Chief Derek Alkonis: ‘Everything you do is focused on life safety’

“There's so much we don't know about fires. We're still killing firefighters. We're still killing people in fires. There's still so much to know and to do differently.” Chief Derek Alkonis, who serves as a research program manager for UL’s Fire Safety Research Institute, shares his passion for learning about fire dynamics and how best to translate fire behavior research into actionable lessons – and updated tactics – for firefighters. Plus, we dig into all of this:

• The Mike Singletary analogy for “aggressive” firefighting

• Why the Lahaina fire moved so fast and Alkonis’ current work on the fire investigation team [Read the Maui Wildfire Analysis]

• How the heavy burden of command drove him to learn more about fire behavior early in his career

• Alkonis’ work with Los Angeles County Fire to put fire behavior research into practice – and the process of getting buy-in from the firefighters

This episode of the Better Every Shift Podcast is sponsored by MagneGrip. Eliminate diesel exhaust fumes from inside the fire station with a MagneGrip exhaust removal system. Learn more at MagneGrip.com.

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