Seminars

Pre-Conference In-Person Seminars

Please join us for live instructor-led in-person seminars prior to the conference. These SFPE seminars were developed, and peer reviewed by SFPE experts and provide in-depth education on selected topics.
The seminars are available at a discounted rate when bundled with conference registration. To receive the discounted price for pre-conference seminars, simply add the desired seminar to your cart when you register for the conference. Early Bird Registration pricing ends on 15 February 2023.

Approximately two weeks before the conference, all seminar registrants will receive an email with onsite course details and logistics.

SFPE reserves the right to cancel a seminar up to two weeks prior to the event. Questions? Please contact us at education@sfpe.org.

27-28 March 2023: Introduction to Fire Risk Assessment
(2 days: Monday & Tuesday, 0900-1730)

This two-day course is an intensive introduction to the SFPE Guide to Fire Risk Assessment, 2nd Edition which will provide participants with a high-level overview of all of the topics included within the Guide. Participants will spend the first day discussing the four phases of fire risk assessment and their associated steps as well as discussing the limitations of fire risk assessment. On the second day participants will be broken into groups to work through an example fire risk assessment to further their understanding of the concepts discussed on the first day.

Instructor: Vladimir Mozer

Vladimir Mozer is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Civil Engineering, Czech Technical University in Prague. His teaching and research activities are focused on building fire safety, fire engineering and fire risk assessment. He serves in national and international standardization committees and is the convenor of the Fire Risk Assessment working group WG10 under the ISO TC92 SC4 Fire Safety Engineering subcommittee and the member of the SFPE task group which authored the 2^nd edition of the SFPE Fire Risk Assessment Engineering guide. In the past, Vladimir worked for the Fire Protection Association in the United Kingdom where he had done a number of fire risk assessments including high-profile and historical buildings.

28 March 2023: Introduction to Performance-Based Design (Engineering Solutions) and Regulation in Europe
(1 day: Tuesday, 0900-1730)

This one-day seminar will provide an overview of The SFPE Engineering Guide to Performance-Based Fire Protection. This process identifies methods that include defining a project scope; developing goals, objectives, and performance criteria; selecting design fire scenarios and design fires; developing and evaluating trial designs; and preparing design documentation. Emerging issues related to Performance-Based Design (PBD) will also be covered such as incorporating Risk-Informed Methods in PBD; selecting an appropriate fire model for a given application; estimating required safe egress time (RSET); performance-based design in tall buildings; performance-based design in long tunnels; performance-based design in structural fire engineering; conducting peer review for a performance-based design and performance-based design ITM for fire protection systems.

Professional Development Credit: 8 PDH

Target Audience: This course is intended for engineers who are interested in applying the concepts of performance-based design (PBD) and enforcement officials who review PBD or engineering alternatives to prescriptive codes.

Recommended Materials: The SFPE Engineering Guide to Performance-Based Fire Protection

Instructors: Michael Stromgren and Chris Jelenewicz

Michael Stromgren is the Chief Innovation Officer (CINO) at Briab, a leading fire and risk consultancy company in Scandinavia. For more than ten years he has led standard setting work for fire safety in national and international regulations and standards. He is an expert on performance-based design, fire safety engineering and building requirements and works with leaders of the European fire safety industry and its regulatory bodies to advance fire safety. Michael is also a passionate ambassador for quality assurance & digitalisation of fire safety.

He is active within CEN, buildingSMART, SIS and other groups to advance fire safety and digitalisation in this area. Michael chairs the Swedish BIM & Fire Safety group within the Technical Committee for Fire Safety at Swedish Institute for Standards. Michael led the revision of Swedish performance-based fire safety regulations (2011) and is heavily involved in the new Swedish building regulatory system that's coming into effect in 2024.

Chris Jelenewicz is currently the Chief Engineer of SFPE. He has been an FPE for the Library of Congress, University of Maryland , and Tenera L.P. Chris also has 20 years as a volunteer firefighter and seven years as Fire Chief for the Chillum-Adelphi Volunteer Fire Department in Langley Park, MD. From 2005-2016, Chris had a hand in 26 publications, many more following.

28 March 2023: Understanding Human Behavior in Fires
(1 day: Tuesday, 0900-1730)

This one-day seminar discusses the prediction of human behavior during a fire emergency as one of the most challenging areas of fire protection engineering. Understanding and considering human factors is essential to designing effective evacuation systems, ensuring safety during a fire and related emergency events.

This seminar will present the many types of characteristics that may influence occupant performance, reaction, and movement process in an emergency situation. It will include a discussion on the Protective Action Decision Model (PADM) and how it serves to inform our understanding of the flow of information to occupants via cues from the fire, building or people in a fire situation and the resultant decision-making processes that influence their protective action responses during the fire incident. Discussions will also address exposure to toxicants, irritants, heat and visibility loss in a fire and the potential impacts, including additive effects, on the human body at varying degrees of exposure.

This seminar will also focus on modeling human behavior in fire and will include a discussion on the development and selection of occupant behavioral scenarios. It will also discuss the many considerations that affect the choice of a particular calculation approach or model, such as project data needed, model input data needed, complexity of scenario(s), detail of output needed, and need to assess the impact of behavioral assumptions.

This course will also discuss fire situation management and enhancing human response to emergency notification and messaging and managing the movement of occupants during fire emergencies.

Professional Development Credit: 7 PDH

Target Audience: Engineers, Architects, Code Officials/AHJs, Public Educators

Materials: Reference only - SFPE Guide to Human Behavior in Fire, 2^nd Edition (2018)

Instructor: Steve Gwynne

Steve has nearly 25 years of experience in pedestrian dynamics, human behaviour in fire and evacuation modelling. He has worked for the Canadian /US governments, academic institutes in the US/Sweden/Canada/UK and in consultancy. He has been involved in data collection, model development/application, procedural design, and regulatory development. He has worked in the aviation, maritime, rail and built environments, and has also worked in large-scale disasters (e.g. wildfire incidents). Steve is currently the Research Lead at Movement Strategies and Industrial Professor of Evacuation and Pedestrian Dynamics at Lund University, as well being on the adjunct faculty of Universities of Maryland (US) and Memorial (Canada). He co-authors three chapters in the SFPE Handbook and was a co-author of the SFPE Guide to Human Behaviour in Fire (2nd Edition). He has also contributed to NFPA, ISO, IMO, ICC, NBC and SFPE documents.

SEMINAR PRICING
Included in pricing: Handouts, Complimentary Lunch, Networking reception on Tuesday evening, and SFPE Certificate of Completion.

Seminar

Dates/Times

PDH Credits

Early Bird Pricing

Member / Non-Member

Regular Pricing

Member / Non-Member

Introduction to Fire Risk Assessment

2 Days

27-28 March 2023; 0900-1730

$799.00 / $1,049.00

$899.00 / $1,149.00