Fire Safety Science News #34 – March, 2013

The March, 2013 edition of Fire Safety Science News, the official newsletter of the IAFSS newsletter is now available online. The latest issue includes four invited Featured Articles. The first article reports on the urban fires caused by the October 2012 Hurricane Sandy in New York. These recent fires also captured the attention of the international media worldwide (and were even linked indirectly to climate change). The second article is on the new version of Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS) that will be released soon. FDS has become a very important tool for fire safety science and news of the last version is received with expectation. The third article focuses on the early history of fire testing going back to the 1790’s. It reminds us of the dangers of focusing excessively on artificial testing environments while ignoring the real fire behavior. For the last Featured Article, I made sure to include in this issue what was missing in the last one; an overview of why flame retardants are important for fire safety. Two other articles, submitted independently by the plastic industries in response to articles in the last issue, join this debate. This on‐going debate, started because of a series of articles in the Chicago Tribune, needs a much stronger presence of the fire safety science. It is my hope that Fire Safety Science News could contribute towards a larger participation of IAFSS members in public discussions.

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