Welcome to the fire lab: California researchers re-create forest blazes

At the US Forest Service's lab at the University of California, Riverside, engineers get up close with flames that threaten the state amid drought and heat The doors clang shut, casting the laboratory into gloom, and the scientists don goggles, yellow helmets and flame-resistant jackets. Two crouch behind computers, readying measurements. Another picks up a blowtorch. The rest stand back. Wood shavings and dry chaparral, which resembles hay, line the bed of a 30ft wind tunnel. Green shrubs, leav...