A successful Institution of fire engineers (IFE) 2008 annual conference ”Assessing fire and life safety in complex buildings” took place at the Marriott Hotel Enfield on the 23 rd of October 2008. It was well supported by business, architects, engineers, local authorities, government bodies, public service and fire service. A fire safety exhibition allowed delegates to acquaint themselves with the extensive range of fire related products available. A key note address was presented by Mr. Michael Kitt Minister of state at the Department of the Environment.
Dr Jim Marsden (Assistant divisional Fire officer, Manchester) stressed the importance of designing for fire safety showing the advantages of fire engineered solutions where the normal codes might be unduly restrictive or unsuitable. A video was shown of the Manchester fire service undertaking successful cold smoke validation tests of ventilated corridors in a tall residential building.
Paul Richardson (International President of the IFE & Deputy Chief Fire officer Lancashire) discussed fire service difficulties with fire fighting in complex buildings. Brendan Kavanagh (Senior Fire Prevention officer at Dublin Airport) presented a thought provoking paper “ The fire safety case for an International Airport”. He reviewed the lessons learned from disastrous fires at Düsseldorf Airport, the Kings Cross underground station and the Piper Alpha oil rig. The case for building managers ensuring that their premises are designed and managed to prevent or reduce the impact of fire was made. The goal is to reduce risk of death or injury to building occupants and to ensure that the premise/ business can survive a fire.
Shane Hogan, senior standards officer, National Disabilities Authority (NDA) reviewed the problems disabled people have in gaining access to or attempting to escape buildings and how such risks can be ameliorated. The publication “Promoting safe egress and evacuation for people with disabilities” available from the NDA gives practical advice for facility managers, owners and designers.,
Michael Slattery, Fire Engineer, brought delegates through the principles of fire engineering with case studies on how buildings could be made safer while being more economical to build than traditional code compliant buildings.
Conference papers are available from the conference secretary. The IFE can be contacted at www.ife.ie
Article Contributor Profile.
Peter Bluett Dip(Arch)., BSc.Arch., MSc.(Fire Eng) MRIAI, MI(Fire)E is current President of the Institution of Fire Engineers. He is Director of Bluett & O’Donoghue Architects Kilkenny & Dublin. He has a special interest in Fire Safety Architecture.
