 |
Fire Science ShowAuthor: Wojciech Wegrzynski
Fire Science Show is connecting fire researchers and practitioners with a society of fire engineers, firefighters, architects, designers and all others, who are genuinely interested in creating a fire-safe future. Through interviews with a diverse group of experts, we present the history of our field as well as the most novel advancements. We hope the Fire Science Show becomes your weekly source of fire science knowledge and entertainment. Produced in partnership with the Diamond Sponsor of the show - OFR Consultants Language: en-us Genres: Physics, Science, Technology Contact email: Get it Feed URL: Get it iTunes ID: Get it Trailer: |
Listen Now...
275 - Property Protection and the Role of Insurers with Gary Howe
Tuesday, 3 November, 2026
Fire safety engineering based on our codes and legislations often stops at life safety and code compliance. However, in the world of insurers, there is much more beyond that - a critical question is “what happens to the business after the fire?” Today I sit down with Gary Howe, Senior Risk Engineer at Zurich Resilience Solutions (Zurich Insurance Group), to unpack how insurance risk engineering evaluates fire risk across property protection, environmental impact, reputational exposure, and the big one: business interruption.We get concrete about what risk engineers actually do on site and why underwriters rely on them as their eyes and ears. Gary walks through how construction details, internal compartmentation, and combustible materials change the loss outcome, then goes deep on fixed fire protection systems. We talk sprinklers and why insurers verify water supplies, pump performance, and commodity classification, plus what happens when storage changes quietly outpace the system. We also dig into performance-based systems like water mist, where evidence matters: listings, third party approvals, and fire test data that matches the installed reality.From there, the lens widens to credible loss scenarios and recovery time. We explore long lead-time equipment like transformers and turbines, single-line bottlenecks that can freeze an entire process, and why heavy industry claims can be dominated by downtime rather than rebuild cost. Environmental risk enters through firefighting water runoff, airborne pollution, and battery energy storage toxic cloud considerations, while reputation risk shows up the moment smoke plumes hit the news. If you want a practical, insurer-informed framework for fire resilience, risk reduction, and business continuity planning, this conversation provides you that.----The Fire Science Show is produced by the Fire Science Media in collaboration with OFR Consultants. Thank you to the podcast sponsor for their continuous support towards our mission.
