Despite the fact that high-intensity crown fires account for an overwhelming proportion of the area burned by forest fires in Canada, fully understanding and subsequently modeling the initiation, propagation, and spread of crown fires remains an elusive goal for fire research scientists throughout the world. The Canadian approach to the prediction of crown fire phenomena has been largely empirical: an extensive experimental burning program (including many high-intensity crown fires) in major fuel types, accompanied by the monitoring of numerous wildfires, has led to the creation of a large database that is the foundation of the system of fire behavior prediction in Canada. Conversely, fire behavior prediction in the United States has been largely based on a physical surface fire model, which has proven inadequate for predicting high-intensity fire behavior.