FIRE ENGINEERING - A SPECIALISED FIELD

Fire Engineering is the application of scientific and engineering principles, rules, codes, and expert judgement, based on an understanding of the phenomena and effects of fire and the reaction and behaviour of people to fire - to protect people, property, production and the environment from the destructive effects of fire.

These objectives are achieved by a variety of means including such activities as:

• the assessment of the hazards and risks of fire and its effects;
• the mitigation of potential fire damage by proper design, construction, arrangement, and use of buildings, materials, structures, industrial processes, transportation systems and similar;
• the appropriate level of evaluation for the optimum preventive and protective measures necessary to limit the consequences of fire;
• the design, installation, maintenance and/or development of fire detection, fire suppression, fire control and fire related communication systems and equipment;
• the direction and control of appropriate equipment and manpower in the strategy and function of firefighting and rescue operations;
• post-fire investigation and analysis, evaluation and feedback.