The NFPA Podcast

Not long ago, a dirty, sooty turnout coat and helmet was a badge of honor in the fire service—tangible proof that a firefighter was in the action. But as concern grew about the high levels of cancer in the fire servic...Read more

Fire Prevention Week, which runs this year from October 5–11, is the longest running public safety observance in United States history. This year for the first time, the Fire Prevention Week theme will focus on lithi...Read more

On January 19, 2000, Shawn Simons and Alvaro Llanos, then 18-year-old freshman roommates at Seton Hall University, were severely burned when the residence hall they lived in caught fire. The blaze, one of the worst at...Read more

In October 2023, a 40-year-old man armed with semi-automatic rifle opened fire inside a bowling alley and later at a nearby restaurant in the small city of Lewiston, Maine. Between the two incidents, 18 people died an...Read more

Decades from now when we name at the seminal fires from the 21st Century, the Grenfell Tower fire in London, which killed 72 people in June 2017, will certainly be the list. Today on the podcast, we consider Grenfell’...Read more

More than 80 percent of the world’s population lives in low-and-middle income countries, according to the World Bank. In these nations, it's often a huge challenge to find the resources needed to build the systems of...Read more

Since 2022, New York has experienced more than 800 fires sparked by lithium-ion batteries, leading to 30 deaths and more than 400 injuries. The sudden explosion of battery incidents led FDNY in 2023 to form the Lithiu...Read more

As we’ve noted on the podcast a few times recently, standard development organizations and safety professionals are facing several significant challenges right now. In statehouses, lawmakers are increasingly passing b...Read more

As summer weather begins in the Northern Hemisphere, we revisit this very relevant episode from 2023. Heatwaves aren't just uncomfortable, they are deadly for millions of people around the globe each year. Recognizin...Read more

Tribal nations and native communities across North America are consistently one of the highest-risk population groups for a range of health and safety issues, including fire incidents and casualties. And yet, developi...Read more

May is Electrical Safety Month, which is a good time to remember that dozens of people across the world suffer injuries from electrical hazards every single day. Survivors of these incidents list a range of devastatin...Read more

Carbon monoxide is known as the silent killer, but it doesn’t have to kill you to have permanent consequences. There is growing evidence that long-term exposure to CO, at concentrations that are too small for a typica...Read more

As the weather in the Northern Hemisphere starts to shift to spring and construction season gears up, we revisist an episode from 2021 about the costly ongoing problem of fires in buildings under construction. In the...Read more

This is the second part of our series looking at how fire and life safety codes are being delayed, erased, and watered down across the United States. On this episode, we talk to Ohio State Fire Marshal Kevin Reardon a...Read more

There is a serious threat to safety happening now that isn’t getting nearly enough attention, according to many state fire marshals and fire service leaders. Across the U.S., anti-regulatory sentiments and well financ...Read more

As the Los Angeles area wildfires exploded in early January, a nonprofit organization called MySafe:LA leapt into action, disseminating timely information to guide residents through the chaos. But public messaging is...Read more

In 1973, fire killed and injured more people in the United States than in any other industrialized nation in the world. The next year, Congress passed the Federal Fire Prevention and Control Act, a landmark bill that...Read more

Modern warehouses and distribution centers are huge. Some have footprints larger than 60 American football fields and are filled with densely packed racks up to 100 feet tall. When a giant building like this catches f...Read more

In the last week, huge swaths of metro Los Angeles have been devastated by wildfires fueled by parched vegetation and hurricane force winds. The images and videos of once vibrant neighborhoods reduced to smoldering a...Read more

You could make the argument that artificial intelligence was the most consequential new technology for fire and life safety in 2024. Several fire departments began dabbling with AI this year, and some even hope to ha...Read more

This summer, long-awaited changes to the standard that sets the performance requirements for smoke alarms went into effect, marking a new era for the technology. For the first time, smoke alarms must now pass a test t...Read more

Although hospital fires are rare in the United States, that’s not the case around the world. Recent deadly fires at hospitals in India —including a fire in November that killed 10 newborn babies — show how hard it is...Read more

Nearly all jurisdictions in the United States enforce codes that require two exit stairwells in residential buildings above three or four stories. Housing advocates say that increasing the cap to six stories will lea...Read more

As online retail flourishes, distribution centers are installing new and more advanced automated storage and retrieval systems (or ASRS). These systems are like enormous vending machines that store, organize, and move...Read more

