Society of Fire Protection Engineers sponsors Building Safety Month

by Featured NewsSafety


The Society of Fire Protection Engineers (SFPE) has announced its sponsorship of Building Safety Month, a worldwide campaign presented by the International Code Council aimed at promoting building safety.

Taking place in May 2023, the campaign raises awareness of the need to ensure safety in the buildings in which we live, work, and learn, making the connection between building codes and personal safety, and highlighting the important work of building safety professionals in communities worldwide.

From SFPE’s fire protection engineering standards, to the annual SFPE P.E. exam review course, to countless technical articles, handbooks, education programs, and more, SFPE ensures that fire protection engineers have the knowledge to advance building safety and engineer a fire-safe world.

“SFPE’s global community of members, chapters, and fire protection engineers works to continuously advance the scientific understanding and engineering principles of fire,” said Kevin Mlutkowski, CAE, Director of Community Engagement, Marketing, and Communications at SFPE. “This month during Building Safety Month, SFPE is proud to partner with the International Code Council in showcasing the roles, competencies, and life-saving work of fire protection engineers.”

To learn more about Building Safety Month, search #BuildingSafetyMonth2023 #BuildingSafety365 or visit www.iccsafe.org. To learn more about SFPE and the Society’s programs to engineer a fire-safe world, visit www.sfpe.org.

About SFPE

Engineering a fire-safe world since 1950. Headquartered near Washington, DC, and in Brussels, BE, the Society of Fire Protection Engineers is the world’s leading professional society for fire protection and fire safety engineering.

SFPE publishes report on environmental health impacts of fire suppression

by Featured NewsFire Suppression

The SFPE Foundation has announced the conclusion of its research project and the publication of a report on the environmental and health impacts of fire and fire-suppression activities during large-scale fire events.

Led by Jamie L. McAllister, P.E., Ph.D., Brendan McCarrick, P.E., Zelda Q. Zhao, and Curtis Fagan, the primary objective of this research project was to characterise the environmental and health impacts of wildland and structural, large-scale fire events.

The work included a literature review of large-scale fire incidents, identification of current large-scale incident impact monitoring capabilities, identification of standards and industry best practices for quantification of large-scale incident impacts, and a gap analysis.

The findings have been published in the free report titled “Environmental and Health Impacts of Fire and Fire-Suppression Activities During Large-Scale Fire Events“,

On March 16, 2023, the SFPE Foundation is hosting a webinar to review findings of the research, the gap analysis, and future work recommendations. Learn more and sign up at sfpe.org.

Leslie Marshall, Ph.D., Director, SFPE Foundation said: “This research provides foundational insight while highlighting the need for the fire engineering community to align research efforts and collaborate with a diverse array of stakeholders to advance our understanding of the impacts of fire and fire suppression activities during large-scale events.

“The SFPE Foundation remains committed to advancing the science of resilience, sustainability, and fires in the wildland-urban interface, as prioritized in the SFPE Research Roadmap.”

SFPE releases Guide to Fire Risk Assessment 2nd Edition

by Featured NewsSafety

The Society of Fire Protection Engineers has announced the release of a new engineering guide: SFPE Guide to Fire Risk Assessment, 2nd edition.

The new edition of the guide provides guidance to qualified practitioners in developing, selecting, and using fire risk assessment methodologies for the design, construction, and operation of buildings, facilities, or processes.

The guide also addresses 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 and sensitivity analysis

Chris Jelenewicz, PE, FSFPE, Chief Engineer, Society of Fire Protection Engineers, commented: “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.

“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.”

The 160-page guide is available in various formats from SFPE. Institutional licensing options are available to academic, government, and corporate entities from SFPE.

Society of Fire Protection Engineers announces newest fellows

by Featured NewsPeople

The Society of Fire Protection Engineers (SFPE), the professional society for fire protection and fire safety engineering, has announced its newest class of Fellows and 2022 award recipients. 

