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| Letter
from the Chairman
The
year 2005 is now with us and promises to be an exciting
one for everyone in the Fire Safety Science and Engineering
Community. The past six months has seen great activity leading
towards the 8th IAFSS Symposium in Beijing this coming September.
The organisation of the event is in the capable hands of
the China Fire Protection Association, under the direct
supervision of the Secretary General, Mr Yin Tielin. Carole
Franks and I took the opportunity to visit Beijing last
September to discuss the arrangements with Mr Yin and his
colleagues. We were shown the principal venues and facilities,
and taken to several hotels which will be available for
the delegates. Everything is now in place for a truly memorable
meeting. It is perhaps worth pointing out that of the wide
range of accommodation that is offered, that which is available
on campus is of high quality and excellent value for money.
Full details may be found in the “Invitation to Register”
brochure which will be available very shortly (it will be
possible to download it from the IAFSS and the 8th Symposium
websites). An exciting programme of events for accompanying
persons is being finalised.
As Dr
Craig Beyler reports in this Newsletter, there has been
an outstanding response to the Call for Papers. Since the
beginning of December, he has kept the Programme Committee
informed of the number of submissions. This increased from
80 to over 300 over a matter of a few days before the gate
was closed – a record number submitted for an IAFSS
symposium. This is most encouraging, showing not only that
there is great interest in this particular meeting but also
that, against the odds, fire research is alive and well
despite the funding problems that are being experienced
world-wide. Craig and his colleagues at HAI are to be congratulated
for setting the system in place which allows such large
numbers of papers to be processed quickly and efficiently.
The Session Chairs now have the responsibility of shepherding
the papers through the next stage of the process –
reviewing, which is without doubt the most important process
in ensuring a Symposium of the highest standard. I would
like to add my thanks to all those who will be devoting
their time and effort to allow us to achieve this goal.
At the
Beijing Symposium, awards will be given for the first time
to three students who have successfully defended their research
dissertations during the three year period up to 30th September
2004. There will be one award for each of the three regions
– the Americas, Europe and Africa, and Asia/Australasia.
As I write, the Awards Committee is working hard under the
chairmanship of Professor Mario Fontana to select the three
winners from a total of 17 dissertations submitted by the
research supervisors (5 from Asia/Australasia, 7 from Europe/Africa
and 5 from the Americas). This is not an easy task, and
I would like to thank all those who have been involved in
the review process for their help in this new venture –
particularly the “local” coordinators, Professor
Toshi Hirano, Professor Geoff Cox and Professor Pat Pagni.
I would
like to finish by sending you all my best wishes for a happy
and prosperous New Year. Let us take advantage of the huge
interest in the 8th Symposium by encouraging our friends
and colleagues in Fire Safety Science to take up membership
of the IAFSS. In that way, the Association would be guaranteed
a prosperous New Year as well as a long and happy future.
Dougal
Drysdale
January 2005 |
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New Address:China Fire Protection Association
Please
note that the China Fire Protection Association (organisers
of 8th IAFSS Symposium) has moved. The new contact information
is:
China
Fire Protection Association
5th FL, Fire Station, No. 19A, Huawei Xili,
Chaoyang District,
Beijing 100021, P. R. China
Tel:
+86-10-87789260
Fax: +86-10-87789267 or +86-10-87789261
E-mail (general affairs): cfpa-gjb@126.com
E-mail (for 2005 IAFSS Meeting): iafss2005@126.com or iafss2005@china-fire.com.cn |
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Over 300 papers and posters submitted to the 8th IAFSS Symposium
The
deadline for paper submissions to the 8th IAFSS Symposium
has passed and over 300 papers and posters have been sent
to reviewers for evaluation and comment. Papers were received
across the full range of fire science topics from countries
from around the globe.
This
symposium is the first to use a fully electronic web-based
submission and review process. Papers were submitted via
a dedicated website and reviewers were notified of their
duties via email. Reviewers will download their assigned
papers from the website and provide their evaluations and
comments electronically at the website. Most of the program
committee’s work in selecting papers after the reviews
are complete will occur online or via email.
This
process promises to shorten the time required for review.
All reviewers have been encouraged to complete their reviews
promptly and papers will be acted upon as quickly as possible.
This will provide authors with timely notice of action on
their papers. We plan to complete the entire review and
notification process well before the May 2005 deadline and
will be looking to accepted authors to complete their revisions
work in a timely fashion as well.
Upon
acceptance of papers and posters, authors will be provided
with comments from both the technical reviewers and from
our proceedings editorial staff, Dan Gottuk and Brian Lattimer.
