Fire Safety in the Age of Sustainability: A start-of-the-year reflection

A warm welcome to 2026! The Burning Matters team would like to welcome you into the new year and wish you a prosperous year ahead!

Before I recap and reflect on the many challenges that the fire community has faced (and continues to face) in 2025, I would like to give a quick team update. Throughout 2025, the team members pursued their individual careers to serve the wider community better. I continue to lead the FRISSBE department at ZAG in Slovenia and have been travelling the world to educate and present our research findings on prevailing fire challenges. One example was the presentation entitled “From Sparks to Safety: Experimental Insights into Fire Risk Reduction for Rooftop PV Systems” at the inaugural SFPE Fire Safety Conference in Skopje, North Macedonia.

Michael has seen massive growth and success with Community Wolf - a public safety platform that brings smart tools to everyone, from local communities to teams on the frontline.

Gizelle continues to develop her expertise as a fire engineer with Arup. Her recent work highlights fire safety development in critical regions, including collaboration with the International Accord.

We are pleased to share that the Burning Matters team recently reconnected to set the course for continuing the newsletter into the year ahead. With that shared moment of reconnection as a starting point, I share my perspectives on 2025:

2025 has drawn to a close, but the year has been marked by an unprecedented fire season. We continue to see an increase in wildfire incidents year-on-year. In 2024 alone, a total of 8,343 fires were reported in Europe. This is more than four times the 17-year average. As climate-driven factors persist, wildfire frequency can only be assumed to increase in the following years.

Additionally, the devastating aftermath of the Wang Fuk Court fire has only highlighted that even today, there is still much to learn about facade fire spread and the fire risk associated with various material choices. The need for learning has been further emphasized by the tragic fire at the Le Constellation bar in Crans-Montana, Switzerland, on New Year’s Eve 2025. In the early hours of 1 January 2026, a fire broke out during a crowded celebration in the ski resort bar, killing at least 40 people and injuring more than 100 others. The videos and the news article in the link above only reinforce the fire community’s persistent battles:

• Flames spreading along the ceiling due to the highly flammable acoustic/sound-absorbing foam;

• Allowed usage of indoor pyrotechnics, which was pinpointed as the ignition source in such a cramped space;

• Narrow staircases and a small single exit, which caused a bottleneck;

• Evacuees and victims continue to be labelled as acting in panic, which tends to overlook failures in safety standards and building design.

These tragic incidents, which unfortunately only represent a small selection from 2025, highlight that fire safety cannot be an afterthought, especially as the building industry moves rapidly toward ambitious sustainability goals. In the current race to reach sustainability targets, many technologies and building products are fast-tracked to the market. As expected, such fast-paced innovation results in new risks. However, when the risk becomes too big or there is lack of data to assess the risk, intervention is needed. We are at this point now – we lack the knowledge needed to enable informed decisions that can ensure a safe and just implementation of the sustainability goals. Therefore, fire safety research and innovation have become necessary with respect to electrification and energy renovation in the built environment.

To avoid potential confusion and accusations, I am not against electrification or renovation of buildings or development of green technologies, but I am for fire safety – in all buildings and for all citizens. To reach this fire safety goal, sound data from research is needed so that fire safety professionals can make informed decisions to ensure that the fire risk is known and acceptable. It is unacceptable that firefighters and the public are left to absorb these unknown risks.

The rapid implementation of photovoltaic (PV) systems on roofs is one of these challenges that needs data to enable informed decisions to ensure fire-safe designs. Research has already established that installing PV systems on roofs increases the risk – both the probability and the consequence. In fact, the PV modules (unless vertical or far from the roof surface) change the fire dynamics so significantly that roofing solutions that pass existing fire test standards will enable significant flame spread with PV modules present, thus failing a similar test. As a result, in this case, an important research and development goal is to establish a reliable test framework for roofs with PV systems.

Time is money, but time is also associated with risk. Therefore, the harvesting of sufficient data and knowledge must be given the highest priority. For example, we cannot accept that almost a decade after a tragic fire like Grenfell, there is still no improved standard for façade fire testing in place. Note that such a standard should not be pass/fail but rather provide comprehensive data to be used in fire safety calculations and strategies.  

There is also a need for test standards for roofs with PV installations, battery passport protocols, BESS implementation rules, … - the list is quite long, and it is growing because implementation outpaces safety regulations and knowledge. To improve upon this situation and ensure preparedness, robustness and resilience, we need foresight and bold visions that include a culture and political agenda that place fire safety at the forefront – it should not be an afterthought.

Finally, to ensure that these innovative solutions are safe, performance-based design is a necessity because prescriptive solutions are not created with sustainability in mind. Furthermore, standards alone cannot provide safety – they need to be used as part of a robust fire safety strategy. Thus, we need competence – throughout the entire value chain, because even a ‘perfect’ fire safety strategy can easily be ruined by misunderstood test results, wrongful material selection or poor installation practice. Furthermore, it is essential to ensure that the education results in strictly defined competence, i.e., a competence framework is needed to solve all these challenges. Therefore, let us invest more in fire research, capacity building and education – now!

I would love to hear your thoughts! Reach out through the Burning Matters feedback form.