The National Bushfire Behaviour Research Laboratory, which is a part of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), provided the Czech Embassy in Canberra with a unique opportunity to learn about the behaviour of natural bushfires, demonstrated under laboratory conditions, with the participation of a young talented scientist from the Czech Republic, Dr Mark Tuhý.
 
The laboratory is dedicated to studying and testing fundamental dynamics of fires. The objective is to obtain accurate data that can help with the prediction and control of wildfires. One of the two main facilities of this research centre is the "Pyrotron" combustion wind tunnel, designed to allow safe and repeatable research on fire spread mechanisms in various fuels such as grass, forest vegetation and shrubs. The research considers for example wind speed, fuel type and structure, fuel density and moisture content. These and many other parameters can be precisely controlled and monitored.
 
The Czech scientist, Dr Tuhý from the Institute of Geochemistry, Mineralogy and Mineral Resources at the Faculty of Science of Charles University, who is here on a two-year internship, is working in the laboratory on the influence of fires on the flow of metals and metalloids in areas of mining and smelting. His project from the Czech Science Foundation aims to use these simulations to determine the release of metals and metalloids during fires and to define the change in the form of their binding in the environment. Consequently, it will be possible to determine more accurately the local and global contribution of fires to the mobility of these elements, which is essential for the protection of polluted areas from wildfires.
 
Much of the knowledge that Dr Tuhý has at his disposal (not only from the forest fire in Bohemian Switzerland National Park in 2022) allows the Czech scientist to investigate the impact of fires on contaminated areas. The Embassy of the Czech Republic in Canberra supports such activities, and we were honoured to personally visit Dr Tuhý and his team in their laboratory, which is the only one of its kind in the southern hemisphere.

Additional photos are available on the Embassy's Facebook profile HERE.