INTRODUCTION:Use of aqueous film-forming foam (AFFF) is a source of exposure to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) for firefighters working in aircraft rescue and firefighting (ARFF) settings. However, data characterizing the association between serum PFAS concentrations and exposure risk factors for ARFF firefighters are limited. METHODS:In this cross-sectional study, ARFF firefighters (N = 193) from six U.S. commercial airports provided serum for quantification of nine PFAS and completed a survey in 2019-2020. A drinking water sample from each fire station was also analyzed for 29 PFAS. Serum PFAS concentrations were compared with demographically-similar participants from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2017-March 2020. Multivariable linear regression was used to identify factors associated with serum PFAS concentrations. RESULTS:Geometric mean serum concentrations of perfluorohexane sulfonic acid (PFHxS), perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS) branched isomers, and perfluoroundecanoic acid (PFUnDA) were statistically higher in ARFF firefighters compared with NHANES participants. PFAS were detected in tap water at three fire departments, but only one department was characterized by detection of select PFAS (perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), PFOS, and PFHxS) in both water and serum. Past employment, detection of PFAS in drinking water, and age were positively associated with select PFAS concentrations; a recent change in workplace AFFF behavior or practice, female sex, and Black race exhibited inverse associations. CONCLUSIONS:Participants reporting changes in workplace behavior, policy, or practice had lower summed PFAS concentrations, suggesting these measures may help reduce exposure. Continued research is needed to evaluate exposure reduction strategies for firefighters, particularly those working in ARFF settings.

Background/Objectives: High-risk, low-frequency incidents such as building collapses and large chemical fires can result in acute, high-dose exposures to toxic agents for first responders and the surrounding community. While these exposures may last for hours to days, their contribution to firefighters’ risks for cancer and other diseases is relatively unknown. In February 2023, a freight train transporting chemicals derailed and caught fire in East Palestine, Ohio, US. More than 350 firefighters, primarily volunteer, responded to the incident. In this cross-sectional study, we evaluated epigenetic markers of toxicity in responding firefighters. We hypothesized that exposures from responding to the train derailment would alter the expression of microRNAs (miRNAs) linked to carcinogenesis. Methods: We enrolled 62 responding firefighters and a comparison group of 26 firefighters from the same region who did not respond to the incident. We measured the relative expression of 800 miRNAs in blood samples using the nCounter Human v3 miRNA expression panel. We compared the expression of miRNA between exposure groups in negative binomial regression models, adjusting for potential confounders. Results: At a false discover rate cut-off of 5% (q-value < 0.05), 16 miRNAs had significantly higher expression and one significantly lower among firefighters that responded to the incident. Top disease-related pathways in which these miRNAs were enriched included those relevant to neurodegenerative diseases, vascular disease, and multiple cancer sites. Conclusions: Overall, results suggest responding to one large incident can have non-transient impacts on miRNA expression. Whether this translates into longer-term health risks or adaptive responses to exposures is unclear.

BackgroundFirefighters are at an increased risk of cancer and other health conditions compared with the general population. However, the specific exposures and mechanisms contributing to these risks are not fully understood. This information is critical to formulate and test protective interventions. ObjectiveThe purpose of the Fire Fighter Cancer Cohort Study (FFCCS) is to conduct community-engaged research with the fire service to advance the evaluation and reduction of firefighter exposures, along with understanding and mitigating effects leading to an increased risk of cancer and other health conditions. This involves establishing a long-term (>30 years) firefighter multicenter prospective cohort study. MethodsThe structure of the FFCCS includes a fire service oversight and planning board to provide guidance and foster communication between researchers and fire organizations; a data coordinating center overseeing survey data collection and data management; an exposure assessment center working with quantitative exposure data to construct a firefighter job exposure matrix; and a biomarker analysis center, including a biorepository. Together, the centers evaluate the association between firefighter exposures and toxic health effects. Firefighter research liaisons are involved in all phases of the research. The FFCCS research design primarily uses a set of core and project-specific survey questions accompanied by a collection of biological samples (blood and urine) for the analysis of biomarkers of exposure and effect. Data and samples are collected upon entry into the study, with subsequent collection after eligible exposures, and at intervals (eg, 1-2 years) after enrollment. FFCCS data collection and analysis have been developed to evaluate unique exposures for specific firefighter groups; cancer risks; and end points in addition to cancer, such as reproductive outcomes. Recruitment is carried out with coordination from partnering fire departments and eligible participants, including active career and volunteer firefighters in the United States. ResultsThe FFCCS protocol development was first funded by the US Federal Emergency Management Agency in 2016, with enrollment beginning in February 2018. As of September 2024, >6200 participants from >275 departments across 31 states have enrolled, including recruit and incumbent firefighters. Biological samples have been analyzed for measures of exposure and effect. Specific groups enrolled in the FFCCS include career and volunteer structural firefighters, women firefighters, trainers, fire investigators, wildland firefighters, firefighters responding to wildland-urban interface fires, and airport firefighters. Peer-reviewed published results include measurement of exposures and the toxic effects of firefighting exposure. Whenever possible, research results are provided back to individual participants. ConclusionsThe FFCCS is a unique, community-engaged, multicenter prospective cohort study focused on the fire service. Study results contribute to the evaluation of exposures, effects, and preventive interventions across multiple sectors of the US fire service, with broad implications nationally. International Registered Report Identifier (IRRID)DERR1-10.2196/70522

