Fire has been a fickle companion to human societies and has acted as friend and foe throughout history arousing feelings of warmth and comfort and dread in equal measure. Fire Safety Engineering (FSE) is a broad multi-disciplinary field and often must deal with competing demands such as balancing sustainability concerns against safety. This course is designed to provide a gentle and fun introduction to the fundamentals of this complex field. The nature of fire and the scientific principles governing it will be introduced first. As fire poses a constant threat of potential disaster in urban and suburban areas, human societies endeavor to mitigate this risk through regulations. In this context, the most significant fire safety regulations, by-laws, and standards will be discussed including commonly used fire protection strategies and systems. Human behavior during a fire accident is of major concern and may exacerbate the risk of injury to both occupants and firefighters and also hamper fire rescue operations. Therefore, human psychology and physiology, fire safety management and firefighting strategies are also discussed. Internationally known leaders from research and practice have been involved in developing the course, with demonstrations and experiments to further elaborate the knowledge presented. The intended audience are all those interested in learning more about this fascinating field (with or without any prior exposure). While management of the hazard represented by uncontrolled fire to protect life and property in urban environments has become a highly specialized profession, this course also provides learners with more advanced content with practical activities in the verified track.
Overview
Syllabus
Fire Phenomena
This module introduces the course using basic scientific principles behind fire using chemistry, physics, heat and mass transfer, and fluid dynamics.
Human Psychology
You will get be able to learn essential emergency procedures and how communications and decisions during emergency situations are made.
Fire Protection Systems
You will be introduced to principles behind the working of fire alarms, behaviour of smoke and smoke suppression systems etc. In worst case if fire suppression systems fail, a building must have enough strength to delay the damage till all inmates are evacuated. You will also be able to understand how engineers take design decisions to resist damage / collapse for longer period of time.
Fire Prevention
This module will discuss the measures to reduce the fire hazard in a building. Some building contents may be more readily combustible than others. This chapter will introduce the basics of fire safety management and ways to prevent fire accidents by controlling and managing combustibles.
Fire Fighting
You will get a basic knowledge of techniques and operations employed by fire fighters during firefighting. You will be able to understand how fire fighters are trained for approaching the fire, firefighting strategy, coordination, and tactics of safe fireground activities. This module will also discuss operational procedures, preplanning routines that Hong Kong’s Fire Services Department follows.
Taught by
Xinyan Huang, Liming Jiang, Mustesin Ali Khan and Gigi Lui Che-heng