Most authors have used the template provided on the website
and this has resulted in good initial formatting that will
speed publication of the proceedings. Authors will be required
to provide a disposition of comments that indicates the
author’s plan in responding to reviewer comments.
After the disposition has been approved by the track chair
who assigned the reviewers, the final camera-ready copy
will be submitted by the authors. Authors will be asked
to provide these needed documents within a scheduled period
beginning at the acceptance date. The camera-ready copy
will be used to prepare the CD that each symposium attendee
will receive at the symposium, as well as for the hard copy
symposium volume to be produce after the symposium.
Authors
and reviewers have and will spend countless hours in producing
and peer reviewing the contents of the 8th IAFSS symposium.
We thank them all for their tireless efforts that will make
the symposium a success. This symposium promises to be an
exciting and productive gathering of fire scientists and
practitioners that will move fire safety science and global
fire safety forward. We look forward to seeing all of you
in Beijing.
Craig
Beyler, Program Committee
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What is “fire”?
For
a long time I have been worried about the formal definition
of “fire” as a phenomenon (not an event). What
once appeared in ISO definitions and other international
documents as well as in British and other national standards
was or was a slight variation on “a combustion system
that emits heat, light and smoke”.
There
are now new definitions in ISO 13943 “Fire Safety
? Vocabulary” in English, French and German. The English
definitions of “fire” are now:
1) Fire
(controlled), “feu” in French and “Feuer”
in German:
“Self supporting combustion which has been deliberately
arranged to provide useful effects and which is controlled
in its extent in time and space.”
2) Fire (uncontrolled), “incendie” in French
and “Brand” in German:
“Self supporting combustion which spreads uncontrolled
in time and space.”
Combustion
is defined separately by “exothermic reaction of a
substance with an oxidizer.”
This
document is now itself being revised!
Of course
there is a sense in which those working in the field do
not nor need to bother with terminology. We know or think
we know what is meant. But definitions are sought by legal
systems so that people not in the fire field ask those that
are to provide definitions.
But
is it satisfactory to define fire in these ways? We are
an Association with “fire” and “science”
in our title so it is incumbent on us to support these definitions
or provide better ones.
There
are problems of course. An English smoker asks for “a
light” – a French one asks for “feu”.
A “bonfire” is a good fire, but what is a candle,
the flame from a Bunsen burner, a flame fed by a pressurized
fractured fuel pipe and so on?
It is
inappropriate to comment on the French and German versions
except to point out that despite the distinction drawn between
controlled and uncontrolled fire, there is not a one-to-one
correspondence between them in compounds, e.g. “fire
model”, “fire risk”, where “feu”
often appears in the French version and “Brand”
in the German.
Fire
Services use a “fire triangle” the apexes of
which are FUEL, OXYGEN & HEAT. Breaking any one of the
three connections leads to extinction. This is nearer to
what is required but there are two features missing.
There
is an ambiguity in FUEL (not defined). The combustion zone
transfers heat back to the condensed phase to produce gaseous
fuel and the air is entrained by the combustion zone: there
are no taps. I suggest something encompassing the thought
that fire includes a gaseous combustion zone which has no
taps, is self sustaining until the fuel or the oxygen runs
out or the links in the triangle are broken. Gaseous combustion
without taps is surely the core of the definition. The only
formal reference to any part of this idea was put by Morton
over 40 years ago. One great advantage of this definition
is that it separates fire from fire tests (also not defined).
So, are the words “controlled” and its opposite,
and “self sustaining” the right ones to use?
The UK fire service uses “control” for a fire
under their control before extinction. Both definitions
refer to events not phenomena.
As
an Association we cannot be indifferent to the science of
fire, so I am suggesting we point out the problem to those
bodies which do get involved in terminology and its standardisation.
This seems to me the least we can do. And if we don’t
who should?
Another
problem word is “flashover” of which there seem
to be several definitions. The fire services seem to stick
to a gas phase definition, and yet the ISO and other definitions
refer to fire spread and fuel surfaces. These are –
to me – not alternatives but different types of flashover:
the essence is “flash” and “over”
– “overhead” and “over surfaces”
are two varieties. ISO 13943 does refer to “transition”,
but it could be “slow” or “fast”.
Philip
H. Thomas
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The World Fire Statistics Centre
OBJECT
AND HISTORY
The
World Fire Statistics Centre’s main concern is to
persuade governments to reduce national fire costs.
The
Centre has been supported for many years by the Geneva Association
(the International Association for the Study of Insurance
Economics). During 1975-78 the Association sponsored a research
study at Sussex University by Tom Wilmot. His report, European
Fire Costs - the Wasteful Statistical Gap, contained a methodology
for calculating national fire costs and disclosed that fire
was costing around 1% of gross domestic product (GDP) in
many leading countries. The report suggested that there
was very little political will to reduce national fire costs.
