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Could a wind tunnel be the answer to fighting wildfires?

A new wind tunnel being tested out at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute is helping researchers learn more about how to better fight wildfires.

The machine tests out how wind impacts wildfires and how it could potentially be used to help firefighters battle massive, quick-spreading flames.

Dr. Albert Simeoni first began studying the technology after spending years saving lives as a firefighter and even being trapped in a wildfire himself.

Dr. Simeoni says their research begins with a bed of pine needles, a common fuel for wildfires.

"Understanding and describing how fire spreads at this level is very critical to understand how fires spread overall," said Dr. Simeoni.

The tunnel was designed and built by Giovanni DiCristina, who explained that part of the process includes measuring the humidity, the types of pine needles used and the speed of the wind.

All studies conducted on the wind tunnel will go toward helping the U.S. Forest Services learn how to better respond to real-life wildfires and how to decide how to evacuate people trapped.

"If we're seeing similar trends throughout all of those steps, then we can safely say we're collecting real, physical, phenomenol information and feed that data to predict how wildfires spread," said DiCristina.

Right now, the tunnel is still being used and tested indoors, but will soon be moved outside where they will conduct similar tests to compare and contrast the results.