Fire safety in Europe is shaped in a challenging ecosystem - each member country owns its fire safety rules, yet the construction market, standards, and technical language are increasingly shared. I’m joined by Francesca Sciarretta, Scientific Project Officer at the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC), to explain how the JRC supports EU decision-making with independent research and why that “science behind the policy” matters for every practicing fire safety engineer.

We unpack what the latest JRC work says about performance-based fire safety engineering in Europe and why prescriptive design still dominates. Francesca walks through how the same country can look “performance-based” to engineers but “not allowed” to regulators, depending on how approval pathways, deviation procedures, and legal wording work. We also talk about where performance-based methods show up most often, from smoke control and structural fire engineering to compartmentation, and why complex assets like high-rise buildings, airport terminals, and underground infrastructure frequently demand engineering judgment.

From there, we connect fire safety to the sustainable construction ecosystem: the Construction Products Regulation (CPR), the recast Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD), major renovations, and the reality that low-carbon innovation must not introduce hidden fire risk. The conversation then turns to the real engine of progress: education, training, qualification frameworks, and liability. If we expect engineers to define scenarios, design fires, safety criteria, and take responsibility, we need credible pathways to competence and continuous professional development across borders.

You can find the new JRC report here.

Information about the FIEP platform: https://efectis.com/en/fire-information-exchange-platform-fiep-2/

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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.

You don’t always need a furnace to end up with a fire resistance rating, but you do need to understand what kind of “proof” you’re actually creating. I’m joined again by Dr. Piotr Turkowski from ITB to unpack calculation methods for fire resistance and the real-world chain from engineering assumptions to a Declaration of Performance. We talk about when standards and European Assessment Documents (EADs) explicitly allow Eurocode-based assessment, and how different methods will lead you to your resulting class in a different way.

We spend a lot of time on the practical heart of structural fire engineering: concrete and steel. For reinforced concrete (Eurocode 2, EN 1992-1-2), we compare tabulated data, simplified calculation approaches like the zone method, and advanced global modeling that starts to look more like performance-based fire safety engineering than classification. For steel (Eurocode 3, EN 1993-1-2), we break down critical temperature, utilization, section factor, and what you can realistically expect from unprotected members under the standard fire curve.

Then we get into the more challenging part that tables or simplified methods can’t completely capture: fire protection materials. Sprayed mortars, boards, and intumescent coatings change properties with temperature, moisture, and expansion, and their performance can hinge on stickability, cracking, and detachment during large deflections. Finally, Piotr shares a strong caution on masonry, where tabulated data can be dangerously optimistic for some concrete hollow blocks, and we close with a look at what machine learning might someday add to fire resistance prediction.

Here is a link to the paper about Masonry: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0379711226000512

ITB and Piotr have international courses on fire resistance and fire testing - keep an eye out on them!

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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.

In this episode of fire fundamentals with the ITB fire resistance expert Piotr Turkowski we break down what a fire resistance rating criteria, and what the letters behind ratings like “REI 60” exactly stand for. We use lab experience to explain where the standards are clear, where they are oddly traditional, and where comparisons between products can mislead.

• ISO definition of fire resistance as an ability over time
• What R E I W and M mean in fire resistance classification
• Load bearing capacity as deformation and collapse criteria
• How test loads are applied and why load choice matters
• Integrity E as flames and openings rather than smoke tightness
• Cotton pad test and why it blurs integrity versus insulation
• Insulation I temperature rise limits and prescribed thermocouple points
• Radiation W as a heat flux limit and when it matters
• Mechanical impact M and the wrecking ball style verification
• Why fire resistance time does not add up across layers
• Furnace minutes, strict thresholds, and unknown test uncertainty

If you liked this podcast episode, you will definietely enjoy:

• https://www.firescienceshow.com/070-fire-resistance-is-whatever-you-want-it-to-be-with-piotr-turkowski/ our previous conversation with Piotr about general fire resistance paradigm
• https://www.firescienceshow.com/010-seeking-the-origins-of-standardized-fire-testing-and-ancient-fire-protection-materials-with-john-gales/ another take on the origins of fire resistance

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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.