Episodes

June 8, 2022

053 - The number one skill to thrive as an FSE I've learnt in 1 year of podcasting

It has been one year since I started this show. I've promised you that we will learn Fire Safety Engineering together, and today comes a great time to reflect on some lessons learnt. In this episode, I will take you on a shor...
June 1, 2022

404 - Host not found, throat infections suck.

With this lifestyle, this was inevitable... due to a busy week I had to move the schedule a bit and was pretty sure I will get away with it by recording a solo episode... but my throat has decided otherwise and I kind of cann...
May 25, 2022

052 - More realism in evacuation modelling with Anne Templeton

You have seen these lovely evacuation simulations, the ones with a bunch of agents moving together or clumping at an exit. Ones that we use to determine ASET condition, and which are present in almost every large PBD project....
May 18, 2022

051 - Fire Science in eyes of a firefighter with Szymon Kokot

In this show, we often discuss how fire science can help firefighters. Today we drop the UNO reverse card and figure out what firefighters actually need from fire science. And for that, I've got a perfect person to talk to - ...
May 11, 2022

050 - Wind, fire and a surprise

Episode 50! Time to celebrate, and for this one we have a surprise. A mysterious host takes over the show to interview a wind and fire modelling celebrity... Ok, this should be enough to not reveal everything once the show no...
May 4, 2022

049 - What burns inside a battery with Francesco Restuccia

So we all know batteries burn... but do we know what exactly does burn? What is inside this tiny metal cylinder that scares so many of us? We try to understand it a bit more with Dr Francesco Restuccia of Kings College London...
April 27, 2022

048 - Car parks, design fires and the broad world of fire science with Mike Spearpoint

Did you know first car parks were built for electric vehicles? Or what clever techniques can be used to model the spread of fire between vehicles? Or what challenges scientists meet burning vehicles, and why pneumatic suspens...
April 20, 2022

047 - Effective pressurization of compartments with Grzegorz Sypek

Pressurization is a common strategy for protecting spaces against the infiltration of smoke. However, the solution has a kind-of bad press as "not-working" or "incapable to meet its design goals". We know, that the systems ar...
April 12, 2022

046 - Fire Code Tech crossover with Gus Gagliardi

This week we do something funny - a crossover episode with the host of the Fire Code Tech podcast - Gus Gagliardi. We end up discussing the paths of fire safety engineers, from school to specialized roles in engineering compa...
April 6, 2022

045 - Foundations of fire safety with Ruben van Coile and Danny Hopkin

How does one decide when a building is fire safe? That is a real hell of a question to answer! Is it when no harm can occur? But such a condition can never be fulfilled... there is always a meteor waiting around the corner to...
March 30, 2022

044 - Improving fire safety of battery systems with Ofodike Ezekoye

Since Episode 6, the fire safety of battery systems was not very much visible in the show - a good time to change that! And we do this with a true legend of fire safety - Ofodike Ezekoye. In the last year, I have learnt a lo...
March 23, 2022

043 - Some neglected areas in fire science with Vyto Babrauskas

It is always a pleasure to interview a true legend of fire safety. And when the topic of the interview is their thoughts on neglected areas of our discipline, based on almost five decades of experience? This must end up great...
March 16, 2022

042 - Unsafe environment of post fire scenes with Gavin Horn

We all understand the dangers of smoke inhalation in fires. But what about the site of the fire a few days after it was put out? It looks clean, maybe even lost the smell... Is it something to worry about, or you can rush str...
March 9, 2022

041 - Sprinkler and safety systems reliability with Arnstein Fedoy

How reliable are sprinkler systems? Is it 100%? Is it 95%? Maybe it is 88%... actually, whatever the number is, do we truly understand what does it represent? What does it mean that a sprinkler has succeeded and what does it ...
March 2, 2022

040 - Resilient road tunnel infrastructure with Ingo Riess

This week I've invited a guest, that I was looking to talk to for a good while... Dr Ingo Riess from Riess Ingenieur-GmbH is someone I look up to in the field of tunnel fire safety, in which I am very active in the last few y...
Feb. 23, 2022

039 - The (near) future of modelling with a tool developer Bryan Klein

What does the future hold? Probably no one knows. But what happens in near future with some of the most popular tools used by the FSE community? That is a great question to a tool developer - Bryan Klein of Thunderhead Engine...
Feb. 15, 2022

038 - Fire resistance is not always enough for timber with Daniel Brandon

It is the third time we talk about mass timber and fire in this show, and I hope every time the message gets even more refined. In this episode, it is clear - fire resistance is not always enough. But why? You will learn that...
Feb. 9, 2022

037 - Human behavior misconceptions that lead to (mis)modelling with Enrico Ronchi

If you were investigating phenomena and built your whole narrative around a flawed and debunked concept, would that get published? Would that get cited? Would that be recognized? Many of us would say an obvious *no*, but that...
Feb. 2, 2022

036 - Researching fire with firefighters - UL FSRI: Steve Kerber and Craig Weinschenk

In this episode I was really happy to host two amazing researchers from UL FSRI - Dr Steve Kerber, the VP of Underwriter Laboratories and Director of UL Fire Safety Research Institute, and Dr Craig Weinschenk, research engine...
Jan. 26, 2022

035 - Fire safety as cornerstone of sustainability with Margaret McNamee

Building a fire-safe future is not an easy task. Including sustainability in that build, is even harder. But how hard is it to include fire safety in the discussion, when sustainability itself is a goal? Does sustainability e...
Jan. 19, 2022

034 - Fire safety as a human right, not a privilege with Danielle Antonellis

There are topics in fire science that gain more attention than others. Timber in fire. Batteries. Facades. They are novel, complex, challenging and yet as engineers, we must handle them in our everyday job. But are they impor...
Jan. 12, 2022

033 - Science, theatre or engineering? Polish take on hot smoke test with Piotr Smardz and Janusz Paliszek

Have you ever heard about the hot smoke testing approach? If you had, there is a great chance you have not heard anything positive about it... From our experience, this method is often downplayed as useless, unrealistic and i...
Dec. 22, 2021

032 - Closing the year with a look back on 2021 and forward to the future!

Welcome to the final episode of this year! I hope you all had a great year. For me, it was probably the most challenging, and the most rewarding year of my whole professional career. Join me in this episode recollecting the t...
Dec. 15, 2021

031 - Suppressing tunnel fires with water mist with Johny Jessen

Can water mist be used in tunnels? I wondered that for a long time, and with every tunnel project, many questions around this issue were piling in my head. When dealing with large infrastructure projects you really need to wo...