ObjectiveTo describe volunteer firefighters' perspectives on how firefighter- and fire department-level factors influence their physical activity and fitness.MethodsFirefighters (n = 28) were interviewed, stratified by their years of firefighting, using an interview guide. Thematic analysis and systematic coding were used to analyze the interview transcripts.ResultsFive themes were identified: (1) health and firefighting performance, (2) firefighter time and availability, (3) responsibility of the fire department to support volunteer members' physical fitness, (4) fire training drills as a form of functional physical activity, and (5) fitness initiatives at the department. Interviewing by years of experience showed varied perspectives that converged toward similar conclusions.ConclusionsIncorporating fitness discussions into department meetings and trainings and identifying fitness advocates within the department may contribute to overcoming barriers to physical fitness among volunteer firefighters.

Firefighters are at increased risk of cancer and other health conditions compared with the general population. However, the specific exposures and mechanisms contributing to these risks are not fully understood. This information is critical to formulate and test protective interventions. The purpose of the Fire Fighter Cancer Cohort Study (FFCCS) is to conduct community-engaged research with the fire service to advance evaluation and reduction of firefighter exposures, along with understanding and mitigating effects leading to an increased risk of cancer and other health conditions. This involves establishing a long-term (30+ year) firefighter multicenter prospective cohort study. The structure of the FFCCS includes a fire service oversight and planning board (OPB) to provide guidance and foster communication between researchers and fire organizations; a data coordinating center (DCC) overseeing survey data collection and data management; an exposure assessment center (EAC) working with quantitative exposure data to construct a firefighter job exposure matrix; and a biomarker analysis center (BAC), including a biorepository. Together the centers evaluate the association between firefighter exposures and toxic health effects. Firefighter research liaisons are involved in all phases of the research. The FFCCS research design primarily utilizes a set of core and project-specific survey questions accompanied by collection of biological samples (blood and urine) for analysis of biomarkers of exposure and effect. Data and samples are collected upon entry into the study, with subsequent collection after eligible exposures, and at intervals (e.g. 1-2 years) after enrollment. FFCCS data collection and analysis have been developed to evaluate unique exposures for specific firefighter groups, cancer risks, and endpoints in addition to cancer, such as reproductive outcomes. Recruitment is carried out with coordination from partnering fire departments and eligible participants, including active career and volunteer firefighters in the United States (US). FFCCS study protocol development was first funded by the US Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in 2016, with enrollment beginning in February of 2018. As of September 2024, >6,200 participants from >275 departments across 31 states have enrolled, including recruit and incumbent firefighters. Biological samples have been analyzed for measures of exposure and effect. Specific groups enrolled in the FFCCS include career and volunteer structural firefighters, women firefighters, trainers, fire investigators, wildland firefighters, firefighters responding to wildland-urban interface (WUI) fires, and airport firefighters. Peer-reviewed published results include measurement of exposures and the toxic effects of firefighting exposure. Whenever possible, research results are provided back to individual participants. The FFCCS is a unique fire service community-engaged multicenter prospective cohort study. Study results are contributing to evaluation of exposures, effects, and preventive interventions across multiple sectors of the US fire service with broad implications nationally.

