This lecture will take a look back at the origins of fire engineering; describe its development as it matures into an engineering profession; introduce the Institution of Fire Engineers; and then consider some of the contemporary competence questions that are critically important for fire safety professionals.
Lecture Abstract:
As an engineering discipline within the UK, fire engineering is still relatively young, and it has been accepted as an alternative means of meeting the functional requirements of the Building Regulations since the publication the 1985 edition of Approved Document B. A critical review of the birth of fire engineering and its growth to the present day has established the successes of the discipline as well as some short comings and more significant concerns. This lecture will describe the origins of fire engineering as a professional engineering discipline within the United Kingdom. It aims to understand the motivations of Government, the construction industry and the engineering profession at the time leading up to the acceptance of fire engineering as a valid contribution to the UK Building Regulations process. It also aims to establish whether the skills and data required in order to practice fire engineering were available at inception, and whether the situation is different today, and to establish whether fire engineering has lived up to the expectation at conception. The tragic events that occurred at Grenfell Tower in west London in June 2017 and the subsequent Public Inquiry have revealed the shocking truth about competence, or rather the lack of it, right across the construction sector. The second part of this lecture will explore what competence means for the fire safety professional, and the wider built environment; and looks at how that competence can be demonstrated to others in order to restore public confidence in what we do.
Speaker Biography:
Dr Peter Wilkinson CEng FIFireE CSci MIScT HonFIStructE FNEIMME
Peter is an experienced fire engineer, whose time is an interesting mixture of conducting fire engineering assignments and fire risk assessments for a wide variety of clients, as well as helping to develop the fire engineering profession through the Institution of Fire Engineers, CROSS, and BSI standards development work. He is a Chartered Engineer, a Chartered Scientist and a Registered Fire Risk Assessor, and holds an Engineering Doctorate where he investigated resilient fire engineering building design. As well as being a Trustee Director and Immediate Past President at the Institution of Fire Engineers, he is a Designated Person for Collaborative Reporting for Safer Structures (CROSS), a trusted provider of free safety information, helping built environment professionals to make structures safer; he chairs the British Standards Technical Committee FSH/24, developing and codifying fire safety engineering practices such as the BS7974 suite; and he is a Visiting Professor at the School of Architecture, Building and Civil Engineering at Loughborough University, helping to inject fire safety know how into architecture and built-environment student curricula..
Schedule:
18.00 – Start of Livestream
18.00 – Welcome and Start of Lecture
18.50 – Question and Answer session
19:00 – Summary and end of session
19.30 – End of stream
Note on Q&A session:
If you wish to ask a question through YouTube please post your question, as clearly and concisely as possible, in the live chat. We will monitor the chat and relay questions to the speaker during the session.
About the Institute:
The Mining Institute is the Royal Chartered membership organisation for science and technology in the North. Founded in 1852 by some of the most important contemporary Northern scientists and engineers, our members still actively contribute to academia, industry and public life across the region.
To find out more about us visit: https://mininginstitute.org.uk
To support the Institute by becoming a member see: https://mininginstitute.org.uk/membership/
Well good evening everyone thank you very much for coming along on what does look as though it’s a little bit of a wet evening out there against what we’ve been promised a little bit of sunshine today but nevertheless we didn’t get it but thank you very much for coming along
If we can just have a few little announcements could you please remember to uh to sign the book and the log as you uh as you come in or as you go out uh because it does give us a little bit of enumeration from3 um could you also be aware of
Where the fire escape is and just follow the signs if if the worst happens follow the signs and uh that’ll lead you to safety um so uh we haven’t got a president welcome tonight but I’ll Stand in and do whatever welcome I can um and
We’ll look at what we had at the last meeting uh which was um a hydrogeologist hydrogeologist Joseph Cherry uh giving us a talk on the hydrogeology of ground Source drinking water which was well attended um there were quite a number of questions there too um and there weren’t many apologies for absence Brian
Pickering and Stuart pouse whereas tonight we have a few apologies again I don’t think Stuarts made it Stuart pouse has made it he said he may do but uh that’s Paul Kelly also give us apologies and Dr mcnali and it looks like Andrew is also going to be an apology tonight Brian
Pickering I’ll make a note of that Brian Pickering I haven’t had an apology myself although it may have come through the the president who uh who hasn’t informed us of anything at the moment so uh it may come later or later in the evening I don’t know um nonetheless um
Let’s see where were we yes uh the minutes of the last meeting uh as we say which was the uh hydrog geology of ground Source drinking water uh has everyone uh seen the the the minutes for that one and if they have could you please uh give me your your vote and say
Yeah thank you very much uh seconded By anyone okay Derek thank you um I’ll make a note of that too right thank you very much well just you know a few promotional little ideas here uh that we uh we must remember remember that uh we are very very
Closely allied with the3 so I’d like to you know make sure you’re all fully aware that it would be very sensible if you want to advance your uh your careers any further that uh you do join in through I3 because they have so much
More to offer in a lot of the Spheres of uh of operations these days so we’ll go for that um the other thing is uh we can uh now move on uh to the U the presentation for tonight which is going to be Dr Peter Wilkinson uh who is the
Past president of the Institute of fire engineers and he’s going to give us a talk on fire engineering an introduction to the profession and practice now I just go back through my notes uh right uh Peter is a chared engineer a chartered scientist and a registered fire risk assessor with a
Passion for helping organizations understand and manage physical risks within the buildings they design own occupy ensure or regulate he is the founder and director of an independent fire and risk engineering practice providing a wide range of high integrity costeffective services to both established buildings and newb built
Projects Peter is also a director and Trust of the institution of fire engineers at the if the International Organization for fire professionals helping to promote the profession and register Professional Engineers with the engineering Council receiving an engineering doctorate for investigations in the resilient fire Engineering Building design Peter has published numerous
Journal and Conference papers as well as having authorized sorry authored guidance documents for the profession Peter would be a strong addition to any solution team whether leading complex fire engineering projects risk engineering surveys or fire risk assessment um so there uh I’m not going to go any further with
Describing exactly what Peter’s going to talk about because I’ll leave it to him and he’d be much much better at it than I have so can I introduce you to Peter [Applause] Wilkinson fantastic thank you very much um it’s great to have the opportunity to uh present to you today and I’m really
Grateful for the uh the invitation from the mining Institute to hold this joint institutional lecture um I’m going to talk to you today um I’m going to bit take a bit of a look back into the origins of of fire engineering as a profession I’m going to describe its development uh as it
