New Zealand Chapter of the Society of Fire Protection Engineers
President’s Message This year’s FireNZ conference has a great lineup of speakers with 5 international keynote speakers on the program along with a host of talented local speakers. The very successful SFPEx slot for emerging professionals has been renamed FireNZx to accommodate speakers from the three hosting organisations. I hope you have time to attend the conference and make the most of the educational and networking opportunities. The term of my presidency comes to an end during the FireNZ Conference when we have our AGM. I will be handing the reins over to Daryn Glasgow our current Vice President. Daryn has been on the executive committee for several years and I am confident he will carry the SFPE torch high during his time as President. Thanks also goes to Keryn Goble who has filled the position as Vice President for most of my presidency and who now steps down to pursue some larger career opportunities.
Michael James President SFPE (NZ Chapter)
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Issue 18
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September 2019
When I started as a fire engineer over 20 years ago the role was limited to writing fire reports that demonstrated that the general building layout complied with the Building Code via an acceptable or an alternative solution. There was little consideration given to what the building was being constructed from or whether any of the other consultant’s design documents reflected the fire report requirements. Construction monitoring was almost unheard of unless there was a smoke control system that needed to be checked. I think Fire Engineering is now coming of age and taking an active interest in all aspects of building fire safety from the design, through to material and system selections, documentation on other consultant’s documents and monitoring of construction. This is reflected in the SFPE International tag line “Engineering a Fire Safe World”. As part of SFPE’s submission to MBIE on the occupational licensing of fire engineers we examined the ability of a licensed fire engineer to control the fire safety outcome of building design and construction. We had to acknowledge that the largest chunk of fire safety work is the detailed design, documentation and construction which is carried out by others. These ‘others’ which are outside the fire sector are generally not trained in fire safety and this can lead to poor design and construction outcomes. In my opinion poor design and construction is largely a result of poor training rather than any intent to do a bad job. The remedy seems to be a robust framework of accountability along with adequate training. SFPE along with the IFE and FPA have been working diligently to plug the training gaps within the fire sector. It can seem like a daunting task, however, slowly but surely; we are plugging the gaps. From SFPE’s perspective Fire Engineers need to have a core Body of Knowledge (BoK) to build their careers upon. SFPE International has defined these
New Zealand core competencies from a global perspective and in New Zealand under the leadership of Immediate Past President Geoff Merryweather we have now published a BoK which takes the core competencies and puts them in a New Zealand context. In addition, this year the executive committee under the guidance of Tony Parkes has been focusing on developing a training program that builds on the core skills learned in the fire engineering post graduate degree program. The program is being designed to provide the additional skills necessary to successfully practice as a fire engineer. The construction industry is facing an aging workforce and we have been combating this with careers presentations to Waikato, Auckland and Massey universities. We have also set up an Emerging Professionals’ group to foster young engineers which is led by Raymond Qui. Raymond has been working with Engineering New Zealand to deliver a national mentoring program which will form the model for other engineering disciplines to follow. One of the emerging professionals committee members and past Tauranga area representative Priya Parag has recently been awarded the prestigious 5 under 35 award by SFPE International in recognition of her leadership skills and contribution to the industry. In March 2020 SFPE will be hosting the 13th International Conference on Performance Based Codes and Fire Safety Design Methods in Auckland. This will bring another raft of high quality international speakers to our shores. Martin Feeney is Co-Chair of this event. Over the last two years it has been a very rewarding experience working with our executive team and engaging with the FPA and IFE on joint activities. I wish all the best to our new president Daryn Glasgow and the FPA President Chris Mak and IFE president Ed Claridge.