Compared with powerful campaigns to reduce road accidents,
fire prevention was, he considered, a Cinderella.
The
Centre was formed in 1981 to carry forward the work outlined
in the report. Since then, a little progress has been made
in persuading governments to tackle fire more effectively.
Overall, however, fire prevention still remains, in the
Centre’s view, lacking the political support it deserves,
particularly in comparison with road safety.
ACTIVITIES
(a)
Statistics
The
Centre collects, and presents to a United Nations Committee
annually, fire cost statistics under seven main headings
from around twenty leading countries worldwide, mainly from
Western Europe, but also including, for example, the USA,
Japan and Canada. Since the end of the Cold War, several
Central European countries have joined the scheme, including
Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovenia. During the past
three years the scope of the Centre’s statistical
collection and analysis has expanded to include data on
fire deaths in countries of Eastern Europe and other states
that were formerly members of the Soviet Union, based on
figures published by the World Health Organization (WHO)
as part of its annual causes of death enquiry. These figures
show an appallingly high rate of fire deaths in several
East European countries.
Each
annual report from the Centre to the UN forms the basis
for a Bulletin with a worldwide circulation of over 300
to relevant government departments, fire protection associations,
fire brigades, insurance companies, fire engineers, the
trade press and academic fire experts.
These
statistics have often proved of use during national reviews
of various aspects of fire-related expenditure or organisation;
for example the Audit Commission review of the fire services
in England & Wales, a Greek study of building protection,
a Norwegian study of the incidence of large fires in industry
and a New Zealand examination of the risks of death and
injury arising from fire. In addition, the Centre's statistics
are often referred to in academic works, for example The
Economics of Fire Protection (Prof. G. Ramachandran, Routledge,
1998).
(b)
Seminars
The
Geneva Association has helped to organise periodic international
seminars, in order to enable the Centre's latest work to
be presented and discussed and to provide a forum for other
fire experts working in related fields. Over the years the
Centre has been represented at many international conferences,
eg the International Fire Symposium organised in Luxembourg
in 1984 by the EC Commission, in liaison with the European
Association of Professional Fire Brigade Officers and the
Confederation of Fire Protection Associations - Europe.
During more recent years, the Centre has attached increased
emphasis to publicising its work, both by issuing a number
of press releases and by giving a series of papers or talks
at meetings and seminars in Prague, Nottingham, Helsinki,
Oslo, Boston, Madrid, Melbourne, Hanover, Singapore, Krakow,
Vienna, Minneapolis, London and Moreton-in-Marsh (the UK
Fire Service College).
(c)
European Initiatives
The
Centre has for some considerable time been trying to interest
the EC Commission and the European Parliament in the inter-related
issues of fire protection and fire costs. For many years
these approaches achieved little success. However, a European
fire statistics seminar organised jointly with the Federation
of European Union Fire Officers Associations (FEU) in Augsburg
in June, 2000 ended with agreement on the establishment
of a core group, to which the Centre is providing the secretariat,
to develop proposals for a European fire statistics database
to meet the needs of likely users. Following the analysis
of responses to a questionnaire circulated to the core group,
a report suggesting possible initial steps towards this
objective is being finalised, with publication expected
by the end of 2004.
(d)
How Academics Can Help
If governments
are to be persuaded to lay down a national strategy for
reducing fire costs, it needs a united effort by fire experts
to point out how needless is most fire wastage and to encourage
politicians and civil servants to find ways to cut back
this vast loss. Any support given by members of IAFSS (either
individually or collectively) would be warmly welcomed.
Any
IAFSS member wishing to be put on the circulation list for
the WFS annual Bulletin should contact the Geneva Association
at www.genevaassociation.org/wfsc.htm
Tom
Wilmot and Tony Paish,
World Fire Statistics Centre
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NRCC Fire Research Program
The
National Research Council Canada’s Fire Research Program
will focus its strategic research on fire performance evaluation,
fire safety of large structures, and fire protection of
transportation systems in the next 5 years. Related strategic
project areas include:
•
Performance of Fire Detection and Suppression Systems
• Material Fire Characterization
• Fire Resistance of Structural Systems
• Development of Design Fires
• Smoke Management in the Built Environment
• Fire Risk and Human Behaviour
• Fire Performance of Houses
The
newly-launched NRC Fire Research Program website (http://irc.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/fr/index.html)
provides a detailed description of the strategic direction.
