Amanda Ripley Author of The Unthinkable

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Wildfires near Myrtle Beach are putting quite the damper on spring break.  In what could be the worst wildfire to South Carolina since 1976, 2,500 people in a four-mile stretch have been ordered to evacuate.  Despite hundreds of firefighters working to get the blaze under control, officials fear they won’t have the fire contained by the weekend. The fire’s cause remains unknown, and MSNBC reports today that countless homes and…

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On Thursday, the FDNY unveiled the nation’s first and only high-rise fire simulator.  And in a city chock-full of high-rises, this is a great and much-needed improvement to the FDNY’s training programs.  The simulator, funded almost exclusively by actor Dennis Leary’s foundation (The Leary Firefighters Foundation), was a long time coming.  The four-story, 4,000 square-foot-space simulates the conditions of the particularly brutal high-rise fire. According to The Leary Firefighters Foundation, the simulator is an essential tool for the FDNY:

“High-rise, multiple dwelling fires are among the most complex and dangerous…

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The other day, I drove out to Frederick, MD. This time, blissfully, my trip had nothing whatsoever to do with anthrax.

I went to Frederick to meet John Bryan, a man who knows more about human behavior in fire than anyone alive. Or at least, anyone I have ever met. Jake Pauls had asked me to come out to meet John and do an interview for posterity. Until then, I had only known the man through his work—which I’d spent days poring over at the National Fire Academy and in the Library of Congress.…

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