Most fire deaths occur in residential buildings, specifically in single-family homes. The increased airtightness correlating to energy efficiency in these buildings could be changing the way fires develop, potentially impacting the safety of occupants and responding firefighters. This presentation will outline research currently underway at the University of Waterloo on fire and smoke spread relative to fuel volatility and ventilation.

Energize Your Professional Edge with 
SFPE Seminars This April

Revive your energy and interest in new skills after a hard winter. Renew your growing professional knowledge through the spring 2019 seminars from SFPE on a variety of practical topics, including Understanding Human Behavior in Fires and Performance-Based Design and the Codes, April 23-24 in Ottawa, Canada.

The assessment of industrial fire and associated risks for the purpose of underwriting insurance and mitigating fire risks has a history going back to the middle of the 1800s.

Ongoing research into fire risk, floods windstorm and other require considerations of reliability and resilience have to be taken into account.

The concept of fire resistance developed as result of historical fires such as the great fire of London in 1666. In the aftermath of the fire the use of non-combustible materials, fire walls, parapets and other means of controlling fire spread were introduced.

 The assessment of fire resistance in the last century or so has relied on the time temperature curve which varies relatively slightly between various international standards: such as CAN ULC S-101 in this country.

In terms of building regulations, the Province of BC relies on the National Building Code as the model document- using the Vancouver Building Bylaw as well as the BC Building Code outside of Vancouver.

Recently the SFPE Subcommittee on Research & Innovation unveiled the SFPE roadmap that identifies the future research needs for the fire safety engineering profession.

As the Chair of this SFPE research group Peter Senez will outline the current plans for FPE research going forward as articulated in the SFPE Research Roadmap as well as provide recent updates proposed.  

The evolution of moving picture images dates back to the late 1800s.  The last 40 years have established Vancouver as a significant movie industry centre leading the way in modern production techniques.  The production of films requires a fascinating array of skills- reflected in the latest digital technologies for the creation of computer animation. Production still requires locations or studio production which involves temporary construction of sets, actions and processes that rarely meet conventional levels of fire and life safety.

Fires in commercial cooking operations are common due to the production of combustible vapours, accumulation of fat/oil residues, over-temperature and ignition/fire spread to the building structure.

The applicable standards including NFPA 96 are designed to prevent fires and control fire spread in addition to direct extinguishment of fires.

The practical requirements to meet all the applicable standards are not always well understood and shortcoming in the installations and failure to control fires are still common.

The presentation will include:

Nicole Testa Boston C.E.O. of SFPE is visiting Vancouver as part of her mandate as CEO of SFPE's national body. Part of her work is visiting existing and new Chapters in the SFPE network. This is the first visit from a CEO since Peter Lund- then Executive Director- visited the Chapter back in the 1980s.

SFPE is reaching out to meet the burgeoning demands for international skills and expertise in fire protection engineering.