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 [email protected] 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 you.

In this episode, Jesse talked with Jeff Sargent and Mark Earley about the upcoming edition of the National Electrical Code.  The NEC is always a fascinating topic but this upcoming edition is jammed packed with emerging issues.  Jeff and Mark talk about the three big items the NEC is either addressing or updating; those items being photovoltaic, direct current micro grids and energy storage systems.  Please note everything talked about in this podcast will be up for review at the 2016 NFPA Conference and Expo in June.

First off, please let us know if you like this format! Email Jesse at [email protected] 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 you.

In this episode Jesse talked with Val Charlton of Kishugu, a private organization that runs and manages Working on Fire.  Working on Fire is a South African government program that recruits disadvantaged South Africans and, after extensive training, hires them as wildland firefighters.  Val discusses the fire regime in South Africa, how WoF is addressing the local issue and how its is translating to the globe.

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 meantime, head over to nfpa.org/xchange to see a cool new member only exclusive.  NFPA Journal is releasing early access to the main IN COMPLIANCE article in XChange so you can get access before anyone else.  Be sure to get involved in the discussion section, ask questions or comments directly to the author or with other readers.  We plan on curating the discussion on the article and have the author address some of the conversation.

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 Jeffrey Segal, assistant chief of the Baltimore Fire Department, and Matt LaVanchy of the Pattonville, Missouri Fire District near Ferguson, Missouri about their recent experiences dealing with extreme cases of civil unrest.

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 trained or capable municipal departments are to handle this job. 

In this podcast, Jesse sits down with NFPA Senior Research Analyst Hylton Haynes to discuss a new NFPA study that looks at how prepared local fire departments are to deal with the increasing number of wildfire calls they receive each year. Haynes and other NFPA researchers interviewed 46 high-ranking fire officials from urban and rural departments on a variety of topics related to wildfire operations to find out what’s working, and where the pain points are. Hear what they discovered in this interesting podcast. 

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 future will be heading.  Jesse and Ken also discuss the Responder Forum, NFPA’s initiative to engage the emerging thought-leaders of the fire service with experts, analysts and researchers to tackle the upcoming opportunities and challenges.  Please subscribe to the NFPA Journal podcast and feel free to send in any topic ideas and/or guests to [email protected]

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 consortium of Western retailers founded The Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety in 2013 as a way to improve fire and life safety for Bangladesh’s roughly 4 million garment workers. 

On today’s podcast, Jesse speaks with Randy Tucker, a board member on the Alliance, about the ongoing effort to improve factory safety. Jesse also speaks with Kathleen Almand, the vice president of Research at NFPA, who just returned from Bangladesh as part of an NFPA mission to help the Alliance assess the work that has been done so far. 

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 party in Taiwan that resulted in over 10 deaths, public safety officials of events like “color runs” are looking into the dangers that can come with any dust.  Guy gives a great overview of dust in general and the dangers of it.  Later, Guy talks about the resources offered to public safety officials and organizers alike to keep everyone safe and sound.  

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 Carolina State University. Thomas and NextGen did a series of wildfire related test with control wildland fire burn in Florida in 2012.  Wildfire is one of the most critical area that drones can assist firefighters.  Thomas talked with Jesse at the Unmanned Systems 2015 Conference in Atlanta, GA. 

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 consumer and military drones and robots. Greiner discusses the history of robots and drones, where we are now in the technological arc, the potential for these machines to become as ubiquitous in our society as smartphones, as well as how emergency responders are and will benefit from the use of these machines in the future.