Decades from now when we name at the seminal fires from the 21st Century, the Grenfell Tower fire in London, which killed 72 people in June 2017, will certainly be the list. Today on the podcast, we consider Grenfell’s enduring lessons with Jose Torero, one of the world’s most prominent fire protection engineers and a key figure in the United Kingdom’s seven-year public inquiry into the tragedy. It’s safe to say that no one has a better technical understanding than Torero of the underlying causes and impactful lessons of Grenfell— lessons that have already reshaped how people across the world think about regulation and building protection.

LINKS:

Read the final report from the United Kingdom's extensive inquiry into the causes of the Grenfell Tower Fire.

Read an in-depth NFPA Journal report exploring the UK's final Grenfell report.

Watch Jose Torero's keynote presentation from the 2025 NFPA Conference & Expo.

More than 80 percent of the world’s population lives in low-and-middle income countries, according to the World Bank. In these nations, it's often a huge challenge to find the resources needed to build the systems of safety that people in higher-income countries take for granted. To put it in perspective, in the African nation of Uganda, there are just two fire trucks and 12 firefighters per million residents. In contrast, the U.S. has more than 1,000 firefighters and 200 fire trucks per million residents.

Today on the podcast we talk to Samuel Nikoma, a fire safety advocate in Uganda who has an ambitious goal of slashing the fire deaths there in half. We discuss Eastern Africa’s significant fire safety challenges, and how he is trying to build more awareness and grassroots efforts to start addressing them.

LINKS:

Read an NFPA Journal cover story from 2021 about the enormous population growth expected in Africa over the next decade, and the fire safety challenges—and opportunities—that these trends present.

Visit Samuel Nikoma’s Linkedin page where he writes on the challenges of fire safety in Africa and his ideas for building the resources to address them.

Since 2022, New York has experienced more than 800 fires sparked by lithium-ion batteries, leading to 30 deaths and more than 400 injuries. The sudden explosion of battery incidents led FDNY in 2023 to form the Lithium-Ion Task Force, a specialized unit dedicated to addressing the growing threat of fires caused by batteries, particularly those used in e-bikes and e-scooters.
Today on the podcast, we talk to John Orlando, the FDNY fire marshal who led the Lithium-Ion Task Force until recently. We chat about the causes and scope of New York City’s battery problems, the work of the task force, and how other departments and jurisdictions can work together to achieve similar results, even without FDNY’s considerable resources.

LINKS:

• See FDNY videos, campaign resources, regulations and more related to lithium-ion batteries
• See NFPA resources related to lithium-ion batteries
• Read NFPA Journal articles on:
  • The growing concern about lithium-ion consumer products in homes;
  • The copious amounts of research happening now to better understand and mitigate battery hazards;
  • The growing concerns about the fire safety of e-bikes and other micro-mobility devices;
  • The lessons from the Surprise, Arizona energy storage system explosion.

As we’ve noted on the podcast a few times recently, standard development organizations and safety professionals are facing several significant challenges right now. In statehouses, lawmakers are increasingly passing bills that alter, delay, or even erase safety codes; fire marshals and other safety professionals say their voices are being increasingly marginalized; and court decisions involving copywrite protection threaten to disturb the century-old system under which safety standards are created and maintained. However, at last week's NFPA Conference & Expo, Jim Pauley, NFPA's president and CEO, unveiled an aggressive new public awareness campaign to try and reverse those trends. The day after the announcement, Pauley sat down with Jesse Roman to discuss the assault on safety and what NFPA and others are doing to combat these significant challenges.

The interview was recorded live on June 17 at the 2025 NFPA Conference & Expo in Las Vegas.

Links:
Visit dontchancesafety.org to see the new awareness ad, read about the campaign, and learn how you can make a difference.

As summer weather begins in the Northern Hemisphere, we revisit this very relevant episode from 2023. Heatwaves aren't just uncomfortable, they are deadly for millions of people around the globe each year. Recognizing this growing threat, governments and safety departments are starting to reconsider their vulnerabilities to heat and are taking action to protect their populations and infrastructure. Today on the podcast, we talk to Eleni Myrivili, who was appointed as the first ever World Chief Heat Officer by the United Nations in 2022. Her job is to help cities think harder about heat and come up with plans to mitigate its effects (3:30).

Then, on a new Code Corner, engineer Val Ziavras answers specific questions about how to calculate occupant load in the Life Safety Code· (47:00).

LINKS

Read the heat action plans for Ahmedabad, India and Miami-Dade County

Heat action platform to help create a heat action plan in your community

Tribal nations and native communities across North America are consistently one of the highest-risk population groups for a range of health and safety issues, including fire incidents and casualties. And yet, developing and implementing community risk reduction programs in native communities can be daunting, especially for non-native fire departments that don’t understand native traditions, sensitivities, or histories. 

Our guest today, Monte Fronk, has been the lone fire safety expert in his native American tribe, the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe, for over 30 years. On today’s podcast, I talk to Monte about his job, the challenges of poverty, generational trauma, and mistrust among native communities, and how he is working to turn the tide in his community one program and one conversation at a time.

Links:

Read the NFPA Journal Perspectives article featuring Monte Fronk

Learn about Fronk's upcoming presentation at the NFPA Conference & Expo

Check out new Summer 2025 issue of NFPA Journal

May is Electrical Safety Month, which is a good time to remember that dozens of people across the world suffer injuries from electrical hazards every single day. Survivors of these incidents list a range of devastating symptoms, from burns and chronic pain to insomnia, muscle spasms, depression, and various other mental health issues. Many of the full effects of these injuries are still not fully understood.

Today on the podcast, we revisit a 2021 episode featuring three renowned doctors from the Chicago Electrical Trauma Rehabilitation Institute. They talk about what a powerful shock can do to the human body, the treatments available, and how our understanding of these injuries is still evolving.

Links:
Learn more about Electrical Safety Month resources and activities

See NFPA’s suite of electrical safety standards and resources

Learn more about the Chicago Electrical Trauma Rehabilitation Institute

Carbon monoxide is known as the silent killer, but it doesn’t have to kill you to have permanent consequences. There is growing evidence that long-term exposure to CO, at concentrations that are too small for a typical household alarm to detect, can have serious and permanent impacts on human health, including cognitive decline, neurological issues, organ damage, and other ailments that are often misdiagnosed as unrelated chronic diseases. Today on the podcast, we talk to Charon McNabb, the founder of the National Carbon Monoxide Awareness Association, about her own experiences with long-term CO exposure, what the public needs to know, and efforts underway to reduce this under-the-radar health hazard.

LINKS
Watch a Fire Protection Research Foundation Webinar about the latest carbon monoxide research

Learn more about the National Carbon Monoxide Awareness Association