My name is Wojciech Węgrzyński. I'm a professor at the Building Research Institute in Poland, a fire safety engineer, and an enthusiast for fire. In my podcast, Fire Science Show, I interview experts in the field every week on the newest and best knowledge about fire. Catering to fresh and seasoned engineers, it provides unparalleled professional development for any practising FSE.

In this podcast, I am joining HALLIWELL Fire Research to provide a more fundamental insight into fire science. With content that does not require any prior knowledge, we hope to guide the listener from the basics into the real fire science revelations. With an in-depth discussion of past catastrophic fires and the most impactful research, we build a sound foundation on where the knowledge on fire comes from. We also take a look into the future and how the field may change in the coming years.

"Uncovered Witness" aspires to foster a deeper appreciation for fire science, highlight the critical role of fire safety in architectural and engineering design, and encourage a multidisciplinary approach to improving fire safety standards. By making fire science accessible to a diverse audience, including lawyers, investors, architects, and others, the podcast underscores the universal relevance of fire safety knowledge and its impact on society. Through education and awareness, it aims to inspire improvements in fire safety practices and designs, contributing to the prevention of fire-related tragedies.

This show is produced by the Fire Science Media for Halliwell Fire Research. Executive producer - Monika Węgrzyńska, scripting and production - Monika and Wojciech Węgrzyńscy, sound engineer - Mikołaj Jarząbek. All rights reserved. 2024.

In this mini-series of the Uncovered Witness - Fire Science Revelations, we cover the subject of the means of escape - the technical solutions in our buildings meant to allow for human evacuation in case of a fire.

In the first episode of the series, we discuss exit capacities and flow rates. How do we know how many people can fit in the building? What do the models look like, and where did they come from? What data do we have at our disposal, and how relevant is it?

We also refer to the tragic fires in Beverly Hills Supper Club and Gothenburg discothèque fire. What lessons are in those tragedies, and how insufficient exit capacity was one of the critical components of the disaster.

We also cover modern technologies such as VR and automated systems to count people, and we look forward to their future use in building fire safety.

Guests featured in this podcast episode:

• Prof. Daniel Nilsson, University of Canterbury, Halliwell Fire Research
• Luke de Schot, Halliwell Fire Research
• Josh Gibbons, Halliwell Fire Research

Relevant Fire Science Show episodes:

• Human walking speed and factors that influence it with John Gales
• The future of evacuation modelling with Enrico Ronchi and Ruggiero Lovreglio

This show is produced by the Fire Science Media for Halliwell Fire Research. Executive producer - Monika Węgrzyńska, scripting and production - Monika and Wojciech Węgrzyńscy, sound engineer - Mikołaj Jarząbek. All rights reserved. 2024.

In this mini-series of the Uncovered Witness - Fire Science Revelations, we cover the subject of the means of escape - the technical solutions in our buildings meant to allow for human evacuation in case of a fire.

In the second episode of this mini-series, we cover the fire engineering solutions for building automation that influence the evacuation processes in the buildings. Reflecting on the Beverly Hills Supper Club tragedy, where the systems were not present, we try to evaluate what tools the engineers have in their toolbox.

In this episode, we cover some fundamental approaches to fire safety engineering, such as evaluating Available and Required Safe Egress Time, calculating tenability and using computer modelling. We briefly discuss detection, suppression and smoke control. More information is provided on evacuation elevators and the challenges related to two-way communication that may be necessary to get the most out of them. Finally, we end the episode by discussing how sometimes legislation leaves too much space for free interpretation by the engineers and cases in which this may backfire.

Guests featured in this podcast episode:

• Prof. Daniel Nilsson, University of Canterbury, Halliwell Fire Research
• Dr Coleen Wade, Halliwell Fire Research
• Josh Gibbons, Halliwell Fire Research

Relevant Fire Science Show episodes:

• Fire Fundamentals on Building Automation
• Fire Safety Engineering with Dr Ricky Carvel
• Smoke toxicity Part 1 and Part 2 with prof. David Purser

This show is produced by the Fire Science Media for Halliwell Fire Research. Executive producer - Monika Węgrzyńska, scripting and production - Monika and Wojciech Węgrzyńscy, sound engineer - Mikołaj Jarząbek. All rights reserved. 2024.

In this mini-series of the Uncovered Witness - Fire Science Revelations, we cover the subject of the means of escape - the technical solutions in our buildings meant to allow for human evacuation in case of a fire.

In the third and final episode of the mini-series, we discuss what makes or breaks the design of an evacuation sign. While it may seem like a simple design choice (make it green and make the arrow point in the correct direction?), there are, in fact, many elements that influence the human perception of the sign. We tap into the tragic fire in Daegu Metro, which illustrates what happens when the signs are present but inaccessible.

We connect the design of evacuation signage to the theory of affordances, presenting a framework for evaluating its design. We give examples of good and poor affordances and explain the consequences of non-fire engineers' actions, who may unwillingly alter the sign's readability.

Guests featured in this podcast episode:

• Prof. Daniel Nilsson, University of Canterbury, Halliwell Fire Research
• Luke de Schot, Halliwell Fire Research
• Josh Gibbons, Halliwell Fire Research

Relevant Fire Science Show episodes:

• Human behaviour misconceptions that lead to (mis)modelling with Enrico Ronchi
• Modelling human behaviour in wildfire evacuation with Erica Kuligowski

This show is produced by the Fire Science Media for Halliwell Fire Research. Executive producer - Monika Węgrzyńska, scripting and production - Monika and Wojciech Węgrzyńscy, sound engineer - Mikołaj Jarząbek. All rights reserved. 2024.

