The Godfather of Wildfire Science | Masterclass from Alexander Maranghides

NIST fire protection engineer Alexander Maranghides, a recent winner of the Samuel Heyman Service to America Medal for his decades of fire science research delivers a deep-dive into the complex science of why communities burn in the Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI) and why our current approaches are often failing. Drawing on decades of research and in-depth case studies of catastrophic events like the Camp Fire, he explains why WUI fire is fundamentally different from any other disaster and presents a new methodology for building truly resilient communities.

In this episode, you'll learn about:

• The WUI Fire Paradox: Why the community itself is the fuel that drives the disaster.
• Exposure vs. Parcels: The critical flaw in focusing on property lines instead of how fire actually spreads.
• The Limits of Post-Fire Forensics: Why you can't determine if a surviving house was well-built or just lucky.
• Two Separate Problems: The need to address both direct flame exposure and ember attacks independently.
• The Density Dilemma: How risk escalates dramatically from low-density to high-density communities.
• From Defensible to Stand-Alone: The paradigm shift needed for communities to survive without firefighter intervention.
• The Retrofit Challenge: Why hardening existing neighborhoods is the single toughest nut to crack.
• NIST's Role: How a neutral federal agency conducts years-long case studies to provide unbiased science for all.