Inside the research reshaping fireground tactics

Better Every Shift · Nov 5, 2026 · 1h

For years, fire research went to a file drawer at the National Fire Academy instead of the fireground. Dr. Dan Madrzykowski of UL Research Institutes’ Fire Safety Research Institute (FSRI) has spent decades closing that gap, and he tells Zam how it happened — from the computer modeling of the 1999 Cherry Road fire in Washington, D.C., to research now built with firefighters, not just for them. Madrzykowski breaks down what that work means in the updated NFPA 1700: stream choice, coordinated ventilation and search, including why the fastest rescuers in one study weren’t necessarily the…