Prostate cancer is the leading incident cancer among men in the United States. Firefighters are diagnosed with this disease at a rate 1.21 times higher than the average population. This increased risk may result from occupational exposures to many toxicants, including per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). This study assessed the association between firefighting as an occupation in general or PFAS serum levels, with DNA methylation. Only genomic regions previously linked to prostate cancer risk were selected for analysis: GSTP1, Alu repetitive elements, and the 8q24 chromosomal region. There were 444 male firefighters included in this study, with some analyses being conducted on fewer participants due to missingness. Statistical models were used to test associations between exposures and DNA methylation at CpG sites in the selected genomic regions. Exposure variables included proxies of cumulative firefighting exposures (incumbent versus academy status and years of firefighting experience) and biomarkers of PFAS exposures (serum concentrations of 9 PFAS). Proxies of cumulative exposures were associated with DNA methylation at 15 CpG sites and one region located within FAM83A (q-value <0.1). SbPFOA was associated with 19 CpG sites (q < 0.1), but due to low detection rates, this PFAS was modeled as detected versus not detected in serum. Overall, there is evidence that firefighting experience is associated with differential DNA methylation in prostate cancer risk loci, but this study did not find evidence that these differences are due to PFAS exposures specifically.

Although nearly two-thirds of U.S. firefighters serve as volunteers, they are rarely included in studies of firefighters' health. The Firefighter Cancer Assessment and Prevention Study (CAPS), a research component of the Fire Fighter Cancer Cohort Study (FFCCS), has enrolled over 600 U.S. volunteer firefighters to help address this gap. This study found a greater prevalence of cancer-related health behaviors among volunteers compared to career firefighters. These behaviors included cigarette smoking, heavy alcohol use, and obesity. While the differences in behaviors varied between U.S. states, all state-level prevalences were higher among volunteer firefighters than career firefighters. The findings of this study support the need to provide volunteer firefighters with overall and targeted health promotion and cancer prevention programs.

Epigenetic changes may be biomarkers of health. Epigenetic age acceleration (EAA), the discrepancy between epigenetic age measured via epigenetic clocks and chronological age, is associated with morbidity and mortality. However, the intersection of epigenetic clocks with microRNAs (miRNAs) and corresponding miRNA-based health implications have not been evaluated. We analyzed DNA methylation and miRNA profiles from blood sampled among 332 individuals enrolled across 2 U.S.-based firefighter occupational studies (2015-2018 and 2018-2020). We considered 7 measures of EAA in leukocytes (PhenoAge, GrimAge, Horvath, skin-blood, and Hannum epigenetic clocks, and extrinsic and intrinsic epigenetic age acceleration). We identified miRNAs associated with EAA using individual linear regression models, adjusted for sex, race/ethnicity, chronological age, and cell type estimates, and investigated downstream effects of associated miRNAs with miRNA enrichment analyses and genomic annotations. On average, participants were 38 years old, 88% male, and 75% non-Hispanic white. We identified 183 of 798 miRNAs associated with EAA (FDR q < 0.05); 126 with PhenoAge, 59 with GrimAge, 1 with Horvath, and 1 with the skin-blood clock. Among miRNAs associated with Horvath and GrimAge, there were 61 significantly enriched disease annotations including age-related metabolic and cardiovascular conditions and several cancers. Enriched pathways included those related to proteins and protein modification. We identified miRNAs associated with EAA of multiple epigenetic clocks. PhenoAge had more associations with individual miRNAs, but GrimAge and Horvath had greater implications for miRNA-associated pathways. Understanding the relationship between these epigenetic markers could contribute to our understanding of the molecular underpinnings of aging and aging-related diseases.

ObjectiveThe aim of the study is to examine associations between years of firefighting service and eight chronological age-adjusted measures of blood leukocyte epigenetic age acceleration: Horvath, Hannum, SkinBloodClock, Intrinsic, Extrinsic, PhenoAge, GrimAge, and DNAm telomere length.MethodsThe study used a repeated measures analysis of data from 379 incumbent firefighters from eight career departments and 100 recruit firefighters from two of the departments, across the United States.ResultsIncumbent firefighters had on average greater epigenetic age acceleration compared with recruit firefighters, potentially due to the cumulative effect of occupational exposures. However, among incumbent firefighters, additional years of service were associated with epigenetic age deceleration, particularly for GrimAge, a strong predictor of mortality.ConclusionsLong-term studies with more specific occupational exposure classification are needed to better understand the relationship between years of service and aging biomarkers.