Matures into an engineering profession I’m going to introduce the institution of fire Engineers to you and then consider some of those contemporary competence questions that are critically important to fire safety professionals and unfortunately the tragic events that occurred at grenfell Tower in June 2017 and the subsequent public inquiry have revealed the
Shocking truth about competence or rather the lack of it right across the construction sector so this lecture will explore what competence means for the fire safety professional and The Wider built environment and we’ll also look at how that competence can be demonstrated to others in order to restore public confidence in what we
Do but first first we need a definition I’m sorry technical man but not those apologies to those watching online yes I’ll cut this out on the this is why the YouTube’s edited yeah this is your drive no maybe it’s that one yes right so that that’s it just
Brilliant thank you very much right sorry so I left us hanging on that we need a definition so what is fire engineering well the institution of fire Engineers has a good definition and you’d expect that we’re an institution full of fire engineers and it’s a broad subject area
So it’s the application of scientific and engineering principles rules and expert judgment based on an understanding of the phenomena and the effects of fire and the reaction and behavior of people to fire to protect people property and the environment from the destructive effects of fire okay this is another definition it’s
Probably better it’s more comprehensive and it makes sense so it’s that that same bit at the beginning but um you know we uh fire engineering that um measurement that quantification of stuff um is that bottom bullet point the evaluate analytically the optimum protective and preventative measures necessary to limit within prescribed
Levels the consequences of fire that that really gets to the heart of the the the the engineering principles um there is another definition and I actually I prefer this one because it’s really simple uh use of engineering principles for the achievement of fire safety so the kind of fire engineering I’m talking about
Today is that is is a performance-based way of meeting functional requirements that are set out in National Building regulations and in the UK those functional requirements come from various bits of legislation we have the building act we have the sustainable and secure buildings act and most recently coming into Force completely next April
2024 is the the building safety act um particularly for higher risk buildings but the purposes of these regulations are listed here you know we’ve got health safety welfare of people in and around buildings the legislation clearly has a life safety Focus interestingly you’ll notice that um protection of property or
Protection of business is not really me mentioned in these purposes um well unless you argue that preventing buildings from burning down helps with sustainability that’s probably a valid argument so we’ll we’ll just if we TR and remember that that legislation is trying to um um quite
Rightly is is is convincing us that fire safety is about life safety um but what about that little bit extra we’ll come on to that later and those functional requirements for fire safety in building design are set out in building regulations I just happen to have the building regulations
Of England and Wales here and building standards in Scotland and they’re really quite simple goals such as these that are listed in schedule one requirements for for fire safety it’s not always been this way though statutory fire safety provision in the UK has evolved slowly over many centuries and it’s largely been driven
By Major disasters in the 20th century experiences of fires during the second world war um were incorporated into the post-war building studies on fire grading of buildings and these were seen as Landmark documents of their day influencing the technical content of subsequent building regulations and by the time further amendments were made in
1976 so that book on the right the regulation comprised 307 pages and they were highly prescriptive these traditional prescriptive building regulation systems had procedures to over oversee departures from a standard solution but these seem to be cumbersome in nature so in England and Wales um such regul such
Relaxations were at one time only granted by central government and that was seen as as quite a cumbersome and and difficult system so where has performance-based engineering come from well it’s been born out of the need for it so as a result of large and Rapid increase in Innovative and diversified
Building design including the expansion of air travel in the early 1970s prescriptive regulations became demonstrably restrictive and inflexible so by way of example air travel required airports to start handling large numbers of people people who were unfamiliar with their building but they needed to be handled in a pleasant and efficient way designs
Based on prescriptive standards of the time simply couldn’t cope with this new design requirement so some engineers and scientists saw the possibility of applying scientific research directly to the design of individual buildings and these were discussed at the time of the design of stanstead airport and that’s what in the photo AO
Um designed by fire engineer Margaret law who is sadly no longer with us so one important issue relating to this airport design was the need for large compartment volumes not permitted under building regulations without obtaining that relaxation so Margaret law collected a range of data from experiments and surveys and fire statistics to
Demonstrate or to illustrate how various measures could compensate for that lack of fire resisting construction which is known as compartmentation she created this this cabin concept where um um smoke control is is is devised underneath this um quite interesting roof design and the commitment of the government of the day to deregulation
And to reduce the burden on industry phrases we we hear quite a lot LED in 1985 to the produ to the introduction of new functional building regulations so 1985 these set out the requirements for fire safety and buildings in functional statements very simple statements that we’ve already
Touched on and designers were now free to provide any solution that could be shown to the satisfaction of the enforcing authority to fulfill these functional requirements and this timing coincided with the design and the construction of the first Towers at Canary WARF in this photo here and why whilst formal recognition
And acceptance of the use of fire engineering had been given in England and Wales within that 1985 Edition um of the regulations and accompanying approved document B there was no guidance given on how to um um use those principles so pressure for guidance and a structure for the application of fire
Engineering to the designer buildings came from designers and an initiative by British standard institution to provide a code of practice was begun in 1989 a format and a list of list of contents was presented to BSI and by the end of 1990 a small panel of fire safety Engineers was formed to
Undertake a three-year contract administered by BSI which would culminate in a code of practice giving the framework for fire engineering design in buildings the panel first met in 1991 and the draft code of practice was published as draft development DD 240 in 1997 six years that’s not bad for
BSI now dd240 was described at the time as being the most important document produced in the UK in support of the use of these more fundamental approaches to to fire safety design and it provided the designer and the regulatory enforcement authorities with an overview of what was considered to be necessary
It was structured into subsystems and importantly it indicated that there were still gaps in knowledge and much still had to be achieved by engineering judgment since that publication dd240 um the uh group within the British standards institution FSH 24 is a technical committee they remain responsible for the development of
Standards of fire Engineering in buildings and that committee draws representatives from a wide range of stakeholder organizations as well as research bodies and and teaching and practicing fire Engineers so fs24 is the National Committee for fire engineering and it mirrors much of the work that goes on in ISO committees around the
