What if you could predict the last possible time to evacuate your community before a wildfire wreaks havoc? What if you had that knowledge years before the wildfires happened and built up your preparedness based on this knowledge? What if you knew how this boundary changes with wind, dry weather and direction? I think you get a knowledge-based decision model, and that is exactly what my guests today have been looking for.

Join us as we explore this cutting-edge approach with Imperial Hazelab Dr. Harry Mitchell and Nick Kalogeropoulos, who reveal the trigger boundary methodology developed within the WUI-NITY project. Their innovative work determines optimal evacuation timings by calculating an imaginary line where the time needed to evacuate aligns perfectly with the available time, thus ensuring safer exits. This episode promises to equip you with new insights into fire safety engineering that go beyond wildfires.

We take a sobering look at the dire consequences of delayed evacuations, spotlighting real-life tragedies like the 2018 Mati fire in Greece. Our discussion underscores the crucial importance of recognising imminent danger, addressing architectural hindrances, and improving inadequate road networks.

In the episode, we discuss the first iteration - the Population Evacuation Trigger Algorithm (PERIL), a tool designed to establish robust trigger boundaries for more effective and timely evacuations. This was later developed into a probabilistic tool, with a significantly higher capabilities.

In the episode, we discuss the complexities of wildfire evacuation modelling, discussing how transitioning from single scenario studies to probabilistic models offers a more nuanced understanding of various parameters such as wind and fuel moisture. Operational fire models like Farsight are pivotal in predicting fire spread and smoke, balancing detailed physical models with actionable results. We wrap up by emphasising the necessity of integrating community resilience, fuel conditioning, and improved planning to mitigate wildfire tragedies, highlighting the collaborative efforts that make these advancements possible.

Further reading for this episode includes:

• Integrating wildfire spread and evacuation times to design safe triggers: Application to two rural communities using PERIL model
• Design of stochastic trigger boundaries for rural communities evacuating from a wildfire
• The simulation of wildland-urban interface fire evacuation: The WUI-NITY platform
• WUI-NITY Reports

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The Fire Science Show is produced by the Fire Science Media in collaboration with OFR Consultants. Thank you to the podcast sponsor for their continuous support towards our mission.

Misconceptions in fire science are a strange thing. You present countless proof, publish research papers, and carry conversations, and yet… they live their own lives—spreading with no control and cluttering communication. One space is full of them—the fire safety of photovoltaic installations on flat roofs. In the Fire Science Show, we already had two very powerful episodes on PV—one with Jens Kristensen and one more recently with Reidar Stølen.

In today's episode, we highlight a new guideline document published by the team at FRISSBE led by Prof. Grunde Jomaas. I invited Grunde to walk me through their document, and I took this opportunity to learn the origins, sources and inspirations for all the aspects they covered. The guideline takes you through ignition, fire spread, building roof construction and firefighting, giving a unique holistic overhaul of the topic. Most importantly, it is short, concise, and written in the most approachable way. This is a really good example of how communication in fire science should look.

You can access the guideline directly here: https://www.frissbe.eu/upload/files/FRISSBE-ZAG%20BAPV%20Fire%20Safety%20Guideline%20May%202024%20v3.pdf

To complement this piece, you may also read this article on the background: Rus, N., Jomaas, G. (2024) PV guidelines – are the recommendations sufficiently evidence-based?

As my personal recommendation, Grunde is a top communicator on LinkedIn, and you should follow him. He also runs a weekly newsletter, Burning Matters. I highly recommend this resource!

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The Fire Science Show is produced by the Fire Science Media in collaboration with OFR Consultants. Thank you to the podcast sponsor for their continuous support towards our mission.

Happy birthday, Fire Science Show!

On the 3rd Anniversary of the podcast launch, I'm thrilled to deliver an episode on one of the most fascinating aspects of fire science - the compartment fire. Instead of going through the usual curriculum of the phases of fire, transitioning into flashover and flashover itself, I instead focus on the methodology's practical aspects. Which parts of the building have the largest impact on the fire? What is the impact of the opening? How much fuel matters? What happens in a large compartment, and how does it differ from a small one? Those are the sorts of questions I've asked myself while preparing for this episode, and the answers are hopefully in the episode.

In the episode, I highlight the essential contributions of key figures like Quintiere, Drysdale, Kawagoe, Haramathy and Torero, whose pioneering work has shaped our understanding of fire dynamics. Listen as we dissect the impact of openings on fire behaviour, the role of materials, and the challenges of modelling complex fire scenarios, offering practical insights for fire engineers.

Reflecting on historical milestones and recent advancements, we also examine the travelling fire framework and its application in the structural analysis of large buildings. This episode emphasizes the significance of parametric fire curves and the need for an integrated approach to fire physics in engineering.

If you would like to dive deeper, read:

• D.Drysdale, Introduction to Fire Dynamics (book)
• B. Karlsson and J. Quintiere, Enclosure fire dynamics (book)
• J. Torero et al., (2014) Revisiting the Compartment Fire

And two classics:

• T.Z. Haramathy, A new look at Compartment Fires Part I and Part II (1972)
• K. Kawagoe, Fire Behaviour in Rooms, Report of the Building Research Institute No. 27 (1958) - this one I do not have the direct link, so I will take a bit of a search.

Thank you for being with the Fire Science Show for 3 years! As we celebrate our commitment to delivering high-quality content every Wednesday, I look ahead with excitement and gratitude, dedicated to continuing our shared journey of learning and discovery in the fascinating world of fire science. Thank you for being part of our community, and here's to many more enlightening episodes!

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The Fire Science Show is produced by the Fire Science Media in collaboration with OFR Consultants. Thank you to the podcast sponsor for their continuous support towards our mission.