Episodes
May 17, 2023
101 - The Society of Fire Protection Engineers with Chris Jeleniewicz
What is the Society of Fire Protection Engineers? I just got a really good answer from the Interim CEO Chris Jeleniwicz. It is our profession. It is us. With this important definition sorted, we dig into what SFPE is doing (a...
May 10, 2023
100 - Fire Fundamentals pt. 3 - Smoke plumes (and other flow phenomena) with Wojciech
This week we cover the fundamentals of smoke flow (proliferation!), entrainment and smoke plumes. All the basics that impact the spread of the smoke in our buildings. You will learn: the ideal gas assumption for a smoke mixtu...
May 3, 2023
099 - Electric vehicle fires in tunnels with Peter Sturm
Do you have any idea how bad the tunnel fire will be if there is an EV involved? That is a question I hear a lot, way more often than I would like. And usually, my answers do not get approval. I guess telling people "doesn't ...
April 26, 2023
QA4 - Wojciech in Smart Firefighting podcast episode 151 - fire science, innovation and built environment
This week in place of a normal episode I would like to share an interview I gave to my friend Kevin Sofen in his podcast. In this episode I am interviewed by Kevin on the science of fire, how I understand the built environmen...
April 19, 2023
098 - Digital innovation in built environment with Michael Strömgren
Innovation is a big world. A digital innovation sounds even bigger. But it is in fact our reality - we live in a world of constant change and "improvements". Many of those come to us in form of digital technologies, informati...
April 12, 2023
097 - Smoke toxicity (Part 2) Asphyxiants and irritants with David Purser
This episode is the 2nd part of interview with Professor David Purser, this year recipient of IAFSS'14 Emmons Plenary Lecture. If you have not seen it, I would highly encourage you to first listen to the Part 1 , which sets t...
April 5, 2023
096 - Smoke toxicity (Part 1) Why fires used to be less toxic in 1950's? with David Purser
I have to start with a word of warning, I am extremally hyped about this and upcoming episodes. I think for the first time I have recorded a podcast episode with a ratio of my commentary to the guest 1:5. This is because when...
March 29, 2023
095 - An AI supported Fire Safety Engineer with Michael Kinsey
It is the newest Internet craze. In my opinion, maybe even be the most disruptive tech since bitcoin or the Internet itself. And suddenly, we got a lot of very interesting conversations around, but I've lacked on oriented on ...
March 22, 2023
094 - Experiments that changed fire science pt. 5 - Compartment fires at NBS with James Quintiere
In the fifth episode of mini-series 'Experiments that changed fire science' we cover the compartment fire experimental campaigns carried at NBS (now NIST) in 1970's and 1980's, with the maybe most famous of them all - the Ste...
March 14, 2023
093 - The story of the golden era for the US fire science with James Quintiere
It's finally here, the episode many of you were waiting for! Discussing the history of US fire movement with prof. James Quintiere from the University of Maryland. I often wondered what it felt like in the 1970's and 80's whe...
March 7, 2023
092 - European Commission view on Performance Based FSE with Adamantia Athanasopoulou
It seems we will not have EU Fire Code for at least a few more decades... Why is that? Because the people in power found out that it is not the most efficient thing to do it right now. And they found it through the power of r...
Feb. 28, 2023
091 - Fire fundamentals pt 2 - Ignition with Rory Hadden
Welcome to Fire Fundamentals pt. 2 with Rory Hadden. This episode is focused on the concept of ignition and its role in fire safety - as an event leading to fires, as something often investigated post-fire, but also as a vehi...
Feb. 24, 2023
QA3 - Some Polish experiences with a year of war in Ukraine (interviewed by Arnold Dix)
1 year. This is insane the war is still going on and people are still hurt. This war in Ukraine significantly affected everyone in here, and in this episode, I get a chance to share some of my thoughts and background to the s...
Feb. 22, 2023
090 - Objective driven suppression system for Swedish tunnels with Ulf Lundström
If you want to design a suppression system for a certain application, you have a lot of technical solutions to choose from and most likely a handful of codes to follow. It seems pretty straightforward for most applications, r...
Feb. 15, 2023
089 - Designing law by disasters (or not?) with Birgitte Messerschmidt
There is no universal answer to the question of how law and testing regimes should be set up. Sometimes, we build up our law after a huge tragedy, making sure that the same cause will not be of harm in the future. Sometimes, ...
Feb. 8, 2023
088 - Modeling fires of natural fuels with Eric Mueller
Modelling ignition and fire of a tree branch with some leaves can't be that much different from modelling burning timber, right? Well, that is the kind of ignorance that can backfire on you... It certainly did on me! I have h...
Feb. 1, 2023
087 - Structural FSE inspired by earthquake engineering with Negar Elhami Khorasani
Performance-based engineering or the use of probabilistic methods in building design are not inventions of Fire Safety Engineering. But we sometimes tend to act like we need to 'discover' and work out everything on our own. I...
Jan. 25, 2023
086 - Experiments that changed fire science pt. 4 - Runnehamar tunnel with Haukur Ingason and Anders Lönnermark
Would you rather do 20 published experiments and take your impact factors, or make one that truly changed the world of fire science? Or maybe a different way, would you pursue something that is quick, easy and gives immediate...
Jan. 18, 2023
085 - E-mobility and energy storage hazards with Adam Barowy
Three months ago I saw a video of some sort of an electric scooter going off in someone's residential building. That person had absolutely no chance of controlling that fire. I guess they have escaped, but it must have been s...
Jan. 16, 2023
QA#2 - Turning podcast professional and the outcomes of the listener experience survey
Welcome to Questions & Answers session 02 covering the recent sponsorship opening in the podcast and how the podcast is turning from a hobby project to something more professional, and the summary of the 2022 listener experie...
Jan. 11, 2023
084 - Industry lead research with Steve Gwynne and Mike Spearpoint
In my first episode, I mentioned that I'm doing this podcast to preserve some amazing conversations and share them with a larger audience, as sometimes it is a huge waste of interesting thoughts that remain just between the f...
Jan. 4, 2023
083 - Fire fundamentals pt 1 - Combustion and flame with Rory Hadden
Let's start another mini-series! This time 'fire fundamentals' where we are going to learn some basics from the world's best. It is usually fascinating to do that! Not sure how you feel about it but I would kill for a chance ...
Dec. 28, 2022
082 - Experiments that changed fire science pt. 3 - WTC Investigation with Kevin McGrattan
Fire science is often accelerated by tragedies. The same goes for the tools we are using and the methods we know. In the early 2000's we already had some great tools, in fact, it was the era where the paradigm of fire modelli...
Dec. 21, 2022
081 - The origins of FDS with Kevin McGrattan
Has it ever crossed your mind how would our discipline look like, if we did not have Fire Dynamics Simulator? Maybe you had an opportunity to discuss CFD with colleagues from other disciplines, to find their faces in shock an...