Episodes

I approach modelling water mist with caution. Not that I don't understand it, but because I lack clarity in the goals and objectives, as well I'm usually aware I may not deliver the expectations of my clients in terms of the physical phenomena I am capturing... And I'm not the only one like this. In this podcast episode I explore the world of water mist with Dr Max Lakkonen from IFAB, who has just been chosen as the new President of the International Water Mist Association (IWMA), Max dives int...

What happens to controlled doors when a fire is detected in the building? They unlock. Elevators? They go down. People are guided somewhere, and the fire strategy is executed. As it should. But what if the real threat is not the fire itself? What if the real threat is using the fire as a decoy or, worse, as a tool? What if the threat has intelligence, motives and the ability to adapt to the actions of our systems? Now, this is a frightening scenario. A scenario in which the security objectives...

EVs are becoming more of a 'normal' part of fire safety engineering rather than an 'exotic problem'. I've invited two colleagues from Thornton Tomasetti - Ali Ashrafi and Pawel Woelke, to discuss what this engineering looks like. In the episode, we discuss insights into how fire risks differ between electric and internal combustion engine vehicles and why the focus is shifting from cars to more pressing hazards like electric scooters and energy storage systems. We explore the different approach...

Fires in the waste industry are not discussed much unless one sees a giant smoke plume in the media, followed by advice to close your windows. In these (rare?) cases, we remind ourselves of the massive industry related to storing, sorting and recycling garbage, and the obvious environmental hazards such fires pose. From 2017 to 2020, Poland experienced a challenging time with fires at landfills, primarily caused by arson or negligence. A bit later, when I was working on my chapter for the Handb...

In this episode we talk with Jonathan Hodges of the Jensen Hughes on his experience with using advanced modelling in the realm of fire safety engineering. Jonathan sheds light on how the modelling is used at various Jensen Hughes offices around the world, highlighting interesting differences they see across their practice. The core of the talk revolves around using CFD for modeling the consequences of fires, versus using it to assess the fire growth. While the first one is a commonly practiced ...

In the everchanging world every now and then we get a new driver, that dictates most of our choices. In the current built environment and building industry, carbon dioxide feels like such a driver. We don't like it, we want to get rid of it... One way is to sequester or store large amounts of CO2 in our buildings. Ways to do that - more obvious is mass timber, but thats not the only thing. Let's talk bio-based insulation. In this episode I've invited Patrick Sudhoff, now from DBI but the resear...

Is the "best practice" always the best approach to solving an engineering problem? Can we consider "best" and "appropriate" practices synonymous, and if not - how big is the gap between them? Join us as we welcome Professor Arnold Dix back to challenge conventional wisdom in engineering. Focusing on the nuanced distinction between "best practice" and "appropriate practice," we explore how context-sensitive solutions outperform complex and costly standards. Using real-world examples like tunnel v...

The last time I had Xinyan on the show was in 2021, and we were all excited about the possibilities that AI could bring to Fire Safety Engineering and Smart Firefighting. Three years have passed, and while we are still excited, we can now talk about experiences. What worked and what did not? Where were the challenges, and what was simple? You can only learn that from brainstorming, you learn this by doing. Xinyan's team implemented dozens of algorithms for various projects, and it is this experi...

Soot is perhaps the most complex product of combustion, and at the same time one of the most profound for our everyday fire safety engineering. The topic of soot is not getting much love in the world of fire science, so I’ve chosen to give you a broad introduction to this subject. In this episode of fire fundamentals we will go through: · Soot creation from chemical perspective; · Soot creation from practical perspective; · Soot effects on radiation, toxicity and obscuration; · Extinction co...

In this episode of Experiments that Changed Fire Science we cover T. Jin’s experiments on the visibility in smoke – two experiments carried out in 1970 and 1971 in Japan that truly changed the way how we model fires and how we design fire safety in our buildings. This episodes presents my recollection of Jin’s experiments, based on the published work – the seminal paper at the IAFSS in 1997 (https://publications.iafss.org/publications/fss/5/3/view/fss_5-3.pdf) and the original material publishe...

Is evacuation of a community during a wildfire largely different from evacuation of a building? How much of the knowledge from the building fires is directly useful in planning and managing such an event, and what stuff is completely different? These are the lead questions for my today's interview with prof. Enrico Ronchi from Lund University and dr Max Kinateder from National Research Council Canada. Both guests currently research the evacuation layer of the WUI problem – starting with the res...

In the episode 10 of fire fundamentals together with David Morrisset, a nearly graduated PhD student from the University of Edinburgh, we explore the intricate dynamics of flame spread and its crucial role in fire safety engineering. David helps us differentiate between the two primary modes of flame spread, concurrent (imagine upward spread) and opposed (imagine downward spread), and explains how understanding these mechanisms can significantly enhance building safety and fire risk mitigation. ...