BACKGROUND Firefighters have occupational and environmental exposures to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). The goal of this study was to compare serum PFAS concentrations across multiple United States fire departments to National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) participants. METHODS Nine serum PFAS were compared in 290 firefighters from four municipal fire departments (coded A-D) and three NHANES participants matched to each firefighter on sex, ethnicity, age, and PFAS collection year. Only Departments A and C had sufficient women study participants (25 and six, respectively) to compare with NHANES. RESULTS In male firefighters compared with NHANES, geometric mean perfluorohexane sulfonate (PFHxS) was elevated in Departments A-C, sum of branched perfluoromethylheptane sulfonate isomers (Sm-PFOS) was elevated in all four departments, linear perfluorooctane sulfonate (n-PFOS) was elevated in Departments B and C, linear perfluorooctanoate (n-PFOA) was elevated in Departments B-D, and perfluorononanoate (PFNA) was elevated in Departments B-D, but lower in A. In male firefighters compared with NHANES, perfluoroundecanoate (PFUnDA) was more frequently detected in Departments B and D, and 2-(N-methyl-perfluorooctane sulfonamido) acetate (MeFOSAA) was less frequently detected in Departments B-D. In female firefighters compared with NHANES, PFHxS and Sm-PFOS concentrations were elevated in Departments A and C. Other PFAS concentrations were elevated and/or reduced in only one department or not significantly different from NHANES in any department. CONCLUSIONS Serum PFHxS, Sm-PFOS, n-PFOS, n-PFOA, and PFNA concentrations were increased in at least two of four fire departments in comparison to NHANES.

Background: Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) are persistent chemicals that firefighters encounter. Epigenetic modifications, including DNA methylation, could serve as PFASs toxicity biomarkers. Methods: With a sample size of 197 firefighters, we quantified the serum concentrations of nine PFASs, blood leukocyte DNA methylation and epigenetic age indicators via the EPIC array. We examined the associations between PFASs with epigenetic age, site- and region-specific DNA methylation, adjusting for confounders. Results: Perfluorohexane sulfonate, perfluorooctanoate (PFOA) and the sum of branched isomers of perfluorooctane sulfonate (Sm-PFOS) were associated with accelerated epigenetic age. Branched PFOA, linear PFOS, perfluorononanoate, perfluorodecanoate and perfluoroundecanoate were associated with differentially methylated loci and regions. Conclusion: PFASs concentrations are associated with accelerated epigenetic age and locus-specific DNA methylation. The implications for PFASs toxicity merit further investigation.

Real-time event detection and targeted decision making for emerging mission-critical applications require systems that extract and process relevant data from IoT sources in smart spaces. Oftentimes, this data is heterogeneous in size, relevance, and urgency, which creates a challenge when considering that different groups of stakeholders (e.g., first responders, medical staff, government officials, etc.) require such data to be delivered in a reliable and timely manner. Furthermore, in mission-critical settings, networks can become constrained due to lossy channels and failed components, which ultimately add to the complexity of the problem. In this article, we propose PrioDeX, a cross-layer middleware system that enables timely and reliable delivery of mission-critical data from IoT sources to relevant consumers through the prioritization of messages. It integrates parameters at the application, network, and middleware layers into a data exchange service that accurately estimates end-to-end performance metrics through a queueing analytical model. PrioDeX proposes novel algorithms that utilize the results of this analysis to tune data exchange configurations (event priorities and dropping policies), which is necessary for satisfying situational awareness requirements and resource constraints. PrioDeX leverages Software-Defined Networking (SDN) methodologies to enforce these configurations in the IoT network infrastructure. We evaluate our approach using both simulated and prototype-based experiments in a smart building fire response scenario. Our application-aware prioritization algorithm improves the value of exchanged information by 36% when compared with no prioritization; the addition of our network-aware drop rate policies improves this performance by 42% over priorities only and by 94% over no prioritization.

