The education of fire protection engineers in British Columbia, in Canada and internationally is an increasing challenge.
In BC the Masters programme in fire protection engineering at UBC had a major impact internationally but closed in 1997 due to lack of mainstream funding.
The UBC symposium programme managed to deliver leading edge courses including Fire Science and Fire Investigation that contributed to the emergence of leading companies in forensic analysis of fires.
The development of new fire products often aligns with existing test standards. When this occurs it is relatively easy- with the right advice- to qualify the product and obtain a listing on successful completion of the testing process. While it should be relatively easy to align products for successful testing this is often not the case and even routine testing can be unsuccessful due to a variety of factors including temperature on the day of the test.
Nigel Hastings has extensive experience as a ship’s engineer on merchant and passenger vessels, as well as a professional consultant inspecting vessels on behalf of both Lloyds Register and the International Classification Society. Nigel will present an overview of ship and passenger safety illustrated by slides of fires on ships and the regulatory outcomes of fires.
Life Safety Systems, Fire Department Intervention, and Residential Fire Outcomes: Analysis of 28 Years of BC Fire Incident Reports: 1988-2015
Fire Chief Len Garis of the City of Surrey will present the findings of his extensive report on residential fires. The report looks at both fire causes and takes into account the impact of fire suppression and other strategies on fire statistics including the relative size of losses.
Emergency ventilation in rapid transit stations presents interesting design challenges to fire protection engineers due to the wide range of station design characteristics and complexity of the analysis that is conducted. Requirements governing the design of these systems are addressed by various codes and standards, such as NFPA 130, and through this regulatory framework the performance of the system is required to be evaluated using engineering analysis.
