Dan Madrzykowski, National Institute of Standards and Technology

Federal Drive

Dan Madrzykowski, National Institute of Standards and Technology

Homes and buildings aren't built the way they used to be, and when they catch fire, they don't burn the same way either. Newer buildings have more open floor pl...

Federal News Network Staff

April 29, 2014 9:37 am

< a min read

wfedstaff | April 17, 2015 6:44 pm

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Homes and buildings aren’t built the way they used to be, and when they catch fire, they don’t burn the same way either. Newer buildings have more open floor plans and much more use of plastics and synthetic materials. Now the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the Underwriters Laboratory have teamed up to educate firefighters on the modern fire. The course is based on a series of controlled burn experiments, performed with the help of the New York City Fire Department. Daniel Madrzykowski, a fire protection engineer and leader of the Fire Fighting Technology Group at NIST, told Federal Drive hosts Tom Temin and Emily Kopp what firefighters learn through the course.