In this paper, we propose DragonFly, a drone-based data collection framework to enhance real-time situational awareness in high-rise buildings, focusing specifically on mission-critical high-rise fire scenarios. The goal of our proposed solution is to use multiple drones with visual sensors to collect reliable and timely data for monitoring the exterior of a high-rise building. Drones are especially useful in obtaining data from hard-to-access regions in high-rise fires that are used to monitor fire/smoke that might have propagated to higher floors, detect the presence of humans requiring assistance near windows, and determine window open/close states which can have a significant impact on the speed and direction of fire spread. Given a dynamically evolving set of events and multiple drones, the core challenge addressed is to develop a plan for multiple drones to gather a set of observations that can improve both the coverage (identify more events) and accuracy (obtain fine-grained for improved event detection). We develop a solution for the Multi-drone Waypoint scheduling problem (NP-hard) in two steps: 1) allocation of monitoring tasks (AMT) to individual drones and 2) dynamic waypoint scheduling (DWS) that determines the waypoint sequence for each drone to visit. We evaluate our proposed approach using a simulated high-rise fire scenario with a realistic fire spread model and study the applicability and efficiency of the proposed algorithms compared to baseline techniques. The simulation results demonstrate the superior performance of the proposed AMT-DWS algorithms. DragonFly achieve 33% fewer missing events and up to 39 times gain in accuracy, captured as the minimum weighted AUC (Area Under Curve) as compared to baseline algorithms. DragonFly delivers over 85% missing events and about 1.3 times the minimum weighted AUC in comparison to current approaches.

Real-time event detection and targeted decision making for emerging mission-critical applications require systems that extract and process relevant data from IoT sources in smart spaces. Oftentimes, this data is heterogeneous in size, relevance, and urgency, which creates a challenge when considering that different groups of stakeholders (e.g., first responders, medical staff, government officials, etc.) require such data to be delivered in a reliable and timely manner. Furthermore, in mission-critical settings, networks can become constrained due to lossy channels and failed components, which ultimately add to the complexity of the problem. In this article, we propose PrioDeX, a cross-layer middleware system that enables timely and reliable delivery of mission-critical data from IoT sources to relevant consumers through the prioritization of messages. It integrates parameters at the application, network, and middleware layers into a data exchange service that accurately estimates end-to-end performance metrics through a queueing analytical model. PrioDeX proposes novel algorithms that utilize the results of this analysis to tune data exchange configurations (event priorities and dropping policies), which is necessary for satisfying situational awareness requirements and resource constraints. PrioDeX leverages Software-Defined Networking (SDN) methodologies to enforce these configurations in the IoT network infrastructure. We evaluate our approach using both simulated and prototype-based experiments in a smart building fire response scenario. Our application-aware prioritization algorithm improves the value of exchanged information by 36% when compared with no prioritization; the addition of our network-aware drop rate policies improves this performance by 42% over priorities only and by 94% over no prioritization.

OBJECTIVES:We use a qualitative method to gain further insight into women firefighters' experiences, perceptions of cancer, health, and safety risks in the fire service.METHODS:We conducted six focus groups with U.S. women firefighters. Participants engaged in a 60 to 75-minute, semi-structured discussion and completed a sociodemographic questionnaire. A qualitative descriptive approach was used to inductively create themes. Data collection concluded when saturation was met.RESULTS:Forty-nine women firefighters participated. Qualitative results indicated the main health concerns include: occupational cancer risks including, risks related to hazardous exposures, sleep disruption and stress; and women's health concerns including, cancer, pregnancy and breastfeeding, and lack of resources.CONCLUSIONS:Women firefighters are concerned about their risk for cancer due to their occupation and identify a lack of resources specific to health and safety needs of women firefighters.

Objectives: To characterize the types of contamination control practices followed by Florida fire departments and examine the association between fire department organizational-level characteristics and adherence to contamination control practices. Methods: Using a cross-sectional study design, a survey was administered to 142 Florida firefighters. Validated survey measures assessed organizational level characteristics and 32 recommended national contamination control practices. Results: An average of 18.9 contamination control practices (standard deviation = 5.54; min = 3; max = 30) were reported by fire departments of which, wearing personal protective equipment (PPE) according to manufacturer instructions (98.9%) and access to special machine for cleaning (91%) were most cited. Fire departments with one or more health and safety officers had significantly higher implementation of contamination control practices (P = 0.032). Conclusion: Health and safety officers may have a positive impact on the number of contamination control practices followed in Florida fire departments.

