Fire Science Show Wojciech Wegrzynski

In this episode, we dive into standardization efforts for fire safety. An entire universe of testing laboratories, committees, auditors, and certifiers work together to provide product end-user fire safety classification. So, in the end, the user does not have to worry about what the product will do, as its relevant characteristics are well known from the certificate and, to some extent, from the standards.But that's a perfect world. In the real world, it is perhaps not that simple. Crafting ...

The fire is detected in the building. Please evacuate. Do not use the elevator.I’ve heard this emergency message perhaps a thousand times. It is deeply engraved in my mind to the extent that the moment I hear the first beep of the fire alarm, I know this message will come up. I heard the chime sound, and I knew I should evacuate and not use the elevator.But in all seriousness, why? Why shouldn’t I use the elevator, and what would happen if I did (in case the building would not prevent me from...

Wind turbine fires - are they an issue, or are they not? In this episode, I am joined by Prof. Guillermo Rein of the Imperial College London, who raised this issue 10 years ago at the IAFSS conference, and I believe we still do not have a clear answer.In this episode, we discuss the fire safety of wind turbines using the layers of protection framework - from suppression, detection, and prevention to firefighting. We have discussed the challenges with evacuation and the subsequent fires trigge...

CROSS UK is Collaborative Reporting for Safer Structures in UK. CROSS is a confidential reporting system which allows professionals working in the built environment to report on fire and structural safety issues. These are then published anonymously to share lessons learned, create positive change, and improve safety. Find out more about the safety information we provide below.This initiative in the space of fire safety is lead by Neil Gibbins and Peter Wilkinson, who are my guests today. We ...

In this episode of the Fire Science Show we go in depth on the Building Integrated Photo-Voltaic systems (BIPV). It is a topic relevant to many fire engineers, and one on which it is very difficult to find a lot of information about. For this purpose I’ve invited Reidar Stølen from RISE and a PhD candidate at Norwegian University of Science and Technology – NTNU.Reidar has hands-on experience with fire testing BIPV façade, as he has performed such experiments with the Swedish test method for ...

In this episode, we explore wildfire's impact on industrial fire safety with Professor Eulàlia Planas from Universitat Politécnica de Catalunya. Eulalia defines the term Wildland Industrial Interface (WII), a realm where the forces of nature clash with safety and process engineering. In the episode, we highlight that it is not just the exposure to the fire itself but also to the secondary effects - ember storms, firebrand accumulation, strong winds or power shutdowns that may cause sign...