Fire Science, Engineering And Education Episodes
The current hot-topics in fire science and engineering
Oct. 29, 2025
224 - Navigating the complexities to change our field - a roundtable with Steve McGuirk and Brian Meacham
This week, in the Fire Science Show, we host a roundtable discussion on complexities in fire safety science and engineering. Most safety failures don’t come from a single mistake—they emerge when people, technology, and insti...
Oct. 15, 2025
222 - Integrating WUI risk management and fire safety engineering with Pascale Vacca
In this episode we try to demonstrate another step in integrating fire engineering into WUI risk management, and vice versa. These two areas together form some sort of fire engineering method, which I strongly believe will be...
Sept. 24, 2025
219 - Giving back with the SFPE Foundation - with Leslie Marshall
In this episode, we give focus to the SFPE Foundation – a catalyst transforming how fire engineering research is funded, conducted, and shared globally. In this conversation with Leslie Marshall, Interim Executive Director of...
Aug. 27, 2025
216 - What do we measure and how? with David Morrisset
What happens when we stick a thermocouple into a fire? The answer is surprisingly complex and has profound implications for fire safety engineering. In this deep-dive episode, Dr. David Morrisset from Queensland University jo...
Aug. 13, 2025
214 - Thermal Imagers with Martin Veit
The world looks entirely different through a thermal camera lens, especially in a fire scenario. These devices reveal harsh temperature gradients between hot and cold surfaces, adding another dimension to how fire safety prof...
July 23, 2025
211 - Fire Fundamentals pt. 17 - Detecting fires
In episode 17 of the Fire Fundamentals, we delve into the fire detection technology. Fire detection forms the critical foundation of all active fire protection measures, serving as the prerequisite for any fire safety enginee...
July 9, 2025
209 - Updates from the SFPE with Chris Jelenewicz
In this podcast episode, I invited Chris Jelenewicz, the CEO of SFPE, to bring me up to date on the society. The SFPE Handbook on Fire Protection Engineering is undergoing a major revision with the sixth edition expected by s...
June 25, 2025
207 - Fire Safety of Balconies with Mike Spearpoint and Konstantinos Chotzoglou
As a consequence of the Grenfell Tower disaster, some strong legislation was proposed, such as a combustible ban on building walls. This, however, affected more than just the building facades, as it excluded materials such as...
June 11, 2025
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 essential modelling tool is maintained, improved, and ada…
May 21, 2025
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 designi...
May 6, 2025
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 the ITB. In this episode, we discuss the concept of flammabilit…
April 2, 2025
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 t...
Dec. 18, 2024
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 ...
Nov. 27, 2024
179 - Assurance in fire safety with Abhishek Chhabra
Discover the hidden backbone of fire safety with assurance industry expert Abhishek Chhabra as we unravel the essential frameworks that keep our buildings safe and sound. We explore the vital role of standards, accreditations...
Oct. 30, 2024
175 - Changes in the UK fire regulations with Dame Judith Hackitt
The Grenfell Tower tragedy has triggered a Public Inquiry (which just published their final report ), and concurrently - a review of the UK Building Regulations and Fire Safety. The latter task was given to Dame Judith Hackit...
Sept. 25, 2024
170 - Integrating Fire Safety and Security Objectives with Stewe Gwynne and Aoife Hunt
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 ...
Sept. 4, 2024
167 - CFD for consequences and fire growth with Jonathan Hodges
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 Hu...
Aug. 14, 2024
164 - Experiences with AI with Xinyan Huang
The l ast 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 excit...
May 15, 2024
152 - Why we need good standards with Björn Sundström
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,...
April 24, 2024
149 - CROSS UK with Neil Gibbins and Peter Wilkinson
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 th...
March 6, 2024
142 - Uncertainty in fire measurements with David Morrisset
If the word 'uncertainty' sounds extremely boring to you, this episode will prove you wrong. I have invited David Morrisset from the University of Edinburgh to discuss his research on the subject. Whereas in fact David is est...
Feb. 21, 2024
140 - Development and implementation of the SBI test with Rudolf van Mierlo
Tests in the world of reaction to fire are supposed to be representations of real fire scenarios, allowing us to grasp the characteristics of building products against them. While for the worst scenario (flashover fire) or th...
Nov. 15, 2023
127 Introducing the Book of Fire: An Online Resource Hub for Fire Engineers
Dear friends, I am building something new for you. Something that should be very useful, something that I wish I had when I started my journey as a fresh fire safety engineer. And I’ve reached a point where I’m comfortable sh...
Aug. 8, 2023
113 - Exploring Maritime Fire Safety with Bogdan Racięga
My knowledge about fire safety at sea was pretty limited, at best. I was planning this episode for a long time, and then the disastrous fire happened at a car carrier near the Netherlands coast. In light of these events, I've...