In the early hours of New Year's Day, a blaze erupted at Le Constellation, a popular bar in Crans-Montana, Switzerland, killing 40 young people and injuring more than 100 others. Authorities believe the fire started when embers from sparklers ignited foam soundproofing material on the ceiling. It is latest in a long line of eerily similar deadly fires in nightclubs involving pyrotechnics. Why do we keep repeating the same mistakes?

Today on the podcast, you will hear a powerful conversation with two survivors of The Station nightclub fire, one of the deadliest nightclub fires in U.S. history. They talk with two prominent fire safety and burn advocates about their emotional reaction to Le Constellation, and what it was like to live through and recover from a similar tragedy. Then, the group discusses why these lessons are so hard to learn, and what we can all collectively do to help stop these fires from happening. This conversation first aired on Girls with Grafts, a burn survivor's podcast published by the Phoenix Society for Burn Survivors.

LINKS

Learn more about the NFPA Fire & Life Safety Ecosystem

Get involved with NFPA's 'Safety Doesn't Happen by Chance' campaign

Learn more about the Phoenix Society for Burn Survivors

Listen to more episodes of Girls with Grafts

Every five years since 2001, NFPA has conducted a massive research project known as the Needs Assessment of the U.S. Fire Service. It's a survey that goes out
to about 30,000 fire departments across the country with questions aimed at finding
out whether the fire service has the resources it needs to accomplish the enormous job we've asked them to take on. The next survey, which is the Sixth Needs Assessment, was sent to departments via mail and email in October, and is due back by February 15.

Today on the podcast, we are joined by an all-star panel featuring the president of the International Association of Fire Chiefs, the president of the Metro Chiefs, and NFPA's director of research. We discuss the ins and outs of this critically important survey and dive into the "pain points" facing the modern fire service, from skyrocketing EMS call volumes and firefighter burnout to the emerging threats of lithium-ion battery fires and AI implementation.

LINKS:

Learn more about the Sixth Needs Assessment of the U.S. Fire Service survey, and to see reports from past surveys.

Questions about participating, email nasurvey@nfpa.org, or call 800-343-8890.

About 80 percent of female firefighters say that their personal protective clothing doesn't fit right, and studies show that ill-fitting gear puts women at greater risk of being injured on the job. In this podcast from 2023, Jesse talks to two textile researchers working on multi-year project to better understand the issue and to gather the data needed to design female-specific turnout gear.

Before the episode, Jesse gives a quick update on the project, which has now moved onto a crucial second phase. Researchers are now gathering measurements from thousands of women in the fire service, which they will use to design the first prototypes of female specific personal protective clothing. Researchers are looking for female firefighters who are willing share their measurement data. This can be done by yourself with an app on your phone and takes only a few minutes. Visit, nfpa.org/femaleppe to learn how to help.

Links: 

Visit the research page to learn more about the project and how to submit measurement data

Read and NFPA Journal feature story about the project to understand and solve the problem of ill-fitting PPE for female firefighters.

Watch a webinar presentation with researchers Cassandra Kwon and Meredith McQuerry