"We do not come out and engage as early as possible in national and international debates in which fire has an important part to play"

I recently was pleased to be invited to give a presentation at the Institution of Fire Engineers conference in London, the title of which was Fire Engineering to Improve Sustainability of Communities. Several things stick in my mind about the conference.

Firstly as ever, the passion from the fire community for their profession and its impact in driving down fire deaths and property losses. But if we as a profession have a weakness, then I think in many cases, it is based on our mistaken assumption that this passion is shared by all and sundry. In view of this, we do not overtly come out and engage as early as possible in national and international debates in which fire has an important part to play.

The sustainability debate seems to illustrate this. Take, for example, the following government documents and their references to fire:

2007 White paper Planning for a Sustainable Future – no mention of fire.

Code for Sustainable Homes – one mention of fire and that deals with the impact of many things including fire on the ecological features of a construction site

Strategy for Sustainable Construction – one mention of fire and that’s to do with the use of Design Quality Indicators for the construction of fire stations!

Zero Carbon for New Non-Domestic Buildings – again not one mention of fire!

Following the conference I’m sure that fire’s profile in the ‘sustainability’ debate will be raised in a more structured way, and the FIA looks forward to being involved in this elevation.

The only disappointing thing about the conference was that there was a malicious false fire alarm when a call point was set off on the third floor of the hotel, leading to a complete evacuation and the arrival of several fire appliances.

“I don’t, however, give any credence to the suggestion that someone who was listening to my presentation on fire and sustainability arranged for the alarm to sound, with the hope of bringing an end to the torture being inflicted on himself and the rest of the audience.”
 

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