Background and objective(s) Retrospective epidemiologic studies suggest a disproportionate burden in specific cancer incidence rates in U.S. fire fighters when compared to the general population. Exposure to hazardous chemicals and carcinogenic compounds during fire incident response may be contributing to these observed elevated cancer rates. Research studies that prospectively collect and integrate exposure, biomarker and health survey information within the fire fighter workforce are lacking. In the present study, we 1) describe the design and development of a multi-state prospective fire fighter cancer cohort study; and 2) discuss the collection of cancer biomarker data from the first fire department. Methods In July 2016, through FEMA-funding a national multi-state prospective study was designed with biomarker, exposure and data collection cores. Each core is comprised of a team of multidisciplinary investigators across governmental, industry and academic institutions with instrumentation and resources to collect field measurements across fire service departments. An oversight and planning board was empaneled with fire fighter department and union leadership and subject matter experts to guide the design, collection and analysis of integrated data streams. Results A total of 62 new recruits from a large U.S. large career Fire Department were consented and enrolled into the Fire Fighter Cancer Cohort Study in February 2018. Among consenting rookie firefighters 60 consented (response rate 60/62=96.8%) to the optional biomarker and exposure collection protocols as well as granted permission for follow up in the future. Two phlebotomists and an occupational health nurse at the training academy collected a total of 5 tubes from each firefighter (i.e., TEMPUS, PAXGENE RNA, Sterile Red Top, EDTA, and sodium citrate tube). Conclusions The newly established national prospective cancer cohort study infrastructure supports the collection of electronic consent, biomarker, exposure and health survey data. Expansion of the research protocol to other firefighter subgroups in needed.

Real-time event detection and targeted decision making for emerging mission-critical applications, e.g. smart fire fighting, requires systems that extract and process relevant data from connected IoT devices in the environment. In this paper, we propose FireDeX, a cross-layer middleware that facilitates timely and effective exchange of data for coordinating emergency response activities. FireDeX adopts a publish-subscribe data exchange paradigm with brokers at the network edge to manage prioritized delivery of mission-critical data from IoT sources to relevant subscribers. It incorporates parameters at the application, network, and middleware layers into a data exchange service that accurately estimates end-to-end performance metrics (e.g. delays, success rates). We design an extensible queueing theoretic model that abstracts these cross-layer interactions as a network of queues, thereby making it amenable for rapid analysis. We propose novel algorithms that utilize results of this analysis to tune data exchange configurations (event priorities and dropping policies) while meeting situational awareness requirements and resource constraints. FireDeX leverages Software-Defined Networking (SDN) methodologies to enforce these configurations in the IoT network infrastructure. We evaluate its performance through simulated experiments in a smart building fire response scenario. Our results demonstrate significant improvement to mission-critical data delivery under a variety of conditions. Our application-aware prioritization algorithm improves the value of exchanged information by 36% when compared with no prioritization; the addition of our network-aware drop rate policies improves this performance by 42% over priorities only and by 94% over no prioritization.

6), takes a deep and comprehensive look into the domain where buildings and fire meet.Buildings are the underpinnings of todayÕs civilization, and each is starkly unique.Likewise, fires in buildings are just as unique.The challenges of analyzing fires and their performance in buildings is a challenging topic, and this essential publication charts an effective holistic approach for addressing this complex issue.This work lays out the details of a framework to analyze a buildingÕs fire performance.The approach is universal, and applies to any building in any jurisdiction in any era.It includes numerous graphics to explain multiple decision making tools.With a good flow, it allows an easy way for a fire protection professional to get involved with risk assessment even when knowing little.The book fulfills its intent to speak to readers with varied levels of knowledge who want to understand fire performance of buildings.The 38 chapters and close to 700 pages of this publication provide a wealth of detail, and it is well organized and easily absorbed.Logical procedures address individual components, systems and concepts in a dynamic and integrated basis to yield a comprehensive understanding.Effective tools are utilized, including the IPI (Interactive Performance Information) chart that visually maps the time-dependent interactions between a building, its features, the fire, defenses like manual intervention, and associated risks.The IPI chart is a key tool for organizing and communicating the dynamic interactive behavior of fire performance in buildings.This second edition builds upon the baseline concepts laid out in this first edition, and it does so with noteworthy clarity and enhancement.The prior edition had a strong focus on probabilistic descriptors used for the complicated interactions of the analytical framework, and the second edition emphasizes state-of-the art deterministic fire science and engineering, built around the IPI chart and related practical tools.Among the new techniques is an emphasis on the building analysis role of manual fire suppression involving fire departments and fire brigades.The second edition is conveniently separated into four basic parts.Part One provides the foundational concepts that support the overall analytical approach.Up through Chapter 5 this addresses topics such as organizational concepts, barriers and compartmentation, fire defenses, tools of analysis, and quantification.