It also contains information on research publications, services,
facilities, organization and staff.
Joseph
Su,
National Research Council of Canada
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Education
in Fire Protection of Buildings – University of Coimbra,
Portugal
In October
2005, the first programme in Fire Protection of Buildings
will be introduced at the University of Coimbra. This programme
will be coordinated and developed through a partnership
between the Department of Civil Engineering at the University
(DEC/FCTUC) and the Portuguese National Laboratory of Civil
Engineering (LNEC). In this first edition, the following
courses will be offered:
- MSc
in Fire Protection of Buildings;
- Post-graduate course in Fire Protection of Buildings;
and
- Post-graduate course in Design of Building Structures.
Coordination
of the courses will be undertaken by João Paulo Correia
Rodrigues; DEC/FCTUC - jpaulocr@dec.uc.pt, and Antonio Leça
Coelho; LNEC - alcoelho@lnec.pt. Most Portuguese specialists
in the fire safety of buildings will participate as professors
in this programme. Several foreign teachers and researchers
of world merit will also participate.
Students
enrolled in the MSc in Fire Protection of Buildings will
take 12 different 30-hour modules (Fridays and Saturdays)
between October 1, 2005 and June 30, 2006, and will be expected
to complete an MSc thesis between October 1, 2006 and September
30, 2007.
Students enrolled in the Post-Graduate Course in Fire Protection
of Buildings or in the Post-Graduate Course in Design of
Building Structures will take 5 obligatory and one elective
30-hour module Saturdays between October 1, 2005 and June
30, 2006. Applicants
will be accepted between March 15 and September 15, 2005.
For more information see the web site www.dec.uc.pt (in
Portuguese and English).
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News
from University of Canterbury
The
fire engineering laboratory facilities continue to develop
at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand. In 2004,
a heated wind tunnel was completed and commissioned. The
appartus has already been used by students taking the Fire
Safety Systems course and is forming part of the project
work carried out by a Masters research student. A small-scale
furnace has also been constructed for testing structural
connections under fire conditions.
Prof.
Dave Purser will visit the University in the second half
of 2005 to teach a course in Human Behaviour. The course
will be available to Masters students and to a limited number
of outside participants. A related series of professional
short-courses is being planned.
Interaction
with the New Zealand Fire Services (NZFS) continues to be
fruitful. Several students have attended a two-day Grade
2 Breathing Apparatus (BA) course at the NZFS Woolston Fire
Training Centre. Students also attended several training
house burns organised by the NZFS for volunteer crews. Those
who had completed the Grade 2 BA course were able to take
part in some of the exercises and get some first-hand experience
of fighting structure fires.
Experimental
Crown Fires
The
Canadian Journal of Forest Research has published a special
issue (Volume 34, 2004) devoted to documentation of the
results from a series of experimental crown fires burned
in the Canadian Northwest Territories over several years.
These experiments formed the International Crown Fire Modeling
Experiment. They included measurements of the radiation
intensity received in front of advancing forest crown fires
as well as exposure of simulated residential structures,
fire protection shelters, fire protective clothing, and
other items to the severe fire environment. IAFSS members
may find this special issue to be of particular interest.
Frank
Albini, Research Prof. (retired), Mechanical and Industrial
Engineering, Montana State University, Bozeman. Residence:
114 Arrowhead Trail, Bozeman MT 59718 USA
falbini@imt.net
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Carleton
University’s First Graduates in Fire Safety Engineering
The
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering of Carleton
University (Ottawa, Canada) is pleased to announce that
Dominic Esposito and Derek Gruchy have successfully defended
their Masters Theses and received their MASc Degrees during
Fall Convocation. Esposito and Gruchy are the first graduates
working in the area of Fire Safety Engineering. Graduate
courses in this area at Carleton University started in September
of 2001, following the Establishment of the NSERC/Forintek
Industrial Research Chair in Fire Safety Engineering in
March of 2001. Esposito studied the economic impact of fires
in buildings, while Gruchy developed a computer model to
predict occupant evacuation during fire emergencies in buildings.
Both Esposito and Gruchy worked under the supervision of
Professor Hadjisophocleous, who holds the Industrial Research
Chair in Fire Safety Engineering. Both research projects
are part of the Chair’s Research Program aiming at
developing a Comprehensive Fire Risk Analysis Computer Model
to evaluate fire safety designs of buildings.
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9th
International Fire and Materials Conference
The
Fire and Materials 2005, the 9th International Conference
in this series, will be held January 31 to February 1, 2005
in San Francisco, USA. Fire and Materials is a major international
forum on fire performance of materials, composites and products.