World and FSH 24 have been responsible for developing from that draft for development dd240 the standard BS 7974 this document was first published in 2001 it’s supported by eight published documents and each contain detailed guidance on different aspects of fire engineering from background information to quantitative risk assessment
And a framework for the application of fire engineering um is provided in the standard and it’s really the essence of it is defined here and this flowchart is what you see in in the the the start of the of the U the document and essentially it
Comprises you can boil it down to three three stages that’s a qualitative design review that’s where the scope and the object jectives of the fire safety design are defined that tend to be drawn from the architectural requirements and and and the functionality of the building um the performance criteria are
Are established and acceptance criteria are set so that QDR is a really important part of the process then the next bit is the quantitative analysis so that’s where engineering methods you know hard sums maths computational fluid dynamics that kind of thing go on to to evaluate potential Solutions then the important bit is
Assessing that those those outputs against criteria um and uh that’s the results of the quantitative analysis are then compared against the acceptance criteria to work out whether the the the solution is is is safe or otherwise and that quantitative part is divided into a number of separate parts
Or subsystems each can be used in isol ation or they they could be used in combination and that’s sort of represented on this difficult to read and unnecessarily complicated diagram which you see above um but uh that that shows how these different subsystems uh work together the work of FSH 24 is
Continuous I go on about FSH 24 quite a bit because I I chair it so it’s it’s it’s um um I’m quite close to how things get developed there the last part was written in from scratch was in 2012 that was pd8 which is an interesting document because that describes a way of
Introducing those property protection and Mission continuity objectives that we talked about at the beginning that that that are difficult to uh difficult to find sometimes so it’s an an invaluable tool that um um really is is used in discussions between Architects and their clients about um what they
What they should be paying for up front getting resilience in the design and then as part of bsi’s five-year review cycle it was decided um in 2016 that it was about time we uh we revised the documents um so we got panel of volunteers experts together and that
Revision process began and after a period of hard work through a draft that was published for public comment the current standard was launched in 2019 I’ll just quickly tell you what’s different from the the previous version so the British standard itself has completely been Rewritten it now incorporates those recommendations that
Were previously in PR pd8 that’s why that’s shaded out now PD n has been withdrawn because it was largely um duplicated and pd4 has been withdrawn because it provided guidance on fire detection and activation of fire protection systems but that guidance is is that that you can find it elsewhere
In in different standards um pd5 was amended rather than fundamentally revised and it was amended to reflect changes in practice and advancements in knowledge but importantly it was it was amended to um incorporate some of those emerging lessons that were were coming from the greld tower public inquiry from
Phase one findings now we know that more findings are going to come when the public inquiry um um findings are are released next year so um there there’ll be some more to do there and that’s where we are today um and I can tell you’ve done the
Maths and you know there’s a fiveyear cycle and it was 2019 and that’s right next year we’re going to have to start that process again so I think it’s generally agreed that traditional prescriptive design techniques um have their place but they can um be a be a barrier or a stunt for
For Innovation and creativity and they’re impossible to apply sensibly to particular buildings with special functions such as entertainment V venues high-rise developments Sports stadia airports I mean fire safety engineering has really freed up building design it’s facilitated it whilst because we’ve got that standardization process in BS 7974 the process has provided suitable
Levels of safety when carried out properly and fire engineering was originally the pioneering method of enabling the design of of buildings such as airports and enclosed shopping centers but such buildings are now commonplace the New Frontier for fire engineering includes the design of very tall buildings such as those using lifts
For Rapid evacuation of occupants and another area where fire engineering is beginning to impact concerns the sustainable construction agenda helping to address that balance between protection of the environment and and prudent use of Natural Resources now despite these successes research has revealed that concerns exist surrounding the use of fire
Engineering principles and these include questions as to whether fire engineering design Community has the knowledge data and tools required to fully undertake these advanced analyses furthermore motivations for using fire engineering are sometimes being questioned numerous examples are being documented where Architects I probably should say and other building designers are seen to be
Sort of trying to buy their way out of problems that they’ve created through poor design by using complex technology and inappropriate fire engineering arguments perhaps one article I read describes this as performance Justified engineering and warns that fire engineering constitutes a significant threat to the credibility of it as a design
Tool and similarly there are concerns over the fire safety objectives used to compile a fire strategy it’s common practice for projects to concentrate solely on Life Safety because that’s that bit that’s mandated by the building regulations and it can have a detrimental effect on property business protection when compared with
Prescriptive Solutions and I’ll talk about an example of that later so it’s widely accepted that the profession has matured from its uh origins in the mid 80s to a situation today where it’s emerged as a recognized separate engineering discipline fire engineering is becoming more accepted in the UK and
A change has been seen in the types of buildings that fire engineering is applied to recognizing that it’s frequently applied to more mundane projects there sometimes feel feels as though there’s a proliferation of designs for buildings which don’t comply with prescriptive codes that have been labeled as fire engineering because it
Enables them to put be put forward um with an argument uh as to why they don’t need to comply um and it’s important that we use fire engineering correctly for the right reasons and for the right project fire engineering has been able to use be used more widely because the tools that
Are available are now more sophisticated that’s another indication of a maturing discipline um if you think about computing power needed to do cfd simulations and things like that um um that’s come on Leaps and Bounds now so we can we can do more iterations of designs on on desktop computers where it
Might have taken several computers was in a in a in a in a in a different room running overnight um in some instances before and I know we’ve got a wide variety of professionals here um fortunately most from perhaps the materials and Mining sector um but I’m
Going to venture into a bit of controversy now um and I’m going to tell you a bit about some research I carried out a few years ago and the results that were published um it was a really interesting piece of research and it involved me asking interviewees about
The perception of the roles of other stakeholders that are involved in fire engineering analysis of their responses shows that interviewers had more critical comments to make about their fellow professionals um so uh this is why I I tread carefully at this point um the four stakeholder groups that attracted most criticism criticism were
