Course Description
This 15-hour course covers the different roles that Fire Protection Engineers (FPEs) play in the investigation and analysis of building fires and fire protection system failures. FPEs have the educational background and training to identify and address building and fire code issues that may have contributed to the ignition and/or development of a fire; they also have the education and training to analyze the dynamics of building fires as well as the expected and actual performance of different fire protection systems under fire conditions. This course addresses different types of engineering analyses related to building fires, including ignition, fire spread, fire detection, fire suppression, fire confinement and egress analysis. This course also addresses the legal context under which most  fire investigations are conducted. A number of case studies are presented to demonstrate the engineering analysis of building fires and fire protection system failures.

Learning Objectives
Upon completion of this seminar, the participant will be able to:

• Understand the different roles for fire protection engineers in fire investigations and fire protection system failure analysis;
• Follow the legal and regulatory context for fire investigations and technical experts;
• Recognize the role of building codes and fire safety standards in assessing standards of care for building design, construction, operation and maintenance;
• Appreciate how fire modeling and fire dynamics analysis can be used for fire scenario hypothesis testing;
• Define the general principles and expected performance for different fire protection systems;
• Understand how and why fire protection systems fail under fire and non-fire conditions.

Prerequisite
General understand of the principles of fire protection engineering. A working knowledge of building codes and fire safety standards is helpful, but not essential, to participate in this course.

Who Will Benefit: Experience Level - Intermediate
This course will be of value to both fire investigators as well as fire protection engineers. Fire investigators will benefit by understanding how fire protection engineers can add value to a fire investigation. Fire protection engineers will benefit by understanding the different roles they may serve in forensic investigations of building fires or fire protection system failures.

Materials Needed
Course materials will be distributed to participants.

Course Assessment
Participants will be assessed via a written test upon completion of the course. A passing score of 70% will be required to obtain a Certificate of Completion.

Earn Valuable CEUs
Participants will receive 14 PDHs or 1.4 CEUs. A Certificate of Attendance will be awarded.