Episodes
028 - Easy entry into the world of AI in fire with MZ Naser
Nov. 24, 2021
Have you ever been fascinated by the capabilities of AI? Did you wonder how the heck can an algorithm beat humans in repetitive tasks? Or make multi-level correlations that we would never be able to figure out? I was as well…
027 - Travelling fires with Guillermo Rein
Nov. 17, 2021
If you have ever learned about the compartment fire dynamics framework, have tried zone modelling or any kind of fire modelling, you have probably noticed that as the compartments get bigger, the less uniform conditions insi…
026 - Field report from IWMA conference in Warsaw
Nov. 10, 2021
Thanks to the courtesy of the International Water Mist Association I have been invited to the recent conference held in Warsaw. The conference was a two-day event focused on water mist technology. In fact, it was the 20th me…
025 - Structural fire engineering with engineered timber with Felix Wiesner
Nov. 3, 2021
In Episode 18 we have touched on the important topic of fire performance of engineered wood and its wide use in the modern built environment. Today, we follow up on this subject with Dr Felix Wiesner from the University of …
024 - Who's a Fire Safety Engineer with Jimmy Jönsson
Oct. 27, 2021
Who is a Fire Safety Engineer? And when do you become one? How do you know the person on the other side of the table at the project meeting has the necessary competencies to judge fire safety solutions of a building you desi…
023 - Risk assessment with Maximum Allowable Damage with Jaime Cadena Gomez and David Lange
Oct. 20, 2021
Risk as a concept is well established in modern Performance-Based Design in Fire Safety Engineering. However, it comes in many flavours - from a simple calculation of consequences vs probability, through indexing methods and…
022 - Combustion, fluid mechanics and fire safety engineering with Michael Gollner
Oct. 13, 2021
https://firelab.berkeley.edu/ this is the place you need to go! Ignition at different slope angles. Firebrand spotting. Fire whirls. What does connect these various fire phenomena? They are all driven by fluid dynamics and c…
021 - Resilient design for firefighter safety with Ali Ashrafi
Oct. 5, 2021
It is hard for us, fire safety engineers, to talk to firefighters on how to do their job... Probably we even shouldn't, as we have no idea how it is to truly go there into the heat and battle fire to save lives. But it does …
020 - Fire Safety Engineering as a socio-technical system with Brian Meacham
Sept. 29, 2021
Do you sometimes feel that fire safety engineering is not making a footprint as it should? With all our knowledge, models, technology...why do huge fires exist? Why fire is such a threat to billions of humans? In today's epi…
019 - Modelling human behaviour in wildfire evacuation with Erica Kuligowski
Sept. 21, 2021
There is plenty of fire engineers who think they are modelling human behaviour... Some claim they can do it... And there is very, very few who actually did and succeeded with it. One of them is today's guest, Dr Erica Kuligo…
018 - Engineered timber with Danny Hopkin
Sept. 15, 2021
Engineered timber is on a trajectory to become the construction material of the future. However, on that pathway there stands the fire issue. Wood burns, it is inevitable. This is something we must accept, and learn to work …
017 - Pyrolife - from fire resistance to fire resilience with Cathelijne Stoof
Sept. 8, 2021
When you think about battling wildfires, what is the image you see in front of your eyes? Probably an air tanker (at least that was what I saw...). After this interview, your optics will change about 180 degrees. Dr Cathelij…
016 - The future of evacuation modelling with Enrico Ronchi and Ruggiero Lovreglio
Sept. 1, 2021
Evacuation modelling is paramount in accounting for the human aspect in our fire modelling. But how is it developing? Where are we with our tools, and where are we heading with them? What are the most profound challenges rel…
015 - Global view on the fire safety from a starchitect perpective with Benjamin Ralph
Aug. 25, 2021
Have you ever wondered who truly has the most power over the fire safety of a building? In my opinion, the answer is very simple - the Architect. This is due to two reasons. First is that the architect can affect the buildin…
014 - A joyrney through the scales of fire phenomena with Sara McAllister
Aug. 18, 2021
Have you ever wondered how is a fire of a match or candle different from a wildfire? Or maybe rather, why is it different? What is it, that makes the fires at different scales behave in such a different manner? What are the …
013 - On the use and abuse of CFD in fire engineering with Wolfram Jahn
Aug. 11, 2021
We are living in a kind of weird time, where the most complex tool we have is at the same time the most commonly used (and abused one). The Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) modelling has brought us amazing capabilities in …
012 - Science, Industry, Legislators. How do we make them work together on a fire safe world? - Kees Both
Aug. 4, 2021
In this episode, I had the pleasure and privilege to host dr Kees Both, the Technical Manager of Standards & Regulations in Etexgroup. Kees wanted to become a suspension bridge engineer, but his route went through a fire lab…
011 - Why temperature is so easy to measure but so hard to interpret?
July 28, 2021
What is the single most measured thing in fire science? The answer is easy - temperature. We use it everywhere - from learning material properties in TGA's to expressing conditions in compartment fires. We use it at the same…
010 - Seeking the origins of standardized fire testing and ancient fire protection materials with John Gales
July 21, 2021
Did you know that the standard temperature-time curve, which is the underpinning of the fire resistance of assemblies, is over 100 years old? Once you know that, you cannot stop but think about how this affects modern constr…
009 - Cognitive biases and decision making in evacuation with Michael Kinsey
July 13, 2021
Why do we take certain decisions during an evacuation process? How do we choose the evacuation route? These are often affected by cognitive biases, which is the main theme of today's episode. With Dr Michael Kinsey we will d…
008 - Zone modelling is not dead with Colleen Wade
July 7, 2021
Zone modelling is a technique introduced in 1970's and 80's that has changed fire science. In my personal opinion, along with oxygen calorimetry and the development of FDS it may have been the most impactful tool of fire sci…
007 - AI in smart firefighting and the future of FSE PBD with Xinyan Huang
June 29, 2021
Everyone is talking about AI, but how can we really use it in fire safety engineering and firefighting? Prof Xinyan Huang of HK PolyU will explain his research in this field, and we can consider it as a time travel to the fu…
006 - EV's, rapid fires and car parks
June 23, 2021
In Episode 6, our host, dr Wojciech Wegrzynski, explains his experiences with modelling rapidly growing fires in car parks. Such fire growth may be typical for EV fires that originate in battery and pose a different set of c…
005 - Battery fires with Roeland Bisschop
June 16, 2021
Today I've talked to Roeland Bisschop, Project Manager in RISE, about his first-hand experience with battery fires. Roeland explained to me how do battery fires look from a scientific perspective, and how my perspective was …