Architects um regulations enforcers sometimes known as building control um insurers and practitioners fire Engineers themselves so over the next few slides I’m gon to there’s a selection of sound B bites it’s not the whole story so don’t shoot me I’m just the messenger um so whilst the input
From academics is widely valued by um um their fellow professionals it was felt that they’re often disconnected or removed from The Real World this was felt both in terms of teaching and research as their industrial EXP experiences perceived to be limited uh and they struggle to keep up with a speed of
Change the worker building designers was described as mostly well-intentioned however they did receive quite a bit of criticism from other interviewees for not understanding fire safety issues and not understanding how to use fire Engineers um there was a issue reported of Architects losing skills that was
Raised a few times um as well as many interviewees criticizing what they consider to be inadequate fire safety related training in architectural degrees end users so people who um uh um commission new buildings um or use the buildings um and users their their criticism can be
Summed up as a lack of Engagement when the building is is designed and falling short of their responsibilities during the operation phase it was stated that often end users don’t even know that they’re in a fire engineered building because of the lack of information that’s transferred to them um through the construction company
To the client enforcers so there were some encouraging comments made about um um competency and actions of enforcements both building control and and Fire Authority based but there were some critical statement made as well as well um there were many criticisms about the skill base within building control um
Don’t know what to look for don’t know how to challenge um um there was an agreement that enforcers need to be trained as well as if not better than the engineers in order to work in this performance-based environment bit of a conundrum there practitioners of fire engineering um those Consultants uh they received
Some criticism from their stakeholder colleagues comments range from criticizing their perceived intentions to their working practices and the commercial pressures that um practitioners often work under this sounds a bit depressing doesn’t it insurers received a similar level of criticism um um they’ve got an important role to play in building
Design they’re important stakeholder they have a financial um stake in in the success of the design but their pull levels of knowledge and understanding um really precludes any meaningful interaction um manufacturers and installers of of the building products that support Fire strategies sort of enable fire engineering they’re needed and they’re
Welcomed but one practitioner described them as creating an Armory of measures that you can deploy in designs but it became clear that people have also experienced manufacturers who disregard fire safety when they’re developing their Building Products um and onite on-site installation workmanship is is an issue that’s uh identified um quite quite um
Uh commonly quite critically there’s criticism leveled at the lack of supervision and checking on site as well right I think we can um brush over that one for now um so and institutions and trade bodies are seen as vital within the fire Engineering Process they the groups who
Translate Research into practice um you know even the if received some criticism it was thought they could do more to promote good practice regulate its membership things like that and I’m I’m pleased to think that since I did this research great strides have been made and continue to be made particularly following grenfell
Tower fire and the review of building regulations and fire safety that was carried out by DNE Judith hackit um she really Amplified all aspects that that were highlighted in this that this research revealed uh and and much support has been given to um um um tackle some of these issues and and and
Make the the environment that we we uh work in as fire Engineers better so thinking about tomorrow and and thinking about um how fire engineering can be whether our future building design challenges are squiggly or or straight um whether they’re even floating whether our challenges are for
Our buildings are green or or even golden um really fire engineering uses established methodologies such as that outlined in BS 7974 as a key process for facilitating such design freedoms whilst giving a robust methodology to ensure adequate levels of safety and resilience provided now I’m checking the time and I
Know I’m okay because I’m now going to explore the thorny issue of competence for the fire engineer and I’m going to be a bit selfish because I’m quite interested in in in the history and and and how our institution developed and how the profession started so I’m going to take
A quick look back at some of the discussions that we had about competence in the past so I’m going to revisit some of those light bulb moments because because it’s very interesting to see that there’s nothing new in this people have been saying it for a long time and we just seem to
Forget so I’m going to begin with some wise words from one of the pioneers of of fire engineering and I’ve already mentioned her because she was influential in the design of stanstead airport and this is Margaret law and Professor law began her career as a scientist at the um the fire research
Station and she carried out Research into many aspects of fire behavior and its effects on building materials and structures and she became involved in the application of these research results into building regulations into code of practice and into design guides and she joined Arup to act as an
Adviser on fire engineering for those projects that they were designing now Margaret’s scientific work and her fire engineering work continues to be very influential she believed profoundly in what she termed measurement and that’s a belief that that drove her work was always founded on Quantified scientific criteria and always rigorously derived
So I just want to spend a few moments reflecting on Margaret’s thoughts when she was answering a question what is a fire engineer in 1990 in a conference paper because her answer is interesting she boils it down to six characteristics so she says whatever their speciality Engineers have a c have
Certain assumption and background knowledge in common they can discuss Concepts across the frontiers of their speciality the concept of flow for example whether it’s water down a pipe people down a corridor electrical charges and so on these can be discussed directly or by analogy with ease physical and mechanical behavior of
Materials and structures can be understood and discussed in a broad way Engineers by their Education and Training have these Concepts built into into them and discuss matters accordingly so here Margaret is discussing she’s describing fundamental engineering education as a prerequisite measurement and quantification are fundamental to any
Proper engineering design she says it is sad that so many people are reluctant to measure things presumably this might cast doubt on whe on on what they know to be right because fire danger and the effects of fire can generate Deep Emotions the proposal to reduce such
Matters to cold numbers seems to be callous and not a proper response to the imponderable forces of nature yet decisions have to be made she goes on so my second Point therefore is that a fire engineer must understand how to measure and quantify fire phenomena and fire safety so Margaret’s emphasizing that
Fire Engineers must be able to apply those those prerequisite engineering principles to the fire phenomena and that quantification is an important way of making comparisons and making decisions she says fire engineering is an important component of most activities and no one person could hope to be an expert across the
Board nevertheless the fire engineer should have an awareness of the various aspects and an ability to identify potential problem areas and where to go to find the answer so I think this is quite self-explanatory she’s saying fire engineering is a broad subject area as fire Engineers we must be as aware of
Much of it as we can but recognize that we’re not expert in all of it experience as well as academic training is recognized as an essential part of engineering training and is just as important for fire Engineers she says so obvious isn’t it the fire engineer should have the
