Fire Science Show
Fire Science Show is connecting fire researchers and practitioners with a society of fire engineers, firefighters, architects, designers and all others, who are genuinely interested in creating a fire-safe future. Through interviews with a diverse group of experts, we present the history of our field as well as the most novel advancements. We hope the Fire Science Show becomes your weekly source of fire science knowledge and entertainment. Produced in partnership with the Diamond Sponsor of the show - OFR Consultants
Episodes
213 episodes
205 - FDS maintenance and development with Randy McDermott
Dr Randy McDermott takes us behind the scenes of fire science's most critical software tool in this conversation about the Fire Dynamic Simulator (FDS) developed at NIST. As one of the developers, Randy offers valuable insights into how this es...
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1:00:03
204 - 4th Birthday of the Podcast. Some stories about the past and the future
Four years ago, what began as a mission to preserve valuable fire safety engineering conversations has grown into a fairly large platform connecting professionals across 170+ countries. The journey to 200 episodes and nearly 200,000 downloads h...
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43:28
203 - The lessons from repeating Jin's experiment on visibility in smoke
I've finally done it. We've repeated Jin's experiment! I thought I knew-it-all about that experiment, but boy... knowing and doing it are two different things. I can say, I've finally cleared my mind on some thoughts after this, which I am fina...
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42:30
202 - Designing fire safety with firefighters in mind
The gap between fire safety engineering and firefighting operations creates a profound challenge that affects building safety worldwide. Even experienced fire safety engineers - myself included - face uncertainty when designing for firefighters...
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51:29
201 - The last fire - a novel set in industrial fire engineering with Joaquim Casal
What happens when a lifetime of studying industrial fire hazards meets the creative mind of a novelist? In this conversation with Professor Joaquim Casal, we explore the unique intersection of fire safety engineering and science fiction through...
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48:59
200 - Façade flammability across scales and standards with Guillermo Rein and Matt Bonner
Episode 200! And for this special episode, I've travelled to London to interview Prof. Guillermo Rein and Dr Matt Bonner on a piece of research carried out at Imperial College London, with the experiments performed in our laboratory at th...
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1:07:02
199 - Commercial Timber Guidebook with Danny Hopkin and Luis Gonzalez Avila
We know a whole lot more about mass timber in fire than we did a few years ago (even when I’ve just started the podcast 199 episodes back …). But is this knowledge widely used in engineering practice? Is it used in the same way by different sta...
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1:01:07
198 - Waste and recycling fires and how to fight them with Ryan Fogelman
The devastating impact of waste and recycling industry fires costs approximately $2.5 billion annually in the US and Canada alone, with lithium-ion batteries causing roughly 50% of these incidents. In this episode with Ryan Fogelman from Fire R...
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59:22
197 - Fire spread through external walls pt. 2 with FSRI
When wildfire threatens neighbourhoods with closely-spaced homes, what determines whether flames leap from one structure to the next? The FSRI research team - Rebekah Schrader, Joseph Willi, Daniel Gorham and Gavin Horn - joins us to unveil the...
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1:05:33
196 - Fire spread through external walls pt. 1 with FSRI
In this podcast episode, we host Rebekah Schrader, Joseph Willi, Daniel Gorham and Gavin Horn, all from the FSRI, to cover their recent experimental research on fire spread through external walls. This is part 1 of the interview - the backgroun...
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48:36
195 - Fire Safety Cases with Chris Mayfield and Martyn Ramsden
The UK's Building Safety Act requires high-risk buildings to maintain comprehensive fire safety cases - living documents that identify hazards, mitigate risks, and establish clear accountability for building safety. This is the subject of my di...
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59:41
194 - Playing with batteries with Xinyan Huang
Professor Xinyan Huang from Hong Kong Polytechnic University shares his expertise on battery fires and the various experimental methods researchers use to trigger thermal runaway events under controlled conditions.• Terminology matters ...
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51:22
193 - Fire Fundamentals pt. 15 - Extinguishing systems with Bogdan Racięga
Welcome to another Fire Fundamentals. This time the episode is focused on various extinguishing technologies. Invited guest - Bogdan Racięga, Director at Baltic Fire Laboratory and expert in fire protection systems breaks down the fundamental d...
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53:09
192 - Fire Fundamentals pt. 14 - Jet fan systems for car parks
Jet-fan systems effectively control smoke in car parks by creating directed airflows that transport smoke from one point to another, similar to how longitudinal ventilation works in tunnels. These systems offer cost-effectiveness and simplicity...
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42:01
191 - Committee participation with Birgitte Messerschmidt and Kees Both
This episode explores the invaluable contributions of community participation in fire safety technical committees. Joining committees is not just about sharing expertise; it’s a journey that transforms careers and fosters growth. Our guests, Bi...
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57:23
190 - Car park fires review with Zahir
With the emergence of electric vehicles, fire safety and dynamics have entered a new domain, raising crucial questions about existing protocols, design fires and data gaps. Today, our Wojciech Wegrzyński welcomes Zahir, Associate Prof. at Unive...
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51:40
189 - Simple things that work
This episode emphasises the value of focusing on simple things in fire safety engineering, something we somehow miss when we go too deep into the technical details of our projects. I've looked at eight different aspects of fire safety - inspire...
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42:20
188 - Fire Fundamentals pt. 13 - Porous solid fuels
In this episode of Fire Fundamentals, together with Dr Sara McAllister, we dwell on how stuff burns... And it is far from an easy question. While the general theme of the episodes is porous fuels, we discuss them from different angles, highligh...
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57:06
187 - Smouldering of preserved timber with Wenxuan Wu
Can a tiny amount of bio-protective coating completely change the fire behaviour of mass timber logs? If you asked me that some time ago, I would say it would probably be neutral.Can a 0.5 x 0.5 m free-standing log of timber smoulder thr...
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54:32
186 - Egressibility: a paradigm shift in evacuation research with Enrico Ronchi
If we truly want to account for the population at a disadvantage in evacuation, there is only this much we can do with the current approach... Pre-evacuation time distributions, walking speeds, and so on only tell us a part of the story - the s...
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1:01:58
185 - Recap on wildfire science
In the aftermath of the LA Pacific Palisades Fire, I've decided that instead of inviting one expert to discuss the event, I will give a voice back to those who already participated in the Fire Science Show and explained this fire (months and ye...
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1:05:09
184 - Cost-benefit analysis in structural fire safety with Thomas Gernay and Chenzi Ma
This episode delves into the financial aspects of fire safety in building design, highlighting the balance between cost and effectiveness. My guests - prof. Thomas Gernay and Chenzi Ma from Johns Hopkins University share insights from their NIS...
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1:00:52
183 - Innovation and fire safety with Vincent Brannigan
History repeats itself. A new thing is invented. We learn about it, understand it, and apply measures to capture its behaviour and regulate it. And then another new thing is invented. The measures we used start failing us, and the cycle repeats...
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1:00:25
182 - Bias in fire research
Fire is a highly contextualized problem; therefore, there is no such thing as an unbiased or "objective" fire experiment. It is a thing that many researchers would understand but is very rarely pointed out. Where it is not a problem for fire sc...
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45:04
181 - Regulatory regimes with Vincent Brannigan
I just drove 500 km to have a conversation with Professor Vincent Brannigan from the University of Maryland, a very unique expert who combines law with fire engineering. In this discussion, we go into the complexities of building codes and fire...
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57:20
