The NFPA Podcast

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 Karen Berard-Reed and Chelsea Rubadou on the community-wide implications of COVID-19 both now and into the future.

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 protocols for operation in order to handle the huge surge in sick patients. We hear from experts on how CSC are developed, what the legal implications and challenges to employing them are, and some examples of how CSC are being used by EMS professionals, fire departments, and hospitals right now.

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 onslaught of the coronavirus pandemic. The crisis has forced Maes' department to find creative solutions to many difficult questions related to the COVID-19 outbreak—the same challenges departments across the world are now facing. To help, Maes has created a website, covidfirstresponse.com, where responders everywhere can submit various strategies for how they are handling aspects of the crisis. This crowd-sourced material includes instructions for how to 3D print face masks, sewing patterns for homemade masks, scientifically-backed strategies for effectively decontaminating equipment, and much 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 hospitals to putting inspections on hold for codes like NFPA 99, Health Care Facilities Code, and NFPA 101®, Life Safety Code®.

Listen to an earlier podcast on responder safety during the coronavirus pandemic here: https://nfpa.libsyn.com/responder-safety-in-a-pandemic

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.

Contact Angelo Verzoni at [email protected] and Jesse Roman at [email protected].

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 medical services, too. This episode of the NFPA Journal® Podcast takes a deeper look into this crisis.

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 fires—why they keep occurring with alarming frequency and what's being done to address them.

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 associate who has ties to the deadly blaze and who authored "After Effect"—the cover story of the November/December issue of NFPA Journal on the lasting impact of the fire.

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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.

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Have feedback on the podcast? Let us know! Email Angelo Verzoni at [email protected] or Jesse Roman at [email protected].