When hurricane Ian tore through Florida in September 2022, it left a trail of destruction—but not at Babcock Ranch, a 2,000-home development designed to be both sustainable and to withstand the worst natural disaster...Read more

This month, a comprehensive new survey on smoke alarm use in the U.S. found that 16 percent of households—as many as 53 million people—do not having working smoke alarms. The new report comes just in time for Fire Pre...Read more

As fire departments increasingly focus on fire prevention and community risk reduction (CRR), several new challenges have emerged. In some cases, firefighters may resist or be apathetic to these tasks. In other case...Read more

For fire safety educators, breaking through the noise to deliver the right messages to the people who need to hear it can be an enormous challenge. Some are increasingly turning to artificial intelligence to discover...Read more

The number of micro-distilleries in the U.S. has ballooned from just 500 in 2014, to more than 2,700 today, according to the American Craft Spirits Association. Like micro-breweries, these small-batch liquor productio...Read more

Research has shown that doing wildfire mitigation work, like replacing wooden shingles or removing dead leaves from the gutters, drastically reduces the chances of your home becoming a heap of ash when a wildfire stri...Read more

Despite overwhelming proof that home fire sprinklers save lives, fewer than 10 percent of all new homes being built in the United States today are equipped with sprinklers, and most states refuse to mandate their use...Read more

In March, NFPA announced the formation of a new for-profit corporation called NFPA Global Solutions, a venture unique from anything NFPA has undertaken in its history. On today’s podcast, Jim Pauley, NFPA’s president...Read more

Electric Shock Drowning claims possibly dozens of lives each year, but most people have never heard of it. Our guest today, David Rifkin, is one of world’s leading experts on this hazard and its causes. He explains w...Read more

We wrap up Electrical Safety Month with a powerful reminder for anyone doing hazardous work of why you can't afford to be complacent about safety. Veteran electrician Jason Brozen was at a routine job on an ordinary...Read more

In February 2023, Chief Brian Nardelli of the Brockton Fire Department in Massachusetts found himself at the helm of one of the most complex operations a chief can face: a hospital fire requiring a full evacuation. T...Read more

Residential hoarding poses numerous dangers and fire risks for residents and firefighters, yet communities have struggled to find meaningful solutions. Today on the podcast, two of North America’s most prominent hoar...Read more

In most years, more firefighters die by suicide than from accidents or injuries that happen in the line of duty, according to the Firefighter Behavioral Health Alliance. It’s well understood that PTSD is a huge contr...Read more

Each year, accidental carbon monoxide poisonings cause at least 430 deaths in the U.S., and send more than 100,000 people to emergency rooms, according to the CDC. Studies have found that the number of accidental CO...Read more

As the number of energy storage and photovoltaic systems being installed across the world continues to rise dramatically, so does the need for trained professionals to ensure that these systems are reliable and safe...Read more

We wrap up our two-parter about how AI technologies might impact fire and life safety by talking with Xinyan Huang, a fire protection engineer, professor, and AI researcher at the Research Centre for Fire Safety E...Read more

Today’s podcast is the first in a two-part series looking at how artificial intelligence technologies could impact fire and life safety. In this episode, we focus on AI’s potential impact on the fire service. How mig...Read more

Lithium-ion batteries and photovoltaic panels are technologies that may improve environmental sustainability, but also present challenges to fire protection engineers. Conversely, chemical flame retardants may lead t...Read more

From elevators that can decapitate you to grills that can explode in your face, short-term rental properties aren’t short on things that can hurt you—or worse. In fact, short-term rental safety expert Justin Ford call...Read more

As destruction from wildfire in the U.S. continues to set records, it’s become abundantly clear that the country’s current strategies are not working. But what should we be doing differently? Over the past year, a wi...Read more

It’s well understood that childhood trauma can have dramatic effects on a person’s adult life, and in recent years, risk prevention experts have started to recognize it as a sizeable contributor to both individual an...Read more

At budget time, fire departments are listed as a cost on the city ledger, but that’s only part of the story. Firefighting and fire prevention also provide huge returns on investment by saving lives, buildings, busine...Read more

Heatwaves aren't just uncomfortable; they are deadly for millions of people around the globe each year. Recognizing this growing threat, governments and safety departments are starting to reconsider their vulnerabil...Read more

We are replaying "The Survivors," an award-winning podcast series that NFPA first published in 2017. In the final episode, the van Dijks and other survivors want their experience to be the catalyst for the inclusion o...Read more

