The NFPA Podcast

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-bikes and e-scooters batteries have sparked fires that have killed dozens of people and destroyed hundreds of thousands of dollars of property. Today on the podcast, Angelo interviews an FDNY chief about New York's experience over the past two years with electric micromobility devices (2:40), as well as a technical advisor at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (27:00). If you have questions, feedback, suggestions, or just want to say hello, you can reach The NFPA Podcast at [email protected].

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 advocate for electrical worker safety and now travels the country to offer his own story as a warning.

In honor of Electrical Safety Month, we invited Schroeder on the podcast to discuss his accident, the realities of safety culture on job sites, and what he sees as some of the main challenges to improving safety for workers.

Links:

See NFPA's Electrical Safety resources

Watch videos detailing the experiences of other burn survivors

Check out Schroeder's website, believeinsafety.com

If you have questions, feedback, suggestions, or just want to say hello, you can reach The NFPA Podcast at [email protected].

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 wildfire. In August 2021, however, the Caldor Fire tore through Grizzly Flats, putting its mitigation efforts through a major test.

Today on the podcast, we talk to Megan Fitzgerald-McGowan, the manager of the Firewise USA program, about what she discovered on her recent visit to the fire-ravaged community, and what lessons Grizzly Flats' experience could provide to residents in other fire prone areas.

Links:

Read Fitzgerald-McGowan's essay in NFPA Journal about her trip to Grizzly Flats

Read more about the Firewise program and see a map of Firewise communities

If you have questions, feedback, suggestions, or just want to say hello, you can reach The NFPA Podcast at [email protected].

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 buried under rubble, clear landmines, and recover the dead—all while being shot at and shelled by the Russian military.

On today's episode, we speak with a top SES official about the situation for responders in Ukraine, how they are persevering, and how the global community can help (1:53). Then, we talk with a Canadian firefighter who founded the organization Firefighter Aid Ukraine, which since 2015 has delivered many tons of much-needed equipment to Ukrainian responders (16:08).

LINKS:

See photos and read more about the experience of Ukrainian first responders in this online feature from NFPA Journal

Learn more about Firefighter Aid Ukraine.

If you have questions, feedback, suggestions, or just want to say hello, you can reach the NFPA Podcast at [email protected].

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 deaths and injuries from accidental falls have skyrocketed in this age group over the last decade. It begs the question: Do certain prescription drugs increase the fall and fire risks for older adults?

Our guest Jamie McAllister spent months working on a Fire Protection Research Foundation project to analyze existing research on the relationships between drugs, falls, and fires. Today on the podcast, we talk to McAllister about what she and her team discovered and what it could mean for public-safety educators.

Links:

Read the Fire Protection Research Foundation report, "Review of Impact of Medications on Older Adult Fall and Fire Risk"

Read an NFPA Journal feature article on NFPA's new fire and fall prevention program for older adults

If you have questions, feedback, suggestions, or just want to say hello, you can reach the NFPA Podcast at [email protected].

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 dangers. Its research has improved safety in countless industries and led to numerous changes to codes, consumer products, fire test standards, and more. Today on the podcast, we celebrate the Foundation's 40th anniversary by speaking with its two most recent executive directors to learn more about its work and impacts, and what emerging topics will dominate the next decade of fire research.

Links:

Read Amanda Kimball's NFPA Journal Feature on the Research Foundation

Visit the Foundation's homepage

If you have questions, feedback, suggestions, or just want to say hi, you can reach the NFPA Podcast at[email protected].

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 months following acute illness as they return to work. Smith and other researchers are currently working on a project supported by the Fire Protection Research Foundation to study long COVID in the fire service.

LINKS

If you are a member of the fire service, help Smith and other researchers complete their study by sharing your experiences with long COVID here: https://ndri1.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_1YzSu9QjIlIwSeW

Watch a video about the study: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zF3OAQ-nHs&

If you have questions, feedback, suggestions, or just want to say hello, you can reach The NFPA Podcast at [email protected]

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 consequences. And the findings of a new study by the Fire Protection Research Foundation suggest that incidents involving static are much more common than most experts previously believed.

On today's podcast, we talk to an expert about the science behind static, what causes it, how can we mitigate it, as well as the significant revisions now taking place to an under-the-radar NFPA document NFPA 77, Recommended Practice on Static Electricity.

LINKS:

Read the Spring 2022 NFPA Journal Feature on Static Electricity

Read the Fire Protection Research Report on Static Electricity

If you have questions, feedback, suggestions or just want to say hello, you can reach the NFPA Podcast at [email protected]

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 responder health and safety to the need to better train our nation's firefighters on a wide range of emerging hazards.

LINKS:

Watch Moore-Merrell, NFPA President Jim Pauley, and others discuss last month's tragic fires in the Bronx and Philadelphia: https://nfpa.org/er-track

Learn more about the US Fire Administration: https://www.usfa.fema.gov/

If you have questions, feedback, suggestions, or just want to say hello, you can reach The NFPA Podcast at [email protected]

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. On today's podcast, we look at the factors that led to such a tragic loss of life (0:52) and ask what we might learn from these incidents. NFPA experts on codes, firefighting, fire investigations, and public safety education, share their observations and takeaways from the Bronx and Philadelphia blazes, and consider what changes could come as a result. Interviews: Kristen Bigda and Bob Duval (6:41) Andrea Vastis: (34:47)

LINKS: Nfpa.org/education Sparky.org If you have questions, feedback, suggestions, or just want to say hello, you can reach The NFPA Podcast at [email protected]