With two Directors at NFPA - Michele Steinberg and Birgitte Messerschmidt, I'm trying to find an answer to a burning question - "what really is the WUI problem?" The WUI is not just a line on a map with an X distance from the forest... In this episode we try to define what it is, and who is in danger. Instead of our usual conversations looking into characteristics of burning forests, or seeking the impact of detailing in construction, in this episode we try to take a birds eye view and identify ...

In today's Fire Science Show, we talk about how boundary conditions can make or break your fire simulation models. We'll explore boundary conditions' fundamental role in defining how simulations interact with their environments and how mastering these can lead to more accurate and reliable fire simulation models. I hope we break down some complex topics into manageable insights. Also, I hope we've turned something really boring into an interesting and fun episode. We discuss: 1. Boundaries inte...

A critical velocity episode... who would have thought? Even though I'm not an enthusiast of this approach, I have to admire the new science and researchers striving to improve it. This week I welcome Conrad Stacey and Michael Beyer from Stacey Agnew to talk about their recent developments. We'll take you through the historical development of this concept since its inception in 1958, examining key variables like tunnel height and heat release rate along the way. We go into the Memorial Tunnel ex...

What if you could predict the last possible time to evacuate your community before a wildfire wreaks havoc? What if you had that knowledge years before the wildfires happened and built up your preparedness based on this knowledge? What if you knew how this boundary changes with wind, dry weather and direction? I think you get a knowledge-based decision model, and that is exactly what my guests today have been looking for. Join us as we explore this cutting-edge approach with Imperial Hazelab Dr...

Misconceptions in fire science are a strange thing. You present countless proof, publish research papers, and carry conversations, and yet… they live their own lives—spreading with no control and cluttering communication. One space is full of them—the fire safety of photovoltaic installations on flat roofs. In the Fire Science Show, we already had two very powerful episodes on PV—one with Jens Kristensen and one more recently with Reidar Stølen. In today's episode, we highlight a new guidelin...

Happy birthday, Fire Science Show! On the 3rd Anniversary of the podcast launch, I'm thrilled to deliver an episode on one of the most fascinating aspects of fire science - the compartment fire. Instead of going through the usual curriculum of the phases of fire, transitioning into flashover and flashover itself, I instead focus on the methodology's practical aspects. Which parts of the building have the largest impact on the fire? What is the impact of the opening? How much fuel matters? What ...

I'm very sorry, but I could not finalize the episode to air this week in time, and in consequence, I have chosen to have a short technical break in the podcast. We will return next week with a (hopefully) really exciting episode on compartment fires! It will be kind of a birthday party, so I'm looking forward to that and trying to ensure the episode is worthy of the occasion. In the meantime, as you perhaps have a spare hour of your time and no podcast to listen to... I would love to invite you...

A few weeks ago in Copenhagen, stepping onto the stage to open the SFPE Fire Safety Conference and Expo on Performance-Based Design, I took a bit of a gamble. I was invited to give an opening keynote, but instead of talking about my fire science and engineering, I've chosen to confront an often-overlooked cornerstone of our profession: communication. If you follow the podcast, it is not something new to you. I brought up this case multiple times - Fire safety is not just about the technical mast...

In this episode, we dive into standardization efforts for fire safety. An entire universe of testing laboratories, committees, auditors, and certifiers work together to provide product end-user fire safety classification. So, in the end, the user does not have to worry about what the product will do, as its relevant characteristics are well known from the certificate and, to some extent, from the standards. But that's a perfect world. In the real world, it is perhaps not that simple. Crafting a...

The fire is detected in the building. Please evacuate. Do not use the elevator. I’ve heard this emergency message perhaps a thousand times. It is deeply engraved in my mind to the extent that the moment I hear the first beep of the fire alarm, I know this message will come up. I heard the chime sound, and I knew I should evacuate and not use the elevator. But in all seriousness, why? Why shouldn’t I use the elevator, and what would happen if I did (in case the building would not prevent me...

Wind turbine fires - are they an issue, or are they not? In this episode, I am joined by Prof. Guillermo Rein of the Imperial College London, who raised this issue 10 years ago at the IAFSS conference, and I believe we still do not have a clear answer. In this episode, we discuss the fire safety of wind turbines using the layers of protection framework - from suppression, detection, and prevention to firefighting. We have discussed the challenges with evacuation and the subsequent fires trigger...

CROSS UK is Collaborative Reporting for Safer Structures in UK. CROSS is a confidential reporting system which allows professionals working in the built environment to report on fire and structural safety issues. These are then published anonymously to share lessons learned, create positive change, and improve safety. Find out more about the safety information we provide below. This initiative in the space of fire safety is lead by Neil Gibbins and Peter Wilkinson, who are my guests today. We g...