We are replaying "The Survivors," an award-winning podcast series that NFPA first published in 2017. In Part 4, upsetting his family, Feike joins the fire service and places himself into one of America’s deadliest pla...Read more

We are replaying "The Survivors," an award-winning podcast series that NFPA first published in 2017. In Part 3, the van Dijk's emotional scarring from the fire seems to have taken a larger toll on the family than thei...Read more

For the next five NFPA Podcast episodes we are replaying "The Survivors," an award-winning podcast series NFPA first published in 2017. In Part 2, impacted by the death of their two boys, the van Dijks go through the...Read more

For the next five NFPA Podcast episodes we are replaying "The Survivors," an award-winning five-part podcast series that first ran in 2017. In part 1, Feike and Noelle van Dijk’s sense of normalcy is shattered when...Read more

Few topics are as hot right now in the fire service as consumer lithium-ion batteries. While electric vehicles and e-bikes still get the bulk of attention, residential energy storage system (ESS) installations are...Read more

Incredible advancements are being made around using virtual reality to bolster firefighter training. Some fire departments are even using VR to educate the public about fire safety. Today on the podcast, we talk to K...Read more

In the United States, when someone calls 911 the call is routed to an operator at a public safety answering point, or PSAP. But news outlets across the country are finding that local PSAPs are struggling, and that 91...Read more

An estimated 75 million households in the United States will fire up their grills this Memorial Day weekend. For most, the worst that will happen is a few burned hot dogs. But each year, about 22,000 people in the U.S...Read more

Last month, the U.S. federal government launched the National Firefighter Registry for Cancer—the largest project ever undertaken to better understand and reduce the risk of cancer among firefighters. Today on the po...Read more

Falls and fires kill and injure more older adults than many people realize. Not only are seniors twice as likely as the general population to experience a fatal fire, they suffer an estimated 36 million falls each y...Read more

Dampers are usually hidden away in ducts or ceiling cavities and seldom get much attention, but they’re a critical part of the fire protection strategy for many buildings. In a new Code Corner, NFPA Engineer Shawn Ma...Read more

Diversity, equity, and inclusion are three words that have quickly risen priority lists at fire departments across the world in recent years. While most agree on the importance of having a diverse and inclusive workf...Read more

The latest data from NFPA shows that the number of fires in buildings under construction has been steadily rising over the past several years. On average, US fire departments respond to nearly a dozen such fires every...Read more

About 80 percent of female firefighters say that their personal protective clothing doesn’t fit right, and studies show that ill-fitting gear puts women at greater risk of being injured on the job. Today on the podca...Read more

In his stunning new book, American Sirens: The Incredible Story of the Black Men Who Became America’s First Paramedics, former paramedic Kevin Hazzard explores the largely forgotten history of the Freedom House Ambula...Read more

Today on the podcast we examine one of NFPA’s oldest and most significant publications, the Fire Protection Handbook. Guests Nick Dawe, a fire marshal in Georgia, and Casey Grant, a fire protection engineering consult...Read more

As cold weather begins to move into the northern latitudes, families all over the world are struggling with high heating bills, leading some to make desperate choices that can dramatically increase fire risks. On toda...Read more

We are ringing in the New Year by rerunning one of our favorite episodes of all time, which originally aired in January 2017. It might seem strange now, but firefighters dying from falling off fire trucks used to be a...Read more

Believe it or not, a reported home fire in the US today is more likely to be fatal than it was in 1980. In fact, a new NFPA report reveals that the number of fire deaths per 1,000 reported home fires has risen 13 perc...Read more

Shockingly, cooking fires now kill more people on average per year in the US than they did in the 1980s. As Thanksgiving nears, we are re-airing this episode from November 2020 looking at this growing problem. First,...Read more

When hurricane Ian tore through Florida in September, it left a trail of destruction—but not at Babcock Ranch, a 2,000-home development designed to be both sustainable and to withstand the worst natural disasters. Tod...Read more

For years, flame retardant chemicals have presented a catch 22. When applied to furniture they can help prevent fire ignition and potentially save lives, however, many scientists believe the chemicals are harmful to b...Read more

A new book called California Burning details Pacific Gas & Electric’s 117-year rise to becoming one of the largest utilities in the United States—as well as how the company’s negligence, a changing climate, and state...Read more

Thirty years ago, NFPA released NFPA 921, the world’s first comprehensive guide on fire and explosion investigation. Since then, the profession has advanced leaps and bounds. However, a recent report on the profession...Read more

