Over the past fifty years, fire safety engineering' has grown and developed into an accepted, if not fully mature, engineering discipline. This has been possible for a variety of reasons, including an ever-increasing understanding of fire safety science, continuing development of analytical methods for engineering analysis and design, technological advances in computational tools, and the global movement towards performance-based building and fire regulations. This paper reviews the current state of fire safety engineering by looking at international experiences in the development and use of performance-based fire safety design methods. It discusses the impact of increasing scientific knowledge and the evolution of performance-based fire safety design methods and regulations, and it speculates on what will be required for fire safety engineering to reach maturity as an engineering discipline.