University of Utah researchers have won a $99,258 federal grant to study and predict how wildfires spread — and could better be suppressed — at places where forests and developed communities intersect.

The grant goes to the U.'s Building and Fire Research Laboratory and comes from the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, who announced the grant, said, "Lives have been lost and millions of dollars in property damage have occurred in recent years from catastrophic wildfires in the West, particularly in those areas where development and forests meet."

He added, "U. of U. researchers are working on better computer simulations to help understand and predict how wind and geography combine to spread these fires."

— Lee Davidson