On January 19, 2000, Shawn Simons and Alvaro Llanos, then 18- year- old freshman roommates at Seton Hall University, were severely burned when the residence hall they lived in caught fire. The blaze, one of the worst...Read more

For more than 50 years, firefighters have relied on aqueous film forming foam—better known as AFFF—to quickly and effectively put out dangerous liquid fuel fires. However, due to health and environmental concerns, AFF...Read more

As the number and severity of wildfires increase in many parts of the world, experts have concerns over what the health impacts of wildfire smoke inhalation might be. In today’s episode, we hear from three researchers...Read more

In May, journalists Madison Hopkins and Cecilia Reyes were awarded a Pulitzer Prize for their investigative series, “The Failures Before the Fires,” which exposed dangerous systemic flaws in how Chicago handles buildi...Read more

SMART fire sprinklers, which use less water and can employ a range of sensors to target exactly where a fire is happening, have potential to be a game changer, according to some experts. Today on the pod...Read more

From elevators that can decapitate you to grills that can explode in your face, short-term rental properties aren’t short on things that can hurt you—or worse. In fact, short-term rental safety expert Justin Ford cal...Read more

Battery-powered electric bicycles and scooters, collectively known as micromobility devices, have exploded in popularity in recent years, but so too have fires involving these devices. From New York City to India, e-b...Read more

In 2011, longtime electrician Brandon Schroeder was involved in an accident on the job that left him severely burned and without the use of his hand. After a long and grueling recovery, Schroeder became a vocal advoc...Read more

For more than a decade, the small, wooded town of Grizzly Flats, California has participated in Firewise USA, an NFPA program where residents voluntarily work together on community projects to lessen their risks from...Read more

The State Emergency Service of Ukraine (SES) has taken on an unrelenting burden since Russian forces invaded more than two months ago. Among other tasks, the SES’s 60,000 responders put out fires, search for survivors...Read more

Research suggests that two-thirds of US adults aged 65 and older use at least three prescription medications. Meanwhile, older adults are twice as likely as the general population to experience a fatal fire, and deat...Read more

Since 1982, the Fire Protection Research Foundation, the research affiliate of NFPA, has been instrumental in answering countless important questions about how best to protect the world from fire and electrical danger...Read more

Dr. Denise Smith, who has spent decades researching the physiological impact of firefighting, joins The NFPA Podcast to discuss how firefighters who have been infected with COVID-19 could struggle for weeks or even mo...Read more

Static electricity doesn’t usually get a lot of attention, but maybe that should change. One tiny spark, many times smaller than what a human can perceive or feel, can cause huge industrial accidents with deadly conse...Read more

Dr. Lori Moore-Merrell, who was appointed as the US fire administrator in October, joins The NFPA Podcast to discuss her priorities for the US Fire Administration in 2022 and beyond—from the need to focus on first res...Read more

In early January, two of the deadliest residential fires of the past 40 years in the US happened just days apart in Philadelphia and the Bronx. A total of 29 people died, including more than a dozen children....Read more

January is National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month. In today's episode of The NFPA Podcast, we revisit an interview NFPA Journal Executive Editor Scott Sutherland conducted with Jeremy Inglis in Octobe...Read more

Two important figures in the US Fire Service, Russ Sanders and Gregory Cade, have announced they will be retiring at the end of 2021 after a combined 105 years of service to the fire profession. In today’s Part...Read more

Two important figures in the US Fire Service, Russ Sanders and Gregory Cade, have announced they will be retiring at the end of 2021 after a combined 105 years of service to the fire profession. In today’s Part...Read more

A significant effort is underway to combine and consolidate dozens of NFPA emergency response standards; the aim is to streamline the number of documents that departments need to consult on a given topic. In this epis...Read more

When the Richard Spring Fire tore through southwestern Montana in August, Clint McRae, a 4th generation Montana cattle rancher, feared he’d lose not only his home, but possibly hundreds of animals and the vital grassl...Read more

An estimated 1 billion people worldwide currently live in informal settlements, including slums and shantytowns. Experts believe that number could double or even triple over the next 30 years. In today’s episode, Prof...Read more

The theme to this year’s Fire Prevention Week is “Learn the Sounds of Fire Safety,” but what if you can’t hear, or have a mobility issue that makes it difficult evacuate? For the estimated 1 billion people with disabi...Read more