Opportunity to gain practical experience the next one she says over the career of a fire engineer there will be many changes in technology lifestyle knowledge which need to be recognized and understood for many aspects of fire safety there is not yet the basis of engineering design approach or enough
Accumulated practice on which a Code Practice can be based therefore it’s particularly important that the fire engineer keeps ahead of the latest research and developments that’s CPD isn’t it that’s what she’s describing finally she said the fire engineer needs a certain toughness and I’m referring to intellectual
Toughness by this I mean the engineer must be able to be tested and challenged and deal with matters in a rigorous analytical and above all honest way the fire engineer must be tough enough to stand up to a good deal of questioning and in turn be able to push other people
In the same way justify what you are saying if you want to be taken seriously so with this lecture Margaret spells out what she sees as being the important attributes of a fire engineer and I think we can all recognize she’s talking about competence competent is knowledge experience and
Behaviors she finishes off that lecture by saying what makes this list different from other aspects of of engineering nothing only that with fire safety engineering we’ve got to spell it out it’s not yet taken for granted so I think it’s worth having a look back to 1990 that was priceless so
I’m going to swiftly move on to some principles um and when I talk principles I want to highlight principles that were set out in in the work of mostin bulock Neil Butterworth and Adam Monahan back in 2004 they developed a series of Articles which we published in our
Journal um and if you have access to institution journals then I’d seriously recommend having a look at these articles because they were born out of the work that of the institution of fire Engineers special interest group on competency and ethics and in that first paper the development of Competency in fire
Engineering um mostin and Adam describe how and when the institution of fire Engineers gained its engineering Council license and began registration activities in 1997 so this is the engineering council’s mission statement and it refers twice to competence and that’s that’s no accident so the paper reads the timing was right design and
Construction in the built environment was in a period of significant change and relative well-being many large scale projects were underway or in the pipeline where design requirements demanded significant freedoms from hitherto closely prescriptive approaches the fire engineering profession flourished and prospered in this environment the time when fire engineering was principally the reserve
Of academics and science scientists and insurance surveyance had passed the rigorous process process carried out by professional engineering institutions are designed to deliver the demanded standard of Competency registered fire Engineers are bound to work under the code of conduct of both the if as a condition of membership and of the
Engineering Council as a condition of registration so who can argue with a sense of that um it would therefore seem obvious to expect practicing fire Engineers are competent well wouldn’t it the paper continues the profession can do all it can to produce fire Engineers to the highest caliber but the domain in
Which these Engineers operate presents serious challenges to competent and ethical practice that just can’t be ignored this domain isn’t just about the technical nuts and bolts of fire rather it is those aspects of professional conduct which relate more to ethical practice in fire engineering and project management so they’re seeing that it’s
It’s very difficult working in this um sphere because there are lots of competing pressures on the professional and lots of commercial pressures as well um it’s also crucial to recognize the thing that sets fire engineering apart from the majority of other engineering disciplines in the built environment is
That fire is an accidental loading condition I.E there’s a significant probabilistic aspect to its application whereas other areas of design such as structural acoustic or thermal performance are all normal day-to-day service conditions so we’ve got to be honest with ourselves and acknowledge that this can lead to an apathetic
Approach to fire safety you know fingers crossed it won’t happen to us kind of thing or the perceived need to engage a competent fire safety professional being given second billing in comparison comparison to more pressing concerns so that was in that paper and it’s gripping stuff it’s all so relevant it’s relevant today
I’ve gone and done that problem again of fiddling with the mouse and it’s I think I’ve I think I’ve I think I’ve sorted it thank you so an Neil presented a a summary of this work in a conference um his presentation he talked about the engineering council’s UK spec
Objective about ethics um it’s a statement of ethical principles sets a standard to which members of the engineering profession should aspire in their working habits and relationships it it talks about values um on on which they should be based and Neil highlighted fundamental principles that run through four pillars
Of that statement and these are the four pillars accuracy and rigor honesty and integrity respect for Life law in the public good and responsible leadership so what Neil was doing was setting out ethical Behavior as an integral part of competence and essential in achieving competent fire engineering and I’m
Pleased to say that that set the foundations um for strengthening the if’s code of conduct for members and registrants and we formed a whistleblowing policy and guidance um and the establishment of an Ethics Committee I’m also pleased that um building on this I’ve just realized that these
Slides aren’t going on going forward on the screen sorry it yes it’s around here yeah think so is going to present some interesting editing for you yes yes thank you yeah yeah sorry again it’s it’s not changing the notes on the bottom it’s just what’s on the
Screen so that slide is not associated with that yeah so let’s change that but not that again so now that’s changing that but it’s not changing that if I click that yeah so it goes on but not to that unun to as you say have to edit this
We’re going to have to see Donald Trump again aren’t we yes skip Open quickly I think you’re close to it there yes fantastic sorry about that thank you very much yes so we’ve just been through the these four pillars um and I was just saying how this led to
The enhancement of if’s whistleblowing policy and and uh uh establishment of an Ethics Committee and um the engineering Council and the Royal Academy of engineering um um built on their statement of ethical principles that was established in 2019 um the group published a report called you can read it and engineering
Ethics maintaining society’s trust in the engineering profession um it it proposes actions and appropriate regulation to achieve more ethical culture in UK’s engineering profession um it reminds us of the inevitability that there are tensions between profitability sustainability and safety that Engineers seek to be aware of and and and need to
Balance um and there have been some important questions posed in recent years and social media has Amplified that public scrutiny um the report cites this report cites the work of Dame Judith hackit who who did her carried out her review of the building regulations and fire safety following
The grenfell tower tragedy and she highlighted that there was a cultural issue across the construction sector which can be described as a race to the bottom caused either through ignorance indifference or because the system does not facilitate good practice this is my final person I want
To talk about who who giv us some important information about competence Dr Angus law he’s a lecturer in fire safety engineering at the University of Edinburgh and he he’s he’s a member of if and he was asked to chair a meeting on competence in June 2018 by the
Industry Response Group which was set up following the grenfell tower fire uh I love a good quotation and I’m just quot confucious real knowledge is to know the extent of one’s ignorance and he also cited work by uh Krueger and Dunning from 1999 are you confident because you
