Two EKU professors continue to study drywall to better determine fire origins

Two researchers at Eastern Kentucky University are using a second federal grant to study how to better determine the origin and cause of structure fires. The project involves depth measurements of different types of drywall. EKU Professor Greg Gorbett is co-principal investigator. He said if they can better determine the origin of a fire then they are more likely to find the correct cause.

“What can we do other than just visibly looking at damage, what can we do to put actual values to it and make it more quantitative and so that’s kind of where we came up with doing this series of tests,” said Gorbett.

Gorbett said the first grant supported research on standard drywall. Gorbett added Principal Investigator Shijin Kozhumal has been leading the charge on the numerical side of the project.

Gorbett said although their work focuses on origin and cause, that still ties into fire prevention.

“Year we say it’s the big circle right? So, it’s like we’re on the back end of that but if we do our job well we can try to help prevent future fires by determining where and what caused the fire better. So, year we’re part of that fire prevention side,” said Gorbett.

Gorbett said the second research grant from the National Institute of Justice allows the team to study depth measurements in various types of drywall. That includes mold and mildew-resistant and acoustic drywall.

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