In 2019, a massive explosion rocked an energy storage facility in Surprise, Arizona, sending four firefighters to the hospital. With ever more powerful energy storage systems, or ESS, being installed across the world,...Read more

It’s hard to believe that the September 11 terrorist attacks happened 20 years ago this month. Of the nearly 3,000 people killed at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and in rural Pennsylvania, more that 400 were e...Read more

As the flying taxi industry readies for takeoff, critical fire, electrical, and life safety questions remain about the ground infrastructure needed to make commercial use of electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTO...Read more

When home fire sprinklers are present, residents are 80 percent more likely to survive a fire, and yet they are installed in only a fraction of new homes. For the past 25 years, a group called the Home Fire Sprinkler...Read more

For much of the past year, NFPA researchers have been working on a gigantic project to collect and analyze the last four decades of residential fire statistics in the United States. While they found that fires and fir...Read more

Safety departments are awash with valuable community data, but figuring out how to use this mountain of information can be daunting. We talk to former Philadelphia Fire Commissioner Derrick Sawyer, one of the leading...Read more

Last week was the four-year anniversary of London's deadly Grenfell Tower fire. In today's episode we interview Kate Lamble, host and producer of a BBC podcast that for the past three years has followed the United Kin...Read more

In the United States, there's a fire in a building under construction or renovation every hour and a half, according to NFPA data. Today on the podcast, Angelo speaks with Kevin Carr (4:15), NFPA staff liaison to NFPA...Read more

There are nearly 2,000 fires in recreational vehicles per year, according to a recent report from the Fire Protection Research Foundation; meanwhile, RV use in North America hit an all-time high in 2020 due in part to...Read more

May is National Electrical Safety Month. Today on the podcast, Derek talks to Electrical Safety Foundation International President Brett Brenner (3:01) about what the data says on who most often experiences electrical...Read more

Today on the podcast, we look at how fire and life safety messaging is developed and spread. Who creates these important messages about cooking, candles, and changing the batteries in your fire alarms? How is the guid...Read more

More than a year after the COVID-19 virus closed buildings around the world, many large facilities are preparing to reopen in the coming months, including universities, gyms, theaters, and office buildings. It’s a uni...Read more

In recent years, new insights into how structural fires behave have led to some of the most significant tactical changes the fire service has seen in decades. All of these lessons have been collected in a new document...Read more

As cannabis legalization expands, hundreds of grow and processing facilities have emerged across North America in recent years, introducing a variety of new equipment and unfamiliar processes that regulators have had...Read more

On February 23, NFPA unveiled a new initiative called Outthink Wildfire, a comprehensive strategy that challenges policymakers on all levels to take action to reduce loss from wildfire. Its ambitious goal is the compl...Read more

Across the world, dozens of people each day suffer injuries from electrical hazards such as shocks and arc flashes. Survivors of these incidents list a range of devastating symptoms, from burns and chronic pain, to in...Read more

As building systems become smarter and more interconnected, cybercriminals are increasingly using them as an entry point to launch cyberattacks against businesses, hospitals, and other organizations. Potentially vulne...Read more

There are more than 90,000 female firefighters in the United States, and nearly all of them wear personal protective equipment that was designed for a man. Not surprisingly, many women report that their gear doesn’t f...Read more

In response to growing concerns about PTSD and suicide among firefighters, the University of Illinois Fire Service Institute created the First Responder Resiliency Program in 2016. The goal is to prepare firefighters...Read more

In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has forced organizations across the world to rethink how they operate, and NFPA is no exception. Sometimes these unplanned experiments have led to new insights and new efficiencies. In t...Read more

Shockingly, cooking fires now kill more people on average per year in the US than they did in the 1980s. As Thanksgiving approaches—the day with by far the most incidents—we take a look at the growing problem of cooki...Read more

Community Risk Reduction (CRR) is a term that has popped up everywhere in recent years, from fire departments to federal grants, at conferences, and even in the new standard NFPA 1300. On today’s podcast, Jesse talks...Read more

Various studies have shown that firefighters are more likely to contract and die from certain types of cancer than the general public. On today’s podcast we look at several initiatives underway to better understand th...Read more

Deadly gas explosions have occurred in Maine, Maryland, and Massachusetts in recent years. A new standard being developed by NFPA aims to address the problem. Angelo kicks off the episode with a story about one recent...Read more

With historic and destructive wildfires spanning the globe from Oregon to the Amazon in 2020, experts in a range of fields are coming together to figure out what can be done to save people and property. In the first s...Read more