In this episode of The Uncovered Witness, I've invited Kristen E. Lange from Ogden Murphy Wallace P.L.L.C. In her expertise, Kristen has worked on court cases related to fire safety; in those cases, she has worked with expert witnesses who were fire safety engineers. Trying to tap into this experience, we try to identify "who" is the expert witness? What role are they in legal proceedings, and how is their expertise presented? Also, what makes an outstanding expert witness?

This show is produced by the Fire Science Media for Halliwell Fire Research. Executive producer - Monika Węgrzyńska, scripting and production - Monika and Wojciech Węgrzyńscy, sound engineer - Mikołaj Jarząbek. All rights reserved. 2024.

Welcome to Season 2 of Uncovered Witness: Fire Science Revelations! This season, the show's theme is Humans as part of a fire safety engineered system. In this series, we will unravel our understanding of human behaviour in fires and how this complex behaviour may be accounted for in the fire-safe design of buildings. Our understanding of the occupant response, decision-making process and biases may influence our design of exits and improve (or impede) the egress process.

In the first episode of this series, we cover the approach used to account for complex human behaviour in assessing the Required Safe Evacuation Time (RSET). This is commonly done by accounting for a delay in the evacuation process that is a product of complex human behaviour between receiving a fire cue and making the decision to evacuate.

Human behaviour may be considered repetitive over similar populations and occupations despite the complexities. This allows us to study this process from a statistical perspective—on average, how long does it take for people to respond to specific cues in specific circumstances? The answer is not a single number but a population-wide distribution of the pre-evacuation time, which can then be a useful input for our calculations and modelling.

In this episode, we discuss the history of this approach, the data sources and their validity. We also cover how cultural and societal context may influence the resulting time distribution.

Useful links:

• The pre-evacuation Database research paper mentioned in the podcast episode.
• Fire Science Show episode 134 - interview with prof. David Purser
• The standard widely referred to in the episode was BS PD 7974-6, available to purchase through the BSI

Guests featured in this podcast episode:

• Prof. Daniel Nilsson, University of Canterbury, Halliwell Fire Research
• Prof. David Purser - highlights from the episode 134 of the Fire Science Show

This show is produced by the Fire Science Media for Halliwell Fire Research. Executive producer - Monika Węgrzyńska, scripting and production - Monika and Wojciech Węgrzyńscy, sound engineer - Mikołaj Jarząbek. All rights reserved. 2024.

Welcome to Season 2 of Uncovered Witness: Fire Science Revelations! This season, the show's theme is Humans as part of a fire safety engineered system. In this series, we will unravel our understanding of human behaviour in fires and how this complex behaviour may be accounted for in the fire-safe design of buildings. Our understanding of the occupant response, decision-making process and biases may influence our design of exits and improve (or impede) the egress process.

In the second episode of the series, we focus on the actions taken by the occupants from the moment they receive information about the fire to the moment when they start their evacuation. This includes response to fire cues - from the flames and smoke, through evacuation alarms and observing the reaction of others. We go into how people perceive the threat from a fire and how this perception is affected by the presence of others. With the examples of the Beverly Hills Supper Club and MGM Grand fires, we illustrate some of the most fundamental concepts related to occupant response and wayfinding. Finally, we discuss the group behaviours, touching also on the definitions of rational and irrational behaviour.

Useful links:

• Max Kinateder et. al. review on risk perception in fires
• Erica Kuligowski et. al. guidance on behaviour modelling, including the PADM framework mentioned in the episode
• Fire Science Show episode 019 with Erica Kuligowski on modelling human behaviour in wildfire evacuations

Guests featured in this podcast episode:

• Prof. Daniel Nilsson, University of Canterbury, Halliwell Fire Research
• Josh Gibbons, Halliwell Fire Research

This show is produced by the Fire Science Media for Halliwell Fire Research. Executive producer - Monika Węgrzyńska, scripting and production - Monika and Wojciech Węgrzyńscy, sound engineer - Mikołaj Jarząbek. All rights reserved. 2024.

Welcome to Season 2 of Uncovered Witness: Fire Science Revelations! This season, the show's theme is Humans as part of a fire safety engineered system. In this series, we will unravel our understanding of human behaviour in fires and how this complex behaviour may be accounted for in the fire-safe design of buildings. Our understanding of the occupant response, decision-making process and biases may influence our design of exits and improve (or impede) the egress process.

This episode is all about human behaviour theories - useful concepts that allow us to explain some of the behaviour observed in real-world fire incidents and evacuation drills. We learn about the behavioural sequence model, which explains the sequence of actions taken in the pre-evacuation time. Then, we move to the social influence model, which explains how normative and informative social influence influences people's actions. The first relates to the rules and social norms in the environment where the evacuation occurs and how people are afraid to not break those rules even while in danger. The informative social influence refers to how we use others as our source of information or to confirm our own choices.

Further in the episode, we discuss the role-rule model and how our roles in our normal lives remain the same in the evacuation context. We try to define how these roles may be disturbed and how establishing a new hierarchy for evacuation may streamline the process.

Guests featured in this podcast episode:

• Prof. Daniel Nilsson, University of Canterbury, Halliwell Fire Research
• Josh Gibbons, Halliwell Fire Research

This show is produced by the Fire Science Media for Halliwell Fire Research. Executive producer - Monika Węgrzyńska, scripting and production - Monika and Wojciech Węgrzyńscy, sound engineer - Mikołaj Jarząbek. All rights reserved. 2024.