The NFPA Podcast

In the United States, when someone calls 911 the call is routed to an operator at a public safety answering point, or PSAP. But news outlets across the country are finding that local PSAPs are struggling, and that 911 callers are waiting longer to get help. Today on the podcast, we speak to a researcher who just surveyed dozens of PSAPs to find out how well they are able to meet the call answering and processing times required by NFPA standards. The results were eye-opening. This episode first aired in June, 2023.

Then, on a new Code Corner, with construction season about to ramp up, engineer Shawn Mahoney talks about the role of the fire prevention program manager on construction sites.

LINKS:

Read the 2023 NFPA Journal feature story, "Please Hold," about the challenges facing America's 911 dispatch system.

Read the Fire Protection Research Foundation report on 911 dispatch call centers

See the latest on NFPA 241, Standard for Safeguarding Construction, Alteration, and Demolition Operations

Episode Image: Lauren Sauceda answers an emergency 911 call while working at her desk at the Harris County Emergency 9-1-1 Dispatch Center in Houston. Michael Paulsen/Houston Chronicle via Getty Images.

The Fire Fighter Cancer Cohort Study is perhaps the most comprehensive effort ever undertaken to understand and address firefighter cancer. The project seeks to track the exposure and biometric data of 10,000 firefighters over the course of 30 years with the hopes of gaining insight into the factors that cause cancer in firefighters and what actions can be taken to reduce the risk. The project, which began in July 2016, has at least 12 different cancer-related studies completed or underway on everything from PFAS to wildland firefighting exposure to female firefighter health.

Today on the podcast, we welcome Dr. Jeff Burgess, the director of the Fire Fighter Cancer Cohort Study, and Casey Grant, the former of executive director of the Fire Protection Research Foundation. We chat about how this massive project works, its notable findings on a wide range of cancer-related topics, and why researchers are confident that we will significantly curtail firefighter cancer within the next 20 years.

Links:

Visit the Fire Fighter Cancer Cohort Study homepage to learn more about its various studies and findings

Read about the education session that Burgess and Grant will give at the 2026 NFPA Conference & Expo in Las Vegas this June

Flying cars are no longer science fiction. As soon as this summer, several U.S. states and Dubai will likely have flying taxies buzzing around overhead, according to recent press releases from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration and Uber. If these pilot programs go well, service from these so-called electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft could quickly spread across the planet.

In light of this recent news, we are re-airing an episode from 2021 where we talk about the critical fire, electrical, and life safety questions that remain about the ground infrastructure needed to ensure eVTOL aircraft are safe. We talk to Rex Alexander, a veteran helicopter pilot and technical committee member for NFPA 418, Standard for Heliports, about how NFPA and others are working to answer those serious questions.

LINKS

Read more about NFPA 418, Standard for Heliports

Read the recent FAA press release about the eVTOL aircraft program launching in 2026

Watch a video about Uber's planned air taxi service launching this year in Dubai

For the last few decades, Australia has taken a proactive and centralized approach to wildfire mitigation. It's wildfire building codes are standardized and mostly mandatory throughout the country, and in some especially wildfire-prone areas the government restricts development altogether. By contrast, the U.S. has a patchwork, state by state and even town by town approach to wildfire rules and building codes. On this episode of the NFPA podcast, we talk to Maria Kornakova, the national bushfire manager at Fire Protection Association Australia, to learn more about the history of the Australian wildfire codes and the country's accreditation and mapping programs. We also chat about Australia's successes and challenges tackling the wildfire threat, the differences of the U.S. approach, and what the countries might learn from each other.

LINKS Learn more about Fire Protection Association Australia Learn more about NFPA's FireWise USA program Learn more about Outthink Wildfire, NFPA's ambitious effort to eliminate wildfire loss in the U.S.

In February, responders in Florida successfully rescued a 7-foot, 400-pound manatee that had wiggled his way up a concrete pipe and became trapped in a stormwater drain under the road. The unusual rescue made international headlines, but it was all in a day's work for Brandi Phillips, the animal technical rescue specialist who helped lead the effort to extract Melby the manatee. Phillips joins us on today's episode to chat about how the unique incident unfolded, the challenges of rescuing trapped animals, and what resources, including NFPA standards, are available to help guide agencies as they prepare for and respond to these sometimes tricky incidents.

LINKS Learn more about NFPA 2500, Standard for Operations and Training for Technical Search and Rescue Incidents and Life Safety Rope and Equipment for Emergency Services.

Read and learn more about the University of Florida's Veterinary Emergency Treatment Service

The race to cash in on artificial intelligence has triggered a data center building boom that is quickly becoming the largest infrastructure effort of our time. With these enormous facilities being built all over the world, an army of safety professionals is now racing to understand the complex systems in data centers and mitigate their hazards, even as the technology inside continues to rapidly evolve.

