BattleBots: Managing the Risks of Robot Combat
The NFPA Podcast
We all know that lithium-ion batteries can overheat, ignite, and sometimes even cause explosions when damaged—now imagine those batteries in robots built to smash each other apart. That’s the reality for the safety team of the long-running television series BattleBots. Today on the podcast, we chat with the founder and the safety manager of BattleBots to discuss how the show’s engineering team blends cutting-edge design standards, inspections, arena containment, and rapid-response safety systems to manage extreme risks—delivering maximum destruction while keeping fans, teams, and staff...
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Jim Pauley's Exit Interview
The NFPA Podcast
Jim Pauley, NFPA's president and CEO, has done a lot in his 12 years at the helm of the organization. From the launch of NFPA LiNK and NFPA Global Solutions to the creation of the NFPA Fire & Life Safety Ecosystem, Pauley’s tenure has been transformative. But that tenure is coming to an end. Pauley’s last day at NFPA is July 31, at which time Ross Ashley will become the 8th president in NFPA history. But before Pauley heads off into retirement, he sat down with Lorraine Carli, NFPA’s vice president of Outreach and Advocacy, for a wide-ranging conversation about the challenges...
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Fire Protection in the Age of AI
The NFPA Podcast
Everybody in fire protection, and everywhere else for that matter, is wondering how artificial intelligence will impact their lives, their jobs, and society in general. On this episode, we will explore some of the ways that AI is already having a meaningful impact on fire protection engineering, and then engineer and industry observer Joe Meyer will engage in some informed speculation about what we will see next and how the industry might evolve and change as a result. This episode was recorded live in late June at 2026 NFPA Conference and Expo in Las Vegas. Links: Check...
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CRR: The Good ... and Not So Good
The NFPA Podcast
Over the last decade or so, community risk reduction (CRR) has gone from a novelty to perhaps the biggest buzz term in the safety industry. And while more CRR is a great thing, its surging popularity has also caused some safety departments to rush out CRR programs before taking time to analyze their data to understand the what, whys, and hows of their plan. Without data and careful planning, departments might be spending time, money, and precious staff hours on efforts where the impact is dubious or unknown. To help us sort out the good CRR from the bad, we are joined by Fire Chief Landon...
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The State of Electrical Safety
The NFPA Podcast
As National Electrical Safety Month winds down, we are taking stock of some of the biggest electrical safety trends, hazards, and challenges facing both electrical workers and the public. Today on the podcast, Corey Hannahs, NFPA’s electrical technical lead, has a wide-ranging conversation with Jennifer Lefevre, the executive director of Electrical Safety Foundation International (ESFI), the organization behind National Electrical Safety Month. They chat about ESFI’s safety outreach efforts, what electrical trends and hazards they are keeping an eye on, and why workers, educators, and the...
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Is 911 in Trouble?
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...
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10 Years of Progress on Cancer
The NFPA Podcast
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...
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Flying Cars are Finally Here. Are they Safe?
The NFPA Podcast
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...
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How Australia is Tackling Wildfire
The NFPA Podcast
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...
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Manatee Rescue
The NFPA Podcast
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...
info_outlineIn October 2023, a 40-year-old man armed with semi-automatic rifle opened fire inside a bowling alley and later at a nearby restaurant in the small city of Lewiston, Maine. Between the two incidents, 18 people died and 13 were injured. Disturbingly, the Lewiston shooting was one for more than 650 mass shootings in the United States in 2023, defined as a shooting event with four or more victims. With the U.S. continuing to experience hundreds of these incidents every year, police, fire, EMS, and organizations like the American Red Cross are refining how they prepare and respond to these incidents.
On today’s podcast, we talk with John Montes, who led the Red Cross’s response and recovery efforts in Lewiston and was also instrumental in developing NFPA 3000, the standard for Active Shooter/Hostile Response program. I talked to Montes about the complexities of the Lewiston response, what lessons were learned, and what safety agencies should be doing now to prepare for mass shooting incidents.
LINKS
Learn more about the American Red Cross
Read up on the creation of NFPA 3000, and one city's journey to implementing it.
Visit the document information page of NFPA 3000