The programme and full details are now available on Interscience
Communications website with the facility for delegates to
register online at:
http://www.intercomm.dial.pipex.com/html/events/fm05index.htm
The conference will feature parallel sessions on the second
day to accommodate a Fire Investigation Seminar. Papers
on Fire Causes, Investigation Techniques and Case Studies
will be featured as an alternative to the two sessions on
Materials Fire Testing for Regulatory Compliance and Predictive
Methods.
The
Fire Safety in Transportation session features key papers
on fire safety issues in aircraft, railway, automobile and
marine applications. Fire and Materials 2005 promises to
be a comprehensively international event with speakers from
the world's leading industrial, national and specialist
research laboratories, academic institutions and regulatory
bodies. Speakers from NIST (US), NRCC (Canada), SP (Sweden),
SWRI and FM Global (US), LNE (France), Federal Aviation
Administration and the US Navy will be joined by speakers
from Australia, Belgium, Korea, Sweden and the UK.
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Fire Safe Use of Timber in Construction Seminar
A Fire
Safe Use of Timber in Construction Seminar, “Building
Confidence in Timber” will be held May 24-26, 2005
in Wellington, New Zealand. The purpose of the seminar is
to familiarise regulators and other experts in fire safety
and construction in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation
(APEC) region with approaches to managing risks that do
not impede the use, and therefore, trade in wood products
unnecessarily. For more information see www.branz.co.nz
(APEC Fire Seminar).
10th International Fire Protection Symposium 2005 “Methods
of Fire Safety Engineering”
The
10th International Fire Protection Symposium 2005 “Methods
of Fire Safety Engineering” (10-IBS) will be held
June 6 – 7, 2005 in MESSE Hannover, Germany. The symposium,
organized by the German Fire Protection Associations (vfdb)
together with Braunschweig University of Technology deals
with “Methods of Fire Safety Engineering” from
a national and an international point of view. While German
experts explain concepts and the main contents of the new
vfdb Guidelines on Fire Safety Engineering, international
scientists and code writers will give important background
information or insight into similar guidelines and experiences
in their countries. For more information please see http://www.10-ibs.de/
1st
International PhD Workshop on Fire Protection Science and
Engineering
The
1st International PhD Workshop on Fire Protection Science
and Engineering (PhDfire1) will be held June 8, 2005 in
MESSE Hannover, Germany. This workshop will enhance the
scientific interchange among young researchers in the field
of fire protection science and engineering, and provide
a forum for PhD candidates and their tutors to present and
discuss their work and results. For more information and
call for papers please see http://www.phdfire1.de/
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4th
International Conference on Advances in Steel Structures
The
4th International Conference on Advances in Steel Structures
(ICASS’05) will be held June 13-15, 2005 in Shanghai,
China. The previous three conferences were held in Hong
Kong with great success in 1996, 1999 and 2002. As with
the previous conferences, this conference is intended to
provide a forum for discussion and dissemination of recent
achievements by researchers, designers, product providers,
fabricators and erectors in analysis, behaviour, design
and construction of steel, aluminium and composite steel-concrete
structures. For more information see:
http://www.cse.polyu.edu.hk/seminar/conf/icass05.pdf
8th International Symposium on Fire
Safety Science
The
8th International Symposium on Fire Safety Science will
be held September 18-23, 2005 in Beijing, China at Tsinghua
University. It will be co-hosted by the China Fire Protection
Association, the University of Science and Technology of
China, and Tsinghua University. The arrangement committee
chair is Prof. Fan.
Tsinghua
University is one of the premier universities in China.
The campus is situated in northwest Beijing on several former
royal gardens of the Qing Dynasty and is surrounded by historical
sites in northwest Beijing. With a splendid legacy accumulated
over the past 90 years, Tsinghua has retained its character
and charm while promoting rigorous scholarship and research
that ensure academic and educational prestige in China and
abroad.
Further
information on the Symposium can be found by going to www.iafss.org
and clicking on the 8th Symposium button.
Call
for Papers: 4th Mediterranean Combustion Symposium
The
4th Mediterranean Combustion Symposium will be held October
6 – 10, 2005 in Lisbon, Portugal. The symposium is
the fourth in a series on combustion and related topics
held by the scientific communities around the Mediterranean.
All topics in the combustion field are pertinent to this
Symposium, including papers addressing fire-safety and explosion
engineering. Authors are asked to submit full papers by
June 15, 2005. Instructions for submitting a paper can be
found at http://www.combustioninstitute.it . Notification
of acceptance will be made by July 30, 2005. Further information
concerning the Symposium is available from Federico Beretta
at beretta@irc.cnr.it.
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