If we truly want to account for the population at a disadvantage in evacuation, there is only this much we can do with the current approach... Pre-evacuation time distributions, walking speeds, and so on only tell us a part of the story - the story of your average person within an average population, with an average walking speed and average response. While these models are undoubtedly useful in engineering, there is perhaps a better way.

My friend and guest Enrico Ronchi is trying to find this way through his new ERC Consolidator grant, "Egressibility: a paradigm shift in evacuation research". In this grant, instead of following the main path, he is focusing on stuff we do not know - how to characterise disabilities and understand them better (also through the lens of health and medicine), how to quantify the disadvantages at large, and how to solve potential issues for those who those at the largest risk.

In this episode, you will learn about Enrico's ideas and the edge of the knowledge we have today. Some key points covered are:

• Insights on paradigm shifts in evacuation science
• Introduction of the concept of "egressibility"
• Importance of understanding functional limitations in emergencies
• Shift from agent-based models to inclusive data-driven models
• Use of technology, like VR, for immersive research experiences
• Need for changes in regulations for better evacuation safety

You may also like to read the paper by Guylène Proulx, which introduced egressibility as a concept - available here.

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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.

In the aftermath of the LA Pacific Palisades Fire, I've decided that instead of inviting one expert to discuss the event, I will give a voice back to those who already participated in the Fire Science Show and explained this fire (months and years before it happened).

In this episode, we recap Wildland-Urban Interface fires, with a focus on the "urban" part. We cover conditions in which such fires may happen and factors that contribute. We discuss the role of community preparedness and pathways in how those fires "attack" individual households. We talk a lot about embers and some ideas on how to mitigate them. Finally, we discuss the evacuation from WUI fires.

Some politics, a lot of science, decent amount of answers to most urgent questions. I hope you will enjoy!

Episodes and speakers featured in this podcast:

• 069 - Challenging fires at the wildland-urban interface (WUI) with Michael Gollner
• 117 - Global wildfire emergency and the key role of FSEs with Albert Simeoni
• 156 - Trigger Boundaries with Harry Mitchell and Nick Kalogeropoulos
• 159 - The WUI Problem with Michele Steinberg and Birgitte Messerschmidt
• 161 - Community evacuation with Enrico Ronchi and Max Kinateder

You can always find current episodes on wildfires at https://www.firescienceshow.com/category/wildfires-wui-and-wind/

The history of Japanese urban fires is covered in the paper Large Urban Fires in Japan: History and Management by Yoshioka H. et al.

Cover image credit: By Toastt21 - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=157682430
From the Wikipedia summary of the LA Palisades Fire at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palisades_Fire

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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.

This episode delves into the financial aspects of fire safety in building design, highlighting the balance between cost and effectiveness. My guests - prof. Thomas Gernay and Chenzi Ma from Johns Hopkins University share insights from their NIST-sponsored research project on cost-benefit analysis and loss estimation for structural fire safety. In the discussion, we explore the differences between prescriptive and performance-based approaches, discussing insights from a comprehensive analysis of over 130 structures and how to better allocate resources for passive fire protection measures.

In this episode, we cover:
• Understanding fire safety costs in construction
• Insights on prescriptive vs. performance-based design
• The importance of maintenance and lifecycle cost assessments
• Analyzing fragility functions for predicting fire damage
• Cost dynamics across different building occupancy types
• Future developments for implementing this analytical framework in practice

Please find here useful links about the project:

• Paper 1 on the costs: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0143974X24000671?
• Paper 2 on the numerical model of the NIST tests on composite floors: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S037971122400095X
• Paper 3 on the fragility curves (freshly accepted): https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0951832025000237
• Github: https://github.com/Chenzhi-Ma/web_v2

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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.