Set for release on September 21, NFPA LiNK™ reinvents the experience of using NFPA codes and standards—and sets the stage for the organization’s future as a hub of digital information and knowledge. But what exactly i...Read more

With the peak of hurricane and wildfire seasons upon us, government agencies and aid organizations will need to shelter potentially thousands of storm and fire evacuees. How will they do it without spreading the COVID...Read more

Many things went wrong to cause the deadly explosion in Beirut, Lebanon. In this episode of The NFPA Podcast, we examine some of the factors that may have led to the blast, from the improper storage of ammonium nitrat...Read more

From inaccurate pop culture references to homebuilders warning of astronomical costs, there are a lot of residential fire sprinklers myths out there. In this episode of The NFPA Podcast, we debunk some of those myths...Read more

As it has with every industry, coronavirus has upended the world of safety inspections—but in this case there might actually be some good news! With communities across the world social distancing, remote video inspect...Read more

The worldwide battery market is expected to grow by over 12 percent in the next five years. From hoverboards to electric cars to energy storage systems (ESS), mankind is increasingly relying on battery power. But what...Read more

In the very first episode of The NFPA Podcast, we explore the fast-growing and rapidly evolving legal cannabis industry. In the first segment, Jesse talks to NFPA Field Director Ray Bizal about what he’s learned from...Read more

In light of the recent civil unrest and mass protests in Minneapolis, we thought it was a good time to revisit this episode from 2016. In this re-released episode, we hear from Jeffrey Segal, assistant chief of the Balti...Read more

As the coronavirus pandemic kills scores, many of them part of vulnerable populations like the elderly, community risk reduction (CRR) efforts are taking center stage. In this episode, we hear from NFPA's CRR experts...Read more

This week, the NFPA Journal Podcast looks at crisis standards of care (CSC). The coronavirus pandemic has forced first response agencies and health care workers across the world to alter their normal standards and pro...Read more

This week, NFPA Journal editor Jesse Roman talks to Pieter Maes, a firefighter/EMT in Brussels, Belgium, about the extraordinary steps emergency responders in this European capitol are taking to prepare for the onslau...Read more

As the health care system in the United States braces for a surge in patients sickened by COVID-19, the NFPA Journal® Podcast speaks with experts on how this issue will be addressed, from the creation of mobile field...Read more

As the COVID-19 coronavirus sweeps the globe, the NFPA Journal Podcast speaks with leading first responder experts on the precautions they can take to stay safe, such as incorporating masks into their PPE. Con...Read more

Americans living in rural areas are statistically older, sicker, and poorer than the general population. Compounding those factors is a lack of access to health care. Now, many are at high risk of losing emergency med...Read more

The United States has eradicated hospital fire deaths. Why can't other countries? We're bringing you the NFPA Journal® podcast a week early this month and diving into the complicated topic of international hospital fi...Read more

As we near the 20th anniversary of the Worcester, Massachusetts, cold storage warehouse fire, which killed six firefighters on December 3, 1999, the NFPA Journal Podcast catches up with Matthew Foley, an NFPA research...Read more

In this episode of the NFPA Journal® Podcast, we take a look at the NFPA Fire & Life Safety Ecosystem and how recent events in Brazil serve as prime examples of that concept. -- Have feedback on the podc...Read more

On May 17, 2017, 31-year-old San Antonio firefighter Scott Deem died while searching for victims inside a burning building. After the fire, department leaders in command that night began working to build an innovative...Read more

Escape rooms are popping up everywhere. In 2014, there were only 22 escape rooms in the United States. Today, there are over 2,000. After a fire in an escape room killed five teenagers in Poland in January, many have...Read more

As disasters strike around the globe with greater frequency and severity, aid agencies are increasingly relying on a worldwide army of volunteers to listen to the digital chatter on social media emanating from communi...Read more

NFPA Journal Podcast is back!!!  We're trying out a new format so please let us know what you think, send an email to AVerzoni@nfpa.org. After a deadly blaze on a movie set in New York City, experts stress the...Read more

About 1 billion people worldwide live in areas known as shantytowns, informal settlements, or slums, where fire is an ever-present threat. Last year, a project carried out in a shantytown in South Africa reduced fire...Read more

As Airbnb and other short-term rental services expand to include a range of property types, regulatory challenges create uncertainty over the level of safety those spaces should provide. BY ANGELO VERZONI...Read more

