Fire Protection Engineering Podcast

Melisa Rodriguez is Senior Manager of Industry Relations at Johnson Controls - largest global manufacturer of FARS. Melisa has a strong background in fire protection engineering as a consulting engineer designing systems before moving to the manufacturer front in 2022. Also on this episode is Kris Blume, Fire Chief of the Meridian Fire Department in Idaho. Kris is not only an active Fire Chief that has taken-on the challenge of pushing for innovative safety systems adoption, like FARS, in his jurisdiction; he is also an Instructor at the National Fire Academy.

David Bergeron, former VP of Planning/Production Engineering at Avondale Shipyard, has a strong background in the maritime industry. Also, his latest role with The National WWII Museum adds a spice to the story when discussing the legendary navy vessels of our past. The topic is massive in its range of topics and its scale of engineering production... go big or go home or listen to this next episode and enjoy!

What happens when the host finally books the one guest who never says no? In this fully AI-generated experiment, two synthetic versions of Benjamin Casey debate the most interesting recent developments in fire protection engineering. Ben Prime is the pragmatic consulting engineer - code-minimum realist, skeptic of hype, defender of engineering judgment. Ben 2.0 is the early-adopter futurist "from a faster timeline." They go five rounds.

Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) thermal runaway, explosion control, and the codes racing to keep up... Daniel Hudson, Director of Distribution BESS Projects at RavenVolt, joins the show to share hard-won lessons from the field and offer practical guidance for engineers, owners, and AHJs navigating this fast-moving space.

Chris Downing, Global Director of Fire Protection Codes at Johnson Controls, has a strong background in protecting critical environments, dealing with Data Centers, Critical National Infrastructure, and special hazards. We cover the newest data center technologies, including hyperscale considerations, and their associated safety challenges.

Geoff Bruder, a former NASA aerospace engineer specializing in acoustics, discusses how to put out fires using sound waves with Sonic Fire Tech's system. Developed for the goal of fire suppression that works faster, smarter, and without damage in interesting present/future applications.

Clarke O'Reilly enlightens me on his fire resistant polymer composites that contain trusted proprietary and patented intumescent materials. These materials, when combined with thermoplastics, create powerful passive barriers, including for battery fires caused by thermal runaway. Clarke, and the rest of the Pyrophobic team, continue to innovate with OEM’s on new applications for their highly versatile intumescent products to solve safety challenges.

An interview with Mayur Patel covering the topic of Nuclear Engineering including current trends around the nuclear fuel cycle along with PR needs of the nuclear industry from a safety and sustainability perspective.

TC & Logan talk me through the basic Artificial Intelligence (AI) development process in order to define the use-cases for fire protection. I relay some tough opinions prevalent in the industry as well as envision the positives of the AI-driven future we are moving toward... either way, oh lawd they comin!

Dr. Lang talks us through the basic Electric Vehicle (EV) facility design concepts in order to define the causes of safety concerns. We then focus on fire protection features that may be incorporated to address the risks from new EV battery technologies.