The Society of Fire Protection Engineers (SFPE) has announced the release of a new engineering guide: SFPE Guide to Fire Risk Assessment, 2nd edition.
The document aims to provide guidance to qualified practitioners in developing, selecting, and using fire risk assessment methodologies for the design, construction, and operation of buildings, facilities, or processes. It is also said to address fire risk acceptability, the role of fire risk assessment and fire risk management in the fire safety design process, and associated communication/monitoring of fire risk.
The guide includes a ‘new flow chart’ that outlines the risk-assessment process, along with new information related to:
- Risk perception
- F-N curves
- Risk communication
- Residual risk management
- Risk monitoring
- Sensitivity analysis
“Understanding the topic of fire risk assessment is essential to gaining insight into and characterizing fire-related risks to better inform the wide range of decisions that should be made concerning a building, facility, or process as part of the design, construction, or operation,” stated Chris Jelenewicz, PE, FSFPE, Chief Engineer, Society of Fire Protection Engineers. “As a result, implementing a fire risk assessment can lead to a safer, more efficient, and more cost-effective design — especially for fire engineers implementing a performance-based strategy, as it explicitly addresses unique aspects or uses.”
For more information on the new SFPE Guide to Fire Risk Assessment, 2nd edition and how to purchase, visit the SFPE website.
New President for SFPE
Jimmy Jönsson, FSFPE, has been named the SFPE new President for 2023
In other news, Jimmy Jönsson, FSFPE, has been named the Society of Fire Protection Engineers new President for 2023. Bob Libby, PE, FSFPE, has also been elected its President-Elect.
Jönsson is Director of JVVA Fire & Risk in Madrid, Spain. Jönsson has been an SFPE member for 20 years, has served as the first president of the SFPE Spain Chapter, was the first elected president of the group that became SFPE Europe, and currently serves as Editor of the SFPE EUROPE magazine and as an Officer on the SFPE Board of Directors. He holds a BSc in Fire Protection Engineering and an MSc in Risk Management & Safety Engineering – both from Lund University in Sweden. Jönsson is currently serving as the Program Committee Chair of both the SFPE European Conference & Expo on Fire Safety Engineering scheduled for March 2023 in Berlin, Germany, and the SFPE Annual Conference & Expo scheduled for October 2023 in Washington D.C./Bethesda, MD, USA.
Libby is Senior Vice President and Principal of Fire Protection Engineering at Coffman Engineers, where he has extensive experience in the specification, bid, award, installation, management, testing, and acceptance of fire protection systems in commercial buildings. He has been an SFPE member for 40 years and active in several SFPE chapters over those years. Amanda Kimball, PE, FSFPE, has been re-elected to another year as Secretary-Treasurer, and Shaun Kelly, PEng, CEng, MIEI, PMSFPE, has been re-elected to another term on the SFPE Board of Directors. John Frank, PE, FSFPE, and Fang Li, PE, FSFPE, have been elected to join the SFPE Board of Directors.
Both began their terms on January 1, 2023.
Evolving opportunities, same challenges - Learnings from FIREX International 2022
This eBook provides a summary of several key debates and presentations that took place at FIREX International 2022 in May, alongside some additional exclusive content for readers.
We cover topics ranging from the issue of single staircases in high risk and multi-occupied buildings, through to the role the Internet of Things (IoT) is playing in the fire safety industry at present. There are also chapters on how BIM can support fire safety standards, the role of the digital golden thread, smoke control in high-rise residential buildings an insight into a new guidance note for fire alarms from the FIA.
Hi Jimmy straight to work – a quick question will the fact that evs produce a 40 % greater fire load and much quicker and easily ignite adjacent evs mean that charging points being retrofitted in german ug carpark 150 space that 1 spaces should be wider – less of them 2 sprinkler system revised – upgraded to reflect the greater fire load 3 building fire cert to be revised i ask as this is happening in my brothers block as we write and i really would appreciate some educated feedback on this please and here you thought the job… Read more »
Hi Jimmy on a second issue the weight of evs in a parking structure must now be considered some evs weigh 2x that of petrol equivalent – the batteries in the large suvs are now nearing 8 foot by 4 foot when you add the depth you can see where the weight comes from – they ar huge and likley to get bigger for the aspect of range