Risk Assessment and the Design of Fire Safety Systems in Buildings

Abstract

In 1989, a research project entitled, “Fire Safety and Engineering” was conducted at the Warren Centre for Advanced Engineering, the University of Sydney, and involved 70 leading researchers and engineers from around Australia. It was found that fire safety and protection facilities constructed in accordance with current Australian regulatory requirements are a significant component of the cost of many buildings in this country. The project team concluded that with the development of systematic approaches to building fire safety and protection design, based on risk assessment models and fire-engineering design techniques, substantial cost savings can be made while achieving satisfactory levels of life safety. There is an urgent need for a greater understanding by designers and regulatory officials of fire phenomena, human behavior, and fire engineering techniques.

Identifying the attributes of a profession in the practice and regulation of fire safety engineering

“…According to Beck in the first Warren Centre project into Fire Safety Engineering [19]; and to Meacham in collaboration with the SFPE [42], a performance-based regulatory environment comprises three components:…”

“…Another example of regulatory changes in Fire Safety Engineering that have contributed to the development of the practice without developing the profession is the first Warren Centre project on Fire Safety Engineering in Australia which reported in the late 1980's [19]. This project paved the way for the Fire Code Reform Centre work in 1994, and informed the first performance-based building code for fire safety in Australia that was introduced in the late 1990's [20].…”