The NFPA Podcast

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 October. Inglis, a Canadian fire chief, discusses how firefighters, building inspectors, and others can learn to better identify and help prevent human trafficking.

LINKS:

Read the NFPA Journal feature article and explore resources on human trafficking prevention: https://www.nfpa.org/plainsight

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

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 2, we talk to Greg Cade, who rose from a volunteer firefighter to big city fire chief, and eventually to US Fire Administrator, the top-ranking fire officer in the nation. Cade has also served in leadership roles at the International Association of Firefighters and at NFPA. He shares his thoughts on the plight of the US volunteer fire service, why leaders can never stop learning, and what it's like to have Secret Service agents knocking on your door.

Links:

Part 1: Russ Sanders

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

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 1, we talk to Russ Sanders, who has helped guide the influential Metropolitan Fire Chiefs Association for the last 26 years. Before that, Sanders was a firefighter at the Louisville (Kentucky) Division of Fire for 27 years, including nearly a decade as its chief. He shares his thoughts on leadership, how the fire service has evolved since he started his career in 1967, and the challenges and opportunities he sees for the profession's next generation of leaders.

Links:

Nfpa.org/metro_uff

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

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 episode, we talk to the leaders of the consolidation project (1:08) to learn how and why it's happening, and how it will improve the lives of those who use the codes. Then, (10:02) we talk to the chair of the newly consolidated document, NFPA 470, Hazardous Materials/Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) Standard for Responders, to learn how three standards were merged into one, how NFPA standards are created in the first place, and why it's critical for the fire service to engage in the process.

Links:

nfpa.org/errs

nfpa.org/process

Read an NFPA Journal article on the Emergency Response and Responder Safety Consolidation Project

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 grasslands they depend on for survival. On the podcast, McRae talks about that fire, his role as first responder on his property, and the desperate strategies he and other ranchers use to try and keep their cattle alive as fire approaches (1:17).

Then, we speak to Michele Steinberg (20:15), the director of the Wildfire Division at NFPA, about the 2021 wildfire season, and the significant efforts underway to reverse the destructive trends we've seen from wildfire over the last five years—a situation Steinberg calls a "rolling disaster."

Links:

Nfpa.org/outthinkwildfire

Nfpa.org/firewise

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, Professor Richard Walls of South Africa's Stellenbosch University discusses his research on the fire problem in informal settlements and some of the proposed solutions to address the problem. The cover story for the Winter 2021 issue of NFPA Journal will examine how global urbanization trends are expected to impact urban fire safety challenges—including informal settlement fires; building construction, inspections, and code compliance; and more—in the coming decades.

Links:

Watch the full version of the short film heard at 3:23: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-z5SkDZtA3U

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 disabilities worldwide, being notified of a fire and getting out of a building in an emergency often requires much more preplanning.

Mark Larson, a former Idaho state fire marshal who has become an advocate and consultant for the National Disability Rights Network, explains common misconceptions about the disability community, why it is important for safety agencies to plan with rather than for people with disabilities, and how the fire service and disability community can better work together (1:05).

To learn more and find contacts, visit the National Disability Rights Network

Fire Protection Research Foundation report, "Review of Alarm Technologies for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Populations."

Fire Prevention Week tip sheet, Safety for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing

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, researchers, firefighters, and manufacturers immediately understood that Surprise could be a seminal moment for the safety of this emerging technology.

Today on the podcast, we go over the details of the incident with the fire chief of the responding Peoria (Arizona) Fire-Medical Department (2:05). Then, we speak to the authors of an extensive UL report on the Surprise ESS explosion about lessons learned, and what advancements in research, training, and technology need to occur to ensure that firefighters are safe during future ESS incidents (16:11).

Links:

On October 5, NFPA is hosting a workshop titled "Keeping Hazardous Environments Safe,"which will include a detailed discussion about the Surprise battery explosion with those who were directly involved. To learn more and to register, visit:nfpa.org/conferenceseries.

Read a detailed NFPA Journal feature story on the Surprise incident

Read the UL after-incident report, "Four Firefighters Injured in Lithium-ion Battery Energy Storage System Explosion – Arizona."

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 emergency responders, including 343 firefighters. On today's podcast, we consider how that day forever changed the US fire service. First, we'll look at the dedicated responder network FirstNet and how incident communications have been revolutionized since 9/11(1:02). Then, we'll talk to two national leaders in the US fire service, who reflect on their own experiences in the aftermath of the attacks and tell us what they think are 9/11's lasting legacies (23:44).

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 (eVTOL) aircraft a reality. On today's episode, we discuss how NFPA is working to answer those questions with Rex Alexander, a veteran helicopter pilot and technical committee member for NFPA 418, Standard for Heliports.

LINKS

Read more from NFPA Journal: https://www.nfpa.org/takeoff