First Harvey. Then Irma. Then Maria. After three hurricanes pummeled the United States coast from late August through September, NFPA Journal's November/December issue includes interviews with several people who came...Read more

Against a backdrop of active shooter events from coast to coast, NFPA began crafting its new standard on response and preparedness to active shooter and/or hostile events, NFPA 3000, in June. In this episode of the NF...Read more

Jesse Roman sits down with Boston's Fire Commissioner Joseph Finn to discuss how Boston became a leader in the effort to combat firefighter cancer....Read more

It might seem strange today, but firefighters dying from falling off fire trucks used to be a problem— from 1977 to 1987, an average of nearly four firefighters died each year from falling off of trucks. Today, the pr...Read more

With 19 different shows, in countries all over the world and in front of over 15 million patrons; making sure that every Cirque du Soleil show is up to code can seem like a herculean task.  On this episode Jesse Roman...Read more

If you are a healthcare facilities manager who is looking for more resources on how to be compliant with the 2012 version of NFPA 101 and NFPA 99, please visit www.nfpa.org/cms Jesse sits down with Rober...Read more

Major thanks to Chief Goldfeder for not only talking to us but doing it after an 11 hour car ride.  I think it is safe to say that the Chief is the first guest we've had to accomplish such a feat before our interview....Read more

First off, please let us know if you like our topics and if you have any ideas for other things we can talk about. Email Jesse at jroman@nfpa.org and let us know what you think.  We've been receiving a lot of support...Read more

First off, please let us know if you like this format! Email Jesse at jroman@nfpa.org and let us know what you think.  We've been receiving a lot of support for the podcast the past year and we would love to hear from...Read more

Jesse takes a break from his current story on liquid natural gas and the shale revolution to give a quick update live from the NFPA Journal newsroom.  Jesse will be back in March with a brand new podcast.  In the mean...Read more

What do you do when protesters set fires all over your city, then sabotage your efforts to put them out? Imagine responding to a fire only to be shot at on the fireground. In today’s NFPA Journal Podcast we hear from...Read more

Out of more than 63,000 wildland fires reported last year, specialized wildland firefighters responded to just 112, meaning local fire departments handled the rest. But there is little information about how well train...Read more

Ken Willette, Division Manager of Public Fire Protection for NFPA, sits down with Jesse to discuss how NFPA is engaging the fire service.  Ken talks about the change undergoing the fire service right now and where the...Read more

Bangladesh is second only to China in garment exports to the West, but unsafe conditions have plagued its factories where thousands of workers have died in preventable tragedies over the years. In response, a consorti...Read more

Guy Colonna, NFPA’s division manager of Industrial and Chemical Engineering, sits down with Jesse Roman to discuss dust and current cultural events that are bringing the two together.  After an explosion at a dance p...Read more

In Part III of NFPA Journal Podcast’s three-part suite on drones, robots and unmanned systems, Jesse speaks to Thomas Zajkowski, Flight Operations Manager at NextGen Air Transportation Center UAS Program at North Caro...Read more

In Part II of NFPA Journal Podcast’s three-part suite on drones, robots and unmanned systems, Jesse speaks to Helen Greiner, the co-founder of iRobot and the current CEO and founder of CyPhy Works, a manufacturer of...Read more

In part one of NFPA Journal Podcast’s three-part suite on drones, robots and unmanned systems, Jesse speaks to Stephen McKeever, a professor of physics at Oklahoma State and the state’s secretary of science and techn...Read more

Food trucks are on the rise with around 117,000 in operation around the United States.  In 2014 it was estimated that the food truck industry made over $850 million.  Some trucks operate using a 20-gallon tank of pro...Read more

Jesse Roman chats with Matt Klaus, NFPA principal fire protection engineer and liaison to the NFPA 13 technical committees, about these updates to 13, why they were made, and why they are important. In the ca...Read more

Don Bliss, VP of Field Operations, and Jesse Roman, staff writer, dicuss the March April 2015 NFPA Journal cover story on resilience.  They take a big-picture look at one of the most compelling concepts in safety and...Read more

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NFPA Journal executive editor Scott Sutherland and Casey Grant, the director of the Fire Protection Research Foundation, examine the history of the Triangle Waist Company fire. You can read more about the fire...Read more

In the last part of our interview with Dr. John Hall, we look at the cost of building construction and how it relates to the total cost of fire in the United States. You can find the "Total Cost of Fire in the...Read more

