Fire Protection Engineering Podcast

Melisa Rodriguez is Senior Manager of Industry Relations at Johnson Controls - largest global manufacturer of FARS. Melisa has a strong background in fire protection engineering as a consulting engineer designing systems before moving to the manufacturer front in 2022. Also on this episode is Kris Blume, Fire Chief of the Meridian Fire Department in Idaho. Kris is not only an active Fire Chief that has taken-on the challenge of pushing for innovative safety systems adoption, like FARS, in his ju

David Bergeron, former VP of Planning/Production Engineering at Avondale Shipyard, has a strong background in the maritime industry. Also, his latest role with The National WWII Museum adds a spice to the story when discussing the legendary navy vessels of our past. The topic is massive in its range of topics and its scale of engineering production... go big or go home or listen to this next episode and enjoy!

What happens when the host finally books the one guest who never says no? In this fully AI-generated experiment, two synthetic versions of Benjamin Casey debate the most interesting recent developments in fire protection engineering. Ben Prime is the pragmatic consulting engineer - code-minimum realist, skeptic of hype, defender of engineering judgment. Ben 2.0 is the early-adopter futurist "from a faster timeline." They go five rounds.

Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) thermal runaway, explosion control, and the codes racing to keep up... Daniel Hudson, Director of Distribution BESS Projects at RavenVolt, joins the show to share hard-won lessons from the field and offer practical guidance for engineers, owners, and AHJs navigating this fast-moving space.

Chris Downing, Global Director of Fire Protection Codes at Johnson Controls, has a strong background in protecting critical environments, dealing with Data Centers, Critical National Infrastructure, and special hazards. We cover the newest data center technologies, including hyperscale considerations, and their associated safety challenges.

Geoff Bruder, a former NASA aerospace engineer specializing in acoustics, discusses how to put out fires using sound waves with Sonic Fire Tech's system. Developed for the goal of fire suppression that works faster, smarter, and without damage in interesting present/future applications.