It can result in significant casualties and major damage to residential dwellings, chemical plants, or other facilities. This study proposes an investigation methodology for electrical cabinet fires. It includes evidence collection and reasoning inference, reverse deduction, and comprehensive analysis. Using a cabinet fire as a case study, macro and micro trace analyses are performed utilizing a stereomicroscope, a scanning electron microscope, and an energy-dispersive spectrometer. The typical characteristics of traces, encompassing melting marks, arc beads, and displacement, are summarized. The evidence suggests that poor electrical contact is the primary cause. A thermal–electrical–mechanical coupling model is developed to simulate poor contact on copper busbars. The results reveal that thermal stress caused by local overheating can lead to the deformation and displacement of the busbar. The calculation indicates that the temperature rise triggered by poor contact can reach 1040 °C. The maximum displacement of the busbar caused by thermal stress is 6.2 mm. Force analysis indicates that one busbar will descend under gravity and come into contact with another busbar of a different phase. The short circuit triggered by direct contact caused fire. To prevent such accidents, it is essential to verify that the specifications of bolts correspond to those of screw holes to avoid poor contact. Furthermore, insulating plates should be installed between distinct-phase busbars to prevent short circuits. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Industrial Fire and Urban Fire Research: 2nd Edition)

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18 pages, 297 KB

Open AccessReview

Advances and Environmental Impact Assessment of Forest Fire Extinguishing Agents

by Jiaqi Gao, Lixuan Wang, Weilong Zhang, Jibin Ning, Weike Li, Tongxin Hu and Guang Yang

Fire 2025, 8(11), 411; https://doi.org/10.3390/fire8110411 - 23 Oct 2025

Abstract

In the context of climate change, increasingly severe forest fires present a significant threat to lives, property, ecosystem functionality, and the sustainable development of forest resources. As a result, there is an urgent need for rapid, efficient, and environmentally friendly technologies for fire suppression and containment. This paper begins by reviewing the current research on forest fire extinguishing agents and materials that hold promise for effective fire suppression. Among these agents, gaseous and foam extinguishing materials exhibit drawbacks such as low efficiency or significant environmental hazards. In contrast, natural polymer hydrogels, which are high in water content, environmentally friendly, and biodegradable, show significant potential for developing clean and efficient extinguishing materials. Furthermore, this paper discusses existing environmental assessment standards for fire extinguishing agents, as well as the assessment systems proposed in various studies. It finds that, while universal assessment standards are fairly well-established, current research primarily focuses on enhancing fire suppression performance. However, the environmental performance assessment of forest fire extinguishing agents—often used in large quantities—remains inadequate. Therefore, there is an urgent need to establish a comprehensive and systematic environmental assessment system to address this theoretical and practical gap. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Fire Extinguishing Agent and Application)

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20 pages, 298 KB

Open AccessReview

Current Standards for the Purposes of Assessing and Classifying Fire Hazards in Historic Buildings

by Andrzej Jurecki, Wojciech Grześkowiak and Marek Wieruszewski

Fire 2025, 8(11), 410; https://doi.org/10.3390/fire8110410 - 22 Oct 2025

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Abstract

The utilisation of fire resistance control systems in contemporary timber construction and the conservation of historic edifices has emerged as a pivotal solution, superseding conventional mandatory systems. Such approaches are particularly beneficial for the rational protection and assessment of unique buildings of historical or cultural significance. The objective is to achieve a balance between the necessity of protecting often irreplaceable structures and their contents, and the aspiration to preserve significant historical or cultural elements of the construction. The article provides a synopsis of fundamental American and European standards, with a particular emphasis on Polish and German standards, and addresses issues related to the implementation of quality and material constraints when developing the scope and methodologies for fire protection in historic buildings. The current state of knowledge on the natural fire resistance of wooden structural elements in historic buildings is defined, and the level of risk is described. The direction of adapting European standards for fire protection of historic wooden buildings to North American standards is indicated. The paper confirms the exemplary adaptation of ASTM standards to UNESCO requirements and provisions in the field of monument protection, as well as the need for changes in European standards. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Industrial Fire and Urban Fire Research: 3rd Edition)

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Fire, Volume 8, Issue 11 (November 2025) – 4 articles

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