Today on the podcast, we welcome Michael Brune, one of those safety experts on the frontlines of overseeing safety during the data center buildout. As the fire marshal of Goodyear, Arizona, a suburb of Pheonix, Brune and his office review designs and issue permits for data centers, and oversee construction and inspections. He's had a lot to do. The city now has at least 30 data centers in various stages of completion, most of which have gone up in just the last few years. Brune shares his experiences and lessons learned as an AHJ overseeing several enormous data center projects, and what it's like playing a high-stakes safety tug-of-war with some of the richest corporations on earth. LINKS:

Read the cover story of the NFPA Journal, "Fast, Furious, Immense." Learn more about NFPA 75, Standard for Fire Protection of Information Technology Equipment

Volunteer firefighters are the backbone of the U.S. emergency response system, but since 2008, nearly 200,000 volunteers have left the fire service, a drop of almost 25 percent. To make things worse, calls to fire departments have increased about 70 percent since 2008, leaving the firefighters who remain to do much more with much less. Despite all of this, little research has been done to find the causes of this crisis and what to do about it. But that is starting to change.

Today on the podcast, I am joined by Joe Maruca, a board member of the National Volunteer Fire Council, and Ken Willette, the executive director of the North American Fire Training Directors. Both men recently worked with researchers on a massive new study looking at what effects training requirements have had on volunteer fire department recruitment and retention. During the interview, we discuss the many factors that have caused volunteers to leave the fire service, and how volunteer departments are adapting to their new reality. We also talk about what is being done to help chiefs and communities bring more volunteers into the fire service.

Links:

Read the new Fire Protection Research report, "Understanding the Role of Training on Volunteer Firefighter Recruitment & Retention," coming at the end of February.

Learn more about the National Volunteer Fire Council, and check out its new Make Me a Firefighter program, which matches volunteers with department needs.

Learn more about the North American Fire Training Directors

In the early hours of New Year's Day, a blaze erupted at Le Constellation, a popular bar in Crans-Montana, Switzerland, killing 40 young people and injuring more than 100 others. Authorities believe the fire started when embers from sparklers ignited foam soundproofing material on the ceiling. It is latest in a long line of eerily similar deadly fires in nightclubs involving pyrotechnics. Why do we keep repeating the same mistakes?

Today on the podcast, you will hear a powerful conversation with two survivors of The Station nightclub fire, one of the deadliest nightclub fires in U.S. history. They talk with two prominent fire safety and burn advocates about their emotional reaction to Le Constellation, and what it was like to live through and recover from a similar tragedy. Then, the group discusses why these lessons are so hard to learn, and what we can all collectively do to help stop these fires from happening. This conversation first aired on Girls with Grafts, a burn survivor's podcast published by the Phoenix Society for Burn Survivors.

LINKS

Learn more about the NFPA Fire & Life Safety Ecosystem

Get involved with NFPA's 'Safety Doesn't Happen by Chance' campaign

Learn more about the Phoenix Society for Burn Survivors

Listen to more episodes of Girls with Grafts

Every five years since 2001, NFPA has conducted a massive research project known as the Needs Assessment of the U.S. Fire Service. It's a survey that goes out to about 30,000 fire departments across the country with questions aimed at finding out whether the fire service has the resources it needs to accomplish the enormous job we've asked them to take on. The next survey, which is the Sixth Needs Assessment, was sent to departments via mail and email in October, and is due back by February 15.

Today on the podcast, we are joined by an all-star panel featuring the president of the International Association of Fire Chiefs, the president of the Metro Chiefs, and NFPA's director of research. We discuss the ins and outs of this critically important survey and dive into the "pain points" facing the modern fire service, from skyrocketing EMS call volumes and firefighter burnout to the emerging threats of lithium-ion battery fires and AI implementation.

LINKS:

Learn more about the Sixth Needs Assessment of the U.S. Fire Service survey, and to see reports from past surveys.

Questions about participating, email [email protected], or call 800-343-8890.

About 80 percent of female firefighters say that their personal protective clothing doesn't fit right, and studies show that ill-fitting gear puts women at greater risk of being injured on the job. In this podcast from 2023, Jesse talks to two textile researchers working on multi-year project to better understand the issue and to gather the data needed to design female-specific turnout gear. Before the episode, Jesse gives a quick update on the project, which has now moved onto a crucial second phase. Researchers are now gathering measurements from thousands of women in the fire service, which they will use to design the first prototypes of female specific personal protective clothing. Researchers are looking for female firefighters who are willing share their measurement data. This can be done by yourself with an app on your phone and takes only a few minutes. Visit, nfpa.org/femaleppe to learn how to help.

Links: Visit the research page to learn more about the project and how to submit measurement data

Read and NFPA Journal feature story about the project to understand and solve the problem of ill-fitting PPE for female firefighters.

Watch a webinar presentation with researchers Cassandra Kwon and Meredith McQuerry