🔥 Welcome to Episode 2 of the Fire Safety Philosophy Podcast with Pavlo Lapikov. This isn’t just another engineering podcast. It’s about asking the big questions: What does safety really mean? Why do we settle for minimums? How can we think beyond compliance? In this episode, Pavlo shares stories from mining, nuclear, and high-rise projects that reveal why fire safety is more philosophy than engineering. From personal near-death experiences to lessons learned in the field, this conversation challenges the illusion that systems and codes alone can keep us safe. 👉 What you’ll hear in this episode: – Intro: Why fire safety is more than drawings and codes – The Big Idea: Asking questions before choosing systems – Engineering vs Thinking: Hands vs brains – Questions before systems: People, not paperwork – Stories from the field: Mining, nuclear, and high-rise lessons – Nuclear safety: Ten critical questions we always asked – Philosophy First: Why minimums are never enough – Closing reflection: Education and drills over hardware 📌 Subscribe for future episodes and join the conversation. Fire safety isn’t just about systems. It’s about people.

What does it mean to be safe from fire? In this very first episode, I ask a simple but powerful question: what does it really mean to be safe from fire? I’m Pavlo Lapikov, a Fire Safety Engineer and Investigator with over 20 years of experience in fire departments, architecture, mining, nuclear energy, and consulting. Twice in my life I came face to face with fire and nearly didn’t survive. Those moments shaped the way I see safety — not as paperwork or systems, but as controlled risk. In this episode you’ll hear: 🔥 Why codes are minimums, not guarantees 🔥 Why buildings can be “safe” on paper but deadly in reality 🔥 My personal survival story and lessons from the field 🔥 How prevention, culture, and behavior matter as much as systems 🔥 Why fire safety is more philosophy than engineering 💡 Key idea: Safety is never absolute. It is controlled risk. And how we control it defines not only how safe we are, but how happy we are. 👉 Watch until the end for my closing reflection: “When you say you feel safe — are you measuring the risk you control, or just leaning on hope?” If you’re an engineer, firefighter, policymaker, manager, or simply someone who wants your family safe — this podcast is for you. 🎧 Subscribe to join me weekly as we explore fire safety as culture, ethics, and philosophy.