Have knowledge or are you confident because you have no knowledge and the purpose of this aside was to make the point that one of the most important aspects of competence is assessment of self-competence but also there’s an inherent difficulty in that because the lack of competence can give an illusion
Of competence and often those with the least competence consider themselves most competent um bit of a conundrum but Angus introduced the concepts of specific competence common competence and and interdependencies so specific competence so particular professions will have specific competencies that only that profession can have and only that profession can
Assess for example specific fire engineering skills common competencies are those across professions and professional ethics sort of sit in that that um um type then there are inter interdependencies so competencies required of one profession by another profession and he also said that a professional institution by definition
Should have a monopoly on a given activity for example a fire engineer can only be assessed by a fire engineer and his work work this work was summarized in a report that was submitted to Dame Judith as part of her review uh and set out three principles
Which was the Kickstart I’m not going to read these principles course core set of principle and expectation and an assessment um that was a Kickstart for work which has led to another BSI document I’m going to tell you about which is called Flex 8670 and um this is core criteria for
Building safety in competence framework um it’s a code of practice it was published in April uh 2021 and it was created in response to findings from um the hackit review which highlighted a fragmented approach and a lack of consistency in the processes and standards for assuring competence of
Those working on buildings as a major flaw in the current system so Flex 8670 provides a core set of principles of competence including leading and managing safety communic ating safety delivering safety risk management regulations processes Building Systems ethics and Fire and Life Safety whatever the professional um whatever the
Profession everyone should have an understanding of some aspects of Fire and Life Safety so what’s the common theme with Margaret law the principles outlined so well by mostin Adam and Neil and the work from Angus law and the Royal Academy Academy of engineerings work and flex
8670 well I see it as this amongst other things being competent is a combination of acquiring knowledge and practicing experience and we now know living by appropriate behaviors and I think as an institution and as a profession we’ve known this for some time um and for me
The important element of this is the behavioral aspect um I think it’s about taking personal responsibility I think competence is something that you um it isn’t something you can expect your professional body to do to you you’ve got to live it you’ve got to show it and importantly if you’re acting as a
Professional you got to be able to demonstrate it I’m conscious of time but um I’ve had a few interruptions can I carry on um so I’m pleased in response to a another proposal from Dane Judith hackit in her independent review um the engineering Council has developed and has now published a
Version of their UK standard for professional engineering competence and commitment UK spec as we know it contextualized for higher risk buildings those types of buildings that type of building that that that grandel Tower was and um ukpc hrb is a new standard from the engineering Council that sets out competences and commitments expected
Of Engineers and technicians who work in the built environment sector in particular on higher risk buildings so it’s been contextualized for engineers and technicians um who are involved in building work including design construction maintenance and operation it incorporates that core criteria from that Flex document I was talking about
And sets out um um sets it out in a way so that Pei professional engineering institutions can assess their registrant against this and the institution of fire Engineers is um licensed to register Professional Engineers against the fire discipline Annex of this doc UK spec hrb and we’ll be launching that in the new
Year um so I’ve been mentioning the institution of fire Engineers but um what is the institution of fire Engineers who who are we well we were we were founded in 1918 in a fire station in Leicester by six Chief Fire officers in a time when medals and and and chiny helmets was was
Uh um impressive mustaches was a thing and and in more than a century since um we’ve grown into a truly Global organization uniting all fire professionals our members share a commitment um um about to to to to fire safety and the fire profession uh remains valued uh and relevant
Protecting people property and the environment from fire and these are the objects that were set out in our founding memorandum of Association um back in 19 18 um so we’re founded to promote encourage and improve the science and practice of fire Extinction fire prevention and fire engineering and all operations and
Expedience connected there with to give an Impulse to ideas likely to be useful in connection with or in relation to such science and practice to the member of the in um to the member of the institution and to the community at large so just as relevant today um we have members representing the
Whole spectrum of the fire sector um I’ve said we’re a professional engineering institution so we’re licensed by the engineering Council to uh register chartered Engineers Incorporated Engineers or engineering technicians and we offer we operate a UK based fire risk risk assessor register um and there are some statistics here 11,000 members worldwide
Lots of branches lots of EX lots of registrants I’m on the home stretch now um so why is what we do still relevant um here’s the obligatory photo that precedes most Building Safety presentations these days I appreciate it’s now six and a half years ago um but
We can all reflect that June 2017 in West London there was a tragic fire that claimed the lives of of 72 people in their homes um since then there’s been uh numerous reviews we’ve talked about them um most notably from D Judith hackit there’s been a um public inquiry
That’s still in process um not yet fully concluded and reported and then criminal investigations will follow as well as a whole lot of soul searching um but fire is still using its destructive force let’s just think about the last six months the end of August this year 74 people died following a
Fire in Johannesburg South Africa so dozens more were injured in a blaze that happened in a five-story building in Marshall Town Johannesburg um the building had been abandoned at one stage um and then people had been living in it it’s an aging building um located in a deprived area it used
Used to be the business district in in in in johannesburg’s economic H Hub it was being used as an informal settlement and this area is Infamous for what’s called hijacked buildings that’s a term used in South Africa to refer to buildings that have been illegally taken over by unscrupulous landlords who Ren
Rent them out so there were shack-like structures were um constructed inside this this building um and there was a gate that was locked and many of the Dead were found um um trapped against this gate now this is an extreme case of inappropriate change of use and I’m not
Suggesting that as designers and Engineers we can be mitigating for all kinds of things like hijack building scenario but it’s an interesting event that really we need to be aware of and think about I feel um fire swept through a a Christian wedding party in Northern Iraq back
Towards the end of September this year it killed 107 people um so fire ripped through alame Hall it’s a large event venue located on the outskirts of a Northern Town caracos um and fireworks were lit inside the building as the bride and groom danced so the head of the investigative
Committee General s fah said that four pyrotechnic devices shot Showers of spar box 4 M into the air and this was the distance that allowed them to reach the hall ceiling ultimately leading to the fire it was also said that the hall had a capacity of 500 people and twice that