Fellow membership represents the highest professional honor of SFPE and is given to individuals who have amassed significant accomplishments and stature in fire protection engineering.  SFPE members elevated to the status of Fellow in 2022 are:

  • Warren D. Bonisch, PE, FSFPE; Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates
  • Dale C. Hansen, PE, FSFPE; Harrington Group
  • Gavin Horn, PhD, FSFPE; UL Fire Safety Research Institute
  • Peter L. Senez, PEng, FSFPE; Senez Consulting
  • Victoria B. Valentine, PE, FSFPE; American Fire Sprinkler Association
  • Steven D. Wolin, PE, FSFPE; The Reliable Automatic Sprinkler Co.

The SFPE also announced its “5 Under 35” recipients for 2022. Those named represent the industry’s top rising leaders who give back to both the fire protection engineering profession and the community.  The 2022 recipients are:

  • Spence R. Carter, PE; Idaho National Laboratory
  • William A. Clay, PE; Burns & McDonnell
  • Jessica L. Doermann; ARUP
  • Ruggiero Lovreglio, PhD; Massey University
  • Yu Wang, PhD; The State Key Laboratory of Fire Science, China University of Science and Technology

Finally, SFPE is announced nine award recipients:

  • Daniel L. Arnold, PE, FSFPE; Seneca Fire Engineering – recipient of the SFPE John J. Ahern President’s Award
  • Brian W. Ballweg, PE; Hays Company – recipient of the SFPE Hats Off Award
  • Sean S. Donohue, PE, PEng, FSFPE; Jensen Hughes – recipient of the SFPE Harold E. Nelson Service Award
  • Jeffrey L. Harrington, PE, FSFPE; Harrington Group (ret.) – recipient of the SFPE Rolf H. Jensen Award for Outstanding Committee Service
  • Robert Jönsson; Prof. em., FSFPE; SWECO – recipient of the SFPE David A. Lucht Lamp of Knowledge Award
  • Gary Lewis; City of Summit, New Jersey – recipient of the SFPE Fire Protection Person of the Year Award
  • Guo-Qiang Li, PhD; Tongji University – recipient of the SFPE John L. Bryan Mentoring Award
  • Jack Poole, PE, FSFPE; Poole Fire Protection – recipient of the SFPE D. Peter Lund Award
  • Stanis Yu, UL Solutions – recipient of the SFPE Hats Off Award

Commenting on this year’s round of appointments and awards, icole Boston, CAE, Chief Executive Officer, Society of Fire Protection Engineers, said: “Our global community waits in anticipation each year for the announcement of who will be elevated to the status of SFPE Fellow, and – as the most prestigious professional honor bestowed by the Society – Warren, Dale, Gavin, Peter, Victoria, and Steven are most deserving of this highest distinction.

“While our community has many, many talented engineering professionals, these six new Fellows and 14 award recipients represent some of the brightest, most involved, and most impactful engineering professionals.”

The awards will be presented by Beth Tubbs, President, SFPE, during the SFPE Annual Conference & Expo in Detroit, MI, USA, on October 12-14, 2022.

Two join Society of Fire Protection Engineers board of directors

by Featured NewsPeople

The Society of Fire Protection Engineers (SFPE), the professional society for fire protection and fire safety engineering, has announced that Robert McNamee, PhD [right], and Wojciech Węgrzyński, PhD [left], have joined the SFPE Europe Board of Directors.

McNamee and Węgrzyński were elected at the SFPE Europe General Assembly Meeting in London, UK, on 16 May 2022. They join David Grossmann, Chair; Kees Both, Immediate Past Chair; and Beth Tubbs, SFPE 2022 President, on the SFPE Europe Board of Directors.

Under the expanded leadership, SFPE Europe plans to increase its collaboration with SFPE chapters, to represent the voice of the fire safety engineer on European technical committees, to explore additional programs and partnerships, and to better meet the needs of engineers throughout Europe.

Headquartered in Brussels, Belgium, members of SFPE Europe include the Society’s 20 European chapters in Albania, Austria, Benelux, Cyprus, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Israel, Italy, Malta, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Serbia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and United Kingdom, plus five student chapters at the Main School of Fire Service, Coimbra University, International Master of Science in Fire Safety Engineering, Imperial College/Greater London, and the University of Edinburgh.