For the last few decades, Australia has taken a proactive and centralized approach to wildfire mitigation. It's wildfire building codes are standardized and mostly mandatory throughout the country, and in some especially wildfire-prone areas the government restricts development altogether. By contrast, the U.S. has a patchwork, state by state and even town by town approach to wildfire rules and building codes. On this episode of the NFPA podcast, we talk to Maria Kornakova, the national bushfire manager at Fire Protection Association Australia, to learn more about the history of the Australian wildfire codes and the country's accreditation and mapping programs. We also chat about Australia's successes and challenges tackling the wildfire threat, the differences of the U.S. approach, and what the countries might learn from each other.

LINKS
Learn more about Fire Protection Association Australia
Learn more about NFPA's FireWise USA program
Learn more about Outthink Wildfire, NFPA's ambitious effort to eliminate wildfire loss in the U.S.

In February, responders in Florida successfully rescued a 7-foot, 400-pound manatee that had wiggled his way up a concrete pipe and became trapped in a stormwater drain under the road. The unusual rescue made international headlines, but it was all in a day's work for Brandi Phillips, the animal technical rescue specialist who helped lead the effort to extract Melby the manatee.

Phillips joins us on today's episode to chat about how the unique incident unfolded, the challenges of rescuing trapped animals, and what resources, including NFPA standards, are available to help guide agencies as they prepare for and respond to these sometimes tricky incidents.

LINKS
Learn more about NFPA 2500, Standard for Operations and Training for Technical Search and Rescue Incidents and Life Safety Rope and Equipment for Emergency Services.

Read and learn more about the University of Florida's Veterinary Emergency Treatment Service

The race to cash in on artificial intelligence has triggered a data center building boom that is quickly becoming the largest infrastructure effort of our time. With these enormous facilities being built all over the world, an army of safety professionals is now racing to understand the complex systems in data centers and mitigate their hazards, even as the technology inside continues to rapidly evolve.

Today on the podcast, we welcome Michael Brune, one of those safety experts on the frontlines of overseeing safety during the data center buildout. As the fire marshal of Goodyear, Arizona, a suburb of Pheonix, Brune and his office review designs and issue permits for data centers, and oversee construction and inspections. He's had a lot to do. The city now has at least 30 data centers in various stages of completion, most of which have gone up in just the last few years. Brune shares his experiences and lessons learned as an AHJ overseeing several enormous data center projects, and what it's like playing a high-stakes safety tug-of-war with some of the richest corporations on earth.

LINKS: 


Read the cover story of the NFPA Journal, "Fast, Furious, Immense."

Learn more about NFPA 75, Standard for Fire Protection of Information Technology Equipment