Number were in the building when the blaze started in October the 1 of October this year a fire broke out this is closer to home in in a building hosting three night clubs in Mercia in Spain three people were killed and and 24 injured um um the deadliest nightclub fire in Spain
Since 1990 now the building was split into three different venues um and the the fire broke out in on the first floor and the Fonda magros club and then it spread to the adjoining tataa and then golden Knight clubs um so authorities attributed the rapid spread of Fire to the air conditioning
System which served all three buildings and um also the fire was so uh intense that there was some um substantial structural damage um so 13 people reported to have died in the fire 24 injured at least four of them hospitalized for smoke inhalation so why are these events
Important the one in Iraq and the one in Spain well they clearly combine issues of building management along with regulation but there are design Engineers uh design issues worthy of note the provision of Escape Routes um understanding the anticipated numbers of people who are going to inhabit the buildings um consideration of materials
Used for internal Linings separation of buildings uh protection of Building Services that go through them I think I’ve done it again you know but we’re very close now yeah fantastic thank you very much I’ll only Touch This I’m not going leave out next thank
You so if I do that no yes that us right so this is a little different but 2023 was an incredible year for wildfires particularly in PL parts of the world that are not used to suffering them um during July this year multiple Wildfire started in Greece that resulted in at
Least 28 deaths um with over 80 wildfires recorded in that one country thank you so this is a little different um no so in in in Canada almost 25,000 people were evacuated from their homes due to wildfires apologies gentlemen ladies I will run by half an hour on a talk
So still oh I’ve got plenty of time then BR thank you thank you almost 25,000 people evacuated from their homes due to wildfires in Canada um more than 10 million acres of land became involved the country’s worst Wildfire season ever and the wildfires in Canada this June caused huge air
Pollution problems in New York Washington and and Philadelphia so why are these worthy of note well there there are areas in the world that are car categorized at Wildfire prone um such as many areas in Australia um they call the bushfires and Architects and Engineers are well aware
Of how Urban Planning and Building design has to be mindful and prepared for this um in that um that Wildland Urban interface but these wildfires are happening in different places now and I think as responsible design as and Engineers it might be necessary for us to start to remember those lessons that
Have been learned in other parts of the world may be worthy of closer inspection um um in in in in areas that are less familiar with it for example here’s a particularly Swanky version of a bush fire resilient house in Australia that’s designed specifically to uh resist uh um
Um wildfires um progressing over it um probably a bit extreme for the UK but let’s not forget um wildfires are occurring more frequently even in the UK um this may um the largest was the largest recorded in the UK Scottish fire and rescue service said Flames had
Burned through a 30 square mile area of scrub um and a 12 mile plume of smoke from the incident was detected from space by NASA satellites so they’re coming to the UK now this is closer to my home in South leester um an industrial premises suffered a large fire back in June um
That smoke could be seen from miles away and this is what was left um that All That Remains is for the site to be demolished and the company itself had a good Disaster Recovery plan with alternative sites in different areas of the country but the fire has led to the
Closure of a site in leester and it will result in job losses and it reminds me of a fire closer to where we are today um if you remember in 2019 the findus factory in in Long Benton you remember it don’t you um you remember road signs used to say welcome
To North tside home of the crispy pancake well that’s that just reflects how important the factory was to the local economy and the community the factory didn’t reopen um let’s end with another cker in October there was this fire in a car park at luten airport um started about
900 p.m. on uh Tuesday the 10th of October next extinguished by 9:30 the next day but the airport was closed until 300 p.m. so that’s that’s 18 hours the airport was closed so the consequential losses of closing an airport for 18 hours run into hundreds of millions um the fire appeared to have
Been accidental began in a parked car a diesel vehicle and the fire caused part of it this recently finished multo car park to collapse at the peak of the fire bedf fire rescue service had 15 fire engines there three specialist aerial appliances more than 100 firefighters um this is what was left
Um the airport said any cars parked on levels ground to three are not recoverable um now and the airport the the car park has to be fully demolished now this means that the airport won’t will be without their main car park for a considerable amount of time while this
Is demolished the site cleared and something built in its place and why am I telling you this well we were talking about fire safety objectives and we understand that life safety objectives were met this fire illustrates that some firefighters sustained some um smoke damage um um but um no lives were lost
In this fire but we’re not thinking about resilience here are we um this fire perhaps illustrates a bit of shortsightedness not thinking about about that um not installing sprinker protection um and and and uh the the the result could be very different and another frustration is as an industry we
Know about this this was the Liverpool Echo Arena fire that happened in December 2017 very similar well publicized it happened before the loten airport car park was even conceived um so Architects and other principal designers they’re ideally placed to help their clients make the right choice when
It comes to investing in resilience and and we all have a duty to remember and learn from from things from from learning from the past okay apologies for the technical interruptions uh I know we’ve covered a lot in this lecture um we’ve taken a look at the the origins of fire
Engineering uh describe its development uh how it became standardized in in a code of practice have in roduced the um institution of fire Engineers to you and we’ve considered some of those competence questions that are critically important as well as consider some fires that have just happened over the last
Six months um I hope it’s been of interest and I also hope it’s perhaps the start of an ongoing relationship between the mining Institute and the if because um it would be great um for us to come together more often especially those of our members that are based in
The Northeast so um thank you again and um happy to take any questions [Applause] well thank you very much indeed Peter I I I hope you’ll take this as a compliment but I can see the way that you’re working on the Institute of fire Engineers was very much the way we had
To start in 1852 with the Institute of in mining uh we had the same sort of problems we had to learn from what was happening which you are continuing to do in a very very modern environment so for that I thank you very much indeed right do we have any questions right Norman
Jackson thank you for that talk very very interesting indeed one thing that concerns me is is highrise buildings and and you mentioned that uh the first thing that happens if you do have a fire they tell you not to go to the lift mhm now in a 30 or 40 story building if
You’re an old person there is no effective we out I understand the design which compart I bizes it where the FR shouldn’t spread but inevitably it does and uh it’s just my thoughts and when I go to hotel now I never go above the fourth floor I I always tell them I
Wouldn’t go any higher right because that’s the length of most Lads um so really just your coments on that these buildings are getting taller and taller what is the the second beans of erress well thank you for coming in with with a with a really interesting question which lots of questions in