In the second of our three part interview, Dr. John Hall, the director of NFPA Data Analysis Division examines the cost of career fire service versus the cost of volunteer service and how it impacts the total cost of...Read more

Ken Willette, manager of NFPA's Public Fire Division, and Dr. John Hall, the director of NFPA's Data Analysis Division, discuss the new "Total Cost of Fire in the U.S." report....Read more

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Fires caused by issues with a home's electrical system or appliance are another leading cause of fires in winter months.  Find out more about this and other safety information on NFPA's Winter Safety webpage....Read more

The effects of winter weather, like snow and freezing cold temperatures, can easily lead to an increased risk of fire or injury in your home.  Learn how to stay safe in this episode of our Winter Safety series....Read more

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In the fourth episode of our Winter Safety series, Glenn Gaines from the USFA and NFPA's Lorraine Carli talk about how to stay safe when heating your home this winter....Read more

In the third episode of our Winter Safety series, Glenn Gaines from the USFA and NFPA's Lorraine Carli gives us some sobering statistics about how dangerous lit candles can be at this time of year....Read more

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In the first episode of our Winter Safety series, we talk with USFA's acting fire administrator Glenn Gaines and NFPA's Public Education Division manager Judy Comoletti about staying safe while cooking....Read more

The overall number of fires fell by more than 7 percent from the previous year, while the damage by fire fell by 11 percent.  Dr. John Hall provides an overview of NFPA's 2009 Fire Loss Report....Read more

NFPA's Judy Comoletti and Amy Lebeau gives us a preview of all the new material available online for Fire Prevention Week.  Learn more at the FPW website and read the daily updates on the FPW blog....Read more

An interview with report author Rita Fahy.  Read the full story in the July/August issue of NFPA Journal....Read more

A look at some of the many efforts NFPA has undertaken to addrss the needs of people with disabilities.  Read the full story in the July/August issue of NFPA Journal....Read more

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An overview of proposed provisions for the National Electrical Code and renewable-energy technology with NECA exec. director Michael Johnston.  You can read more about this at nfpa.org/renewableenergy....Read more

In this excerpt, U.S. Fire Administrator Kelvin Cochran outlines some of the strategic initiatives for the fire service.  Read more about his speech at the 2010 NFPA Conference & Expo on our weblog....Read more

U.S. Fire Administrator Kelvin Cochran challenged the fire service to become "fully involved."  This is the first of two excerpts from the speech he gave at this year's NFPA Conference & Expo.  Read more about his speech...Read more

Andrew McGuire, "the father of fire-safe cigarettes," talks about the wrap-up of the highly successful NFPA campaign.  Read more about this in the May/June 2010 issue of the NFPA Journal....Read more

NFPA offers a number of professional certifications including a CFPS (Certified Fire Protection Specialist).  Find out more about the program in this interview with certification manager Larry McDonald....Read more

A new FM Global study proves that sprinklers are "good for the environment."  NFPA vice president Gary Keith explains.  Find out more at: http://www.npfa.org/greensprinkler  and  http://www.firesprinklerinitiative.org....Read more

Senior project manager Andrew Klock on NFPA's new program to train emergency personnel on avoiding shock and other hazards from advanced electric-drive vehicles....Read more

Why do electric vehicles pose a hazard to first responders?  Casey Grant, director of the Fire Protection Research Foundation, explains....Read more

Guy Colonna answers questions about proposed changes to the 2011 edition of NFPA's "combustible dust" standard....Read more

Do operating rooms need additional protection against electrical shock?  NFPA's Richard Bielen explains the debate about "wet locations."...Read more

In part two of our interview, NFPA's Robert Solomon explains how the Life Safety Code makes nursing facilities safer....Read more

Preparation, training, and automatic sprinklers add up to a success story in a Connecticut nursing home fire....Read more

NFPA President Jim Shannon reviews NFPA's initiatives in 2009 and looks ahead to the new year....Read more

NFPA's Michele Steinberg answers questions about wildfires and what communities can do to protect themselves....Read more

Part one of our interview with James Lyons, senior engineer at Newport Partners, on NFPA's new research study dealing with how residential fire sprinklers are integrated with local water supply systems....Read more

Part two of our interview with James Lyons on NFPA's new research study dealing with how residential fire sprinklers are integrated with local water supply systems....Read more

NFPA's vice president Chris Dubay answers questions about recent changes to the codes & standards document information pages online....Read more

In part two, we hear from Michael Collins the executive director of the National Council on Disability....Read more