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Technology &
Development Center

Sixty Years of Innovation and Problem Solving

Pictorial History of Technology and Development

The following pages are reduced versions of six panels prepared for a display at the USDA Forest Service Centennial Congress in Washington, DC, during January 2005. The text on the page opposite each panel provides additional information about each group of photographs.

The panels show a sampling of work by the Technology and Development Program. Although some of the photos are historic, most of the work is ongoing.

[image] Collage showing the six picture panels prepared for the USDA Forest Service Centennial Congress.

Top Center Panel

Development and Testing of Fire Engines

The Technology and Development Program's first projects involved improving firefighting equipment. Fire engines have made a lot of progress from the 1930s to the 1990s.

[photo] A fire engine from the 1930s. [photo] An early-day fire engine. [photo] An early-day fire engine.

Today's engines can pump water more quickly, helping firefighters control wildland fires.

[photo] A modern fire engine.

The San Dimas Technology and Development Center continues to improve fire engines.

Development and Testing of Fire Shelters

Testing during the 1950s led to development of the fire shelter carried by wildland firefighters since the 1970s. All but one of the designs in the 1950s photo have a flaw: the firefighter is standing up. Assuming that firefighters clear an area of fuel, temperatures at the surface of the ground will be much lower than temperatures even 1 foot above the ground when a fire passes over.

[photo] Stand-up fire shelters from the 1950s.
1950s		 [photo] Firefighter lying down in a fire shleter from the 1970s.
1970s		 [photo] Deployed fire shelter from 2002.
2002

The fire shelter has saved the lives of more than 300 firefighters and has prevented many more injuries. The Technology and Development Program developed a new version of the fire shelter at the turn of the 21st century after laboratory and field testing. The new fire shelter, completed in 2002, provides additional protection, although no shelter can protect firefighters from all conditions. The use of a fire shelter is considered a wildland firefighter's last resort.

[photo] New fire shelters being tested on the edge of a research fire.

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