Involved in that um so for Ultra tall buildings there there are um there are several around the world where you do actually use the lifts in an evacuation situation so the lifts are um protected they have alternative means of power they have um um adequate separation physical fire separation from different
Parts of the building to enable them to be used uh in evacuation um but the interesting thing about that is um changing the mindset of building users because it’s as you say it’s always been drilled into us when the alarm goes off do not use the lifts um um so there are
Some special types of buildings where lifts can be used um and you also mentioned that um it’s also quite a political um politically loaded question you asked about having alternative means of Escape or a second staircase within buildings now um um if you’re in a um a highrise building that has been designed
Specifically for such as a a block of flats um that the the the tried and tested strategy for that may only require one staircase um because the the fire strategy the fire principles are that um you would remain within your own apartment or your own flat that that is
The safest place to be and it’s it’s it’s it’s a fact that there were um dozens of fires at grenfell Tower before it was reclad um and they were all dealt with within the flat of origin or within the even in within the room of origin and other people within
The block of flats didn’t even need to know about it um the what went wrong there was a a catalog of things um um and uh the probably the most prominent one was the the cladding on the outside but um um yes you you may have you may have
Um seen that um um there is a a new requirement for new um um highrise residential buildings to have a second staircase Incorporated within their design um but I say that’s probably a a sociopolitical kind of motivation to have that um that it might not be um um
Um um the the the um the technical or science argument behind it but um in in in some situations having a second stair cases is absolutely the right thing to do um difficult to retrofit them to to to buildings that have only got one stair case and it probably wouldn’t be
Um um sensible in those situations so uh I think um clever people in government I think people in government are are working on some transitional arrangements for for for how that that um new leg legislation might come in and apply to to existing buildings as well yeah that was a CER thank
You David grer Sunderland uh thank you for the talk very interesting um just a when I was a child I lived on on a housing estate a counseling estate and it’s quite regular to have chimney fires because everyone had a cold fire um yes you had if you were sensible you had
Your chimy scrap often needed to be but some people actually well can’t afford to to pay for the uh Chimney Sweep I just let the the fire go and burn all the Su sort thing out of the uh the chimney it’s a risky strategy that one good practice but
Sorry but Norman touched on I I was going to jump in uh talk about highrise building I’ve recently been to Dubai and the called bir Lea is that Spire goes up into the air tallest building in the world um you said that I would hope that the lifts in that building are fireproof
So people who live on the top can get out do you know anything about that I don’t know anything about that design itself but it could also have a strategy where um you know every 10th floor is designated as a as a a safe floor that
If you have at to a particular place within the building um so a place of relative safety rather than ultimate safety outside of the building and that that’s been designed so that it is protected that it could be resistant for a long period of time so you you get to
That you make your way to that place and then further evacuation can take place over a longer time period um if necessary um but yeah interesting that you’re talking about chimney fires um it’s I find it fascinating um sometimes I I go and um and visit fire and rescue
Service um colleagues and and it’s interesting how their training has to develop now and they have to they have to train um on simulators for putting out chimney fires because they’re now so infrequent um that they don’t see them every day so they’re unusual things to
Have to deal with and same with chip pan fires because we just don’t we don’t Fry chips in chip pans these days and um uh yeah so yeah thank you for reminding that do we have any other questions from the floor let’s say no Dave uh have we got
Anything online no it appears not well there we are um you answer saided those questions very very well Peter thank you very very much indeed brilliant um so now we’re in the situation could I call on H Mr Norman Jackson please to give a vote of thanks
This ins where mining Engineers the word fire is a horrendous thing in in our book and indeed over the centuries we’ve been learning to manage fire in a different way uh we have had so much Innovation starting with the changing from candles to the flame F safety lump
Right away through all all the gambits that have that have been developed within our Engineers there’s an engineer sitting not far from me who one of the things was which was were feared was was methane explosions and of course that that the design of that was designed out
To reduce the risk by injecting water to right to the pick point where the cool was being cut so that we’ve gone through huge changes in in in in mining industry to manage the risks from fire because when you’re looking at particularly in the Northeast where the mine workings
Were sometimes 10 miles out underneath the sea you had to be very very competent competency with the engineers that were designing the mines make sure that we didn’t have more than 2% of methan in the air flow the all of these were were had to be properly managed and
Designed and I think the this institute would of course welcome further cooperation between the Institute of fire engineers and ourselves there’s a lot in common I’m sure each each person could learn from the other but thank you again for giving up your time of traveling up here to give us this talk
Thank you I would like the members and those president present to show their appreciation in the normal [Applause] manner well there we are thank you very much once again just uh may I give a few closing remarks um some of which uh to remind you of course to sign on the
Registers um the next one would be uh let’s have a look um where are we yes that more or less to remind you that uh we are having another lecture in in January uh the 18th which will be the uh the launching event for uh Les turn B’s
Next book The Willington Railway which is quite an interesting one because uh he’s more or less telling us more uh about Railways before 1825 uh when we thought the Stockton and Darlington Railway and the rest of the world thinks of Stockton and Darlington Railway was to be all an end all of
Everything when in fact uh with les turnbull’s research we are going to find out that there were people quite a few years before that who were uh very very competent and doing you know a major job in developing Railways in the Northeast so that would be on January the 18th uh
On February the 15th we have a joint lecture with the Institute of corrosion and we have uh spoken with them or we’ve had lectures from them before uh incidentally there was one thing you were talking about you know uh with in fire fire safety and such like we did
Have a lecture some while ago about um protect protection Coatings for steel and such like which I think we all found very interesting too and you know it just shows so much is going going ahead with this sort of thing and it’s developing very very fast I think so
There we are um so thank you very very much for coming along please remember that uh if you want to support uh The Institute the3 please go ahead all the details are there and remember if you want to become a member of uh the north of England Institute for Mining and mechanical
Engineers to do so we have all the documentation available online on our website which is uh which were worth a look anyway because there’s a lot of detail on uh on that website that I’m sure you’ll all enjoy so once again thank you very much for coming along
This evening and thank you very much for everybody who’s on zoom and uh we’ve all enjoyed our evening very very much thank you Peter