Smart Firefighting

Breaking down the popular fire service myths: -Put the wet stuff on the red stuff -Venting equals Cooling -Always attached the burning building from the unburned side -Fire Sprinkler destroy property -Fire doesn't discriminate With Stephen Kerber

In this podcast, we discuss: • Why the fire service must have the courage to lead the paradigm shift to an “Automatic Fire Protection Model” for the 21st century. • Exploring the Prometheus Paradox - If we can make fire we can learn to control fire. • The perception of fire across America along with the risks & benefits of fire to our society • How we must reinforce safety into the everyday ac...

Kevin sits down with Jaap de Vries VP Innovation, Science & Technology . They discuss the use how to use fire fundamentals to drive guidance on decision making. How to decrease or increase a fire. How to operationalize technology to drive innovation, risk reduction and overall safety goals. What is FM Global and how to get involved and much much more.

Kevin Sofen Interviews Caleb Holt on new technologies in the fire service. Safe Tech has their Pitch competition coming up sign up: http://bit.ly/stp-wsdarley

Kevin sits down with Ken Willette to recap of the first NAFTD virtual tradeshow, where are fire academies now? How has COVID forced changes? How technology can be an enabler for the fire training process What does the future smart fire training academy look like? How standard frameworks from NFPA can help ensure safety and spur innovation amongst industry, academia, and government. They Discuss th...

Data swirls around fire operations—resource deployment, turnout times, response times, minimum staffing levels, funding and exposures. Data also comes up when we’re asked to “prove” what we already know about our operational capability! But how do we capture this data, and how do we use it to make meaningful decisions?

Kevin sits down with Brian Ward Global Safety & Health, Manager Emergency Preparedness and Response Leader of Georgia Pacific to talk about technology adoption in the fire service. Covid-19 has shaken the world up and the first responder industry is no different. They discuss technology and what is being adopted into the services. They also discuss the reduced risk and efficiency increase from...

Kevin sits down with Paul Doherty the President and CEO of The Digit Group, inc. They discuss the behavior changes to the new normal around corona virus. How will our decision-making change going forward? Has the pandemic caused designers of smart cities take a second look at their designs? Is it time to start building cities around life without automobiles? The Digit Group , inc is a company that...

Kevin sits down with Bobby Halton , American Firefighter, to talk about COVID19 and how the fire service is changing to meet the challenge. They talk about how this the virus ties into lessons learned around cancer mitigation and exposure risk. Bobby discusses how this is not really a black swan event because the fire industry knew something like this was coming, eventually. They compare COVID19 t...

Kevin sits down with Brent Faulkner a battalion chief in southern California and CEO of Virtual CRR Inc. They discuss the 5 E’s of community risk reduction education, enforcement, engineering, economic incentives, emergency response. Brent explains why CRR is so important and gives detailed examples of communities practicing proper use of CRR. Kevin learns how individuals can play a role in improv...

Kevin sits down with Stefan Truthan to talk about the postponed Intershutz show. They discuss the lessons learned around first responders, why Intershutz was postponed until 2021 instead of cancelling. How first responders are facing similar challenges around the world and need to explore ways to share best practices and learn from one another. They wonder what the future smart city looks like. Ho...

Kevin sits down with Scott Eskwitt of Director of Lexipol . They talk about risks in the fire service and which ones can be better managed. Do we need to change the culture and behavior of the fire service? Should policy chase behavior or should behavior chase policy? They dive into the difference between behavioral and policy problems and talk about what departments should do and have done to fix...

Kevin sits down with Brian R. Brauer , Associate Director, at the Illinois Fire Service Institute . They discuss the role of the Fire Service Institute in the fire industry, they also dive into the fire service culture and how it has evolved over time. The fire service has been subject to many changes over the past few decades and that has changed the way firefighters are trained and what they are...

Kevin sits down with Gamaliel Baer the Department Health and Wellness Coordinator for the Howard County Department of Fire & Rescue Services. They discuss health and wellness education in fire departments and what they are doing to help firefighters understand health risks. Gamaliel talks about the challenges he’s faced when trying to promote health education. Until recently firefighters didn’...

Kevin sits down with Stephen Kerber , Vice President of UL Firefighter Safety Research Institute. Together they discuss the role of UL in the fire industry, different research campaigns UL is involved in, benefits and limitations of technology, evolving fire standards, the challenges of training around the new NFPA 1403 training standards, the false sense of security technology sometimes creates,...

Kevin sits down with Paul Speight , Paul is the Leicestershire Fire and Rescue Watch Manager. Paul works with emerging technologies such as virtual reality and 360 photography. In this episode they discuss Immersive learning training using 360 videos, the environmental, cost, and health benefits of virtual training. They also dive into interactive photorealistic training for arson investigation, a...

Kevin sits down with Chief Dan Munsey to talk about technology and where it is leading us. Are we leading technology or following it? How is the next generation of firefighters using this technology? What can a departments leadership do to encourage sustainable technology adoption? All this and more on this episode of the Smart Firefighting Podcast.

Kevin and Mike shake up their podcast format to bring you their personal experiences at CES , which includes deepfakes, 360 videos, drones, and more. They talk about recent news in the fire industry, including a partnership between Haas Alert and Pierce. They dive into what they are looking forward to this year and more on this episode of the Smart Firefighting Podcast. To contact Kevin Sofen emai...

Kevin sits down with Joshua Pruitt of Drone Sense to talk about soft ware options for a departments drone program. They discuss Drone Sense and the features they provide to make maintaining a drone program easier. DroneSense is a comprehensive solution that empowers public safety organizations to build, manage, and scale its drone program. DroneSense have partnered with first responders from day o...

Kevin sits down with Brian Murray and Mark Scott of The Hickory Fire Department . They discuss how pre-incident planning has changed over the years from 3-ring binders and handwritten notes to modern computer programs that gather and store data. Brian and Mark talk about how user-friendly their programs have been and how invaluable they are to get the job done. They discuss the need for fire depar...

At FRI, Kevin had a chance to sit down with Bart van Leeuwen CEO of Netage B.V . In this episode, Kevin and Bart discuss data in the fire industry and using it in real-time. Bart believes that getting the right information to first responders is more important than giving all the information available. Bart describes the challenge of data management of first responders. The data is available, but...

At FRI, Kevin had a chance to sit down with Divy Shrivastava of Paladin Drones . In this episode, Kevin and Divy talk about the need for greater situational awareness for first responders and how Paladin Drones has a solution to answer that need. 70% of the time, first responders do not know an emergency's exact location. On top of that, they know almost no details about the situation until after...

At FRI, Kevin had a chance to sit down with Paige Day of E.M.I.L.Y Robot . In this episode, Kevin and Paige discuss water rescue and how drones designed to be used in water can save lives without putting first responders at risk. With much of the talk on Drones, often the water robotics get lost in translation. The EMILY water robot is being deployed across the world and bringing widespread value...

At FRI , Kevin had a chance to sit down with Douglas Baily of Levrum Data Technologies . In this episode, Kevin and Doug discuss data technology for first responders and how it is collected, stored, and used. Kevin asks the questions. How can we visualize data and turn it into action? How can first responders make better decisions during an incident? How can decision-makers be better informed on h...

At FRI Kevin had a chance to sit down with Jeff Powell of Autel Robotics . In this episode, Kevin and Jeff discuss the drone industry and the benefits Autel offers first responders. Autel Robotics is a US-headquartered drone manufacturer. They offer a wide range of platforms from fixed-wing, quadcopter, VTOL. They are dedicated to delivering ground-breaking solutions for new aerial exploration thr...