From bogdan.dlugogorski at newcastle.edu.au  Sun Jul  6 12:38:05 2008
From: bogdan.dlugogorski at newcastle.edu.au (Bogdan Dlugogorski)
Date: Sun, 06 Jul 2008 12:38:05 +1000
Subject: SFPE>  Re: Human behavior in Earthquake!
Message-ID: <4870BCAD.5D49.0032.0@newcastle.edu.au>

>>> Muhammad Masood Rafi <rafi-m at neduet.edu.pk> 5/07/2008 3:27 pm >>>
Dear Sheng

No doubt this is quite an interesting story. I look at it from two different 
angles but first of all I am no expert in human behaviour and my response is 
purely a layman's view.

(1) Firstly I am unable to understand what is unethical in this story. If a 
person has to make a choice between mother and daughter (no matter how 
painful this decision is) the inclination towards daughter is quite natural. 
And if I assume that the daughter is a child then it makes even more sense 
because the mother being an adult person might have behaved better than a 
child in an emergency situation.

(2) More importantly the person is very clear in his mind of his action in 
an emergency. This would have saved him a lot of reaction time which he 
would have spent in making a decision otherwise. With very little knowledge 
I have regarding emergency preparedness an early response always pays back.

This is my view others may disagree

Dr Muhammad Masood Rafi
Associate Professor
Department of Civil Engineering
NED University of Engineering and Technology Karachi-75270
Tel: +92 (0)21 9261261-8 Ext: 2277 Fax: +92 (0)21 9261255
Email: rafi-m at neduet.edu.pk 


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Bogdan Dlugogorski" <bogdan.dlugogorski at newcastle.edu.au>
To: <iafss at newcastle.edu.au>
Sent: Sunday, June 22, 2008 11:24 PM
Subject: IAFSS> Human behavior in Earthquake!


>>>> sheng tao <taosheng119 at hotmail.com> 21/06/2008 2:24 pm >>>
>
> Dear colleagues, here is a dilemma on human behavior under emergency. I
> modified the story to facilitate your understanding.
>  Once upon a time, there was a Harvard graduate (major in History) ,
> who loves educational work. So he accepted a middle-school teacher
> position near his hometown, which is in the rural area.  One day, when
> he was teaching Lady Chattley*s lover to his student (which implies
> his students are at least teenagers), there was an earthquake striking
> suddenly. Quite shocked, he jumped out of his classroom, leaving his
> students behind without instructions.After the initial shock, he settled
> down and helped to count the students and performed his duty as a
> teacher. About 10 days later, he wrote an essay on his blog,saying that
> he thought of (or he would rescue) his daughter instead of his mother
> under emergency, when evacuating. This bold and un-moral statement
> excited the society immediately. Everyone blamed his wrong-doing at that
> moment, but he argued publicly and reasonably that life is more
> important than heroic deeds(or helping others). He was punished by
> losing his teaching position, an order directly from National Department
> of Education. There is a nation-wide debate on his reactions at that
> moment. Most audience thinks he did not perform his duty, so should be
> punished. Some people think his reaction is a normal reaction under
> unexpected high stress, so his egress behavior should be tolerated and
> encouraged. After all, no one (in that school) was hurt from his
> behavior (or that earthquake) and the punishment to survivors will
> discourage any future evacuating behavior. The popular view is that
> moral/ethics is more important than life, we should punish him for not
> being ethical as a teacher (and sacrifice himself).  This topic was
> discussed by tens of millions of citizens in China,it will have a
> profound impact on the evacuation behavior under fire in the future. As
> an FPE with special expertise on human behavior under emergency,what is
> your view on this case? If you are still not clear about the story, ask
> any Chinese around you. But be sure that your judgment not be mis-led by
> your interpreter.  In order not to receive the same punishment as him, I
> could not list my true name here (The reaction of our society is
> outrageous and not reasonable under the impact of such a great loss.).
> But as an FPE, I understand clearly the ethical value and the culture
> difference in this case. And I believe the answer varies from country to
> country, from nation to nation, from professionals to normal people. So
> your professional feedback is deeply appreciated. Sheng Tao
>
>
> Iafss mailing list
> Iafss at newcastle.edu.au 
> http://mailman.newcastle.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/iafss 
> **********************************************************************
> THIS DISCUSSION FORUM IS OPERATED BY THE INTERNATIONAL
> ASSOCIATION FOR FIRE SAFETY SCIENCE.  THE ASSOCIATION HOLDS
> TRIENNIAL SYMPOSIA, PUBLISHES THE FIRE SAFETY JOURNAL,
> PROVIDES ITS PUBLICATIONS AT A DISCOUNT TO ITS MEMBERS AND
> ENGAGES IN OTHER LEARNED ACTIVITIES OF BENEFIT TO THE FIRE
> SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING COMMUNITY.  THE ANNUAL MEMBERSHIP
> FEE IS &#8356;21 (or equivalent in US$); THE FEE IS &#8356;11 FOR 
> STUDENTS. CONTACT
> iafssmembers at dial.pipex.com FOR MEMBERSHIP SUBSCRIPTION.
> **********************************************************************
>
> **********************************************************************
> Views, opinions and information presented here are not necessarily
> those of the International Association for Fire Safety Science and/or
> the Society of Fire Protection Engineers.  To subscribe visit
> http://mailman.newcastle.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/iafss  (for IAFSS 
> Discussion Forum)
> or http://mailman.newcastle.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/sfpe (for SFPE
> Discussion Forum).  At present, both Fora co-share their postings.
> **********************************************************************
>
>
> 


From bogdan.dlugogorski at newcastle.edu.au  Tue Jul  8 06:32:26 2008
From: bogdan.dlugogorski at newcastle.edu.au (Bogdan Dlugogorski)
Date: Tue, 08 Jul 2008 06:32:26 +1000
Subject: SFPE>  Information on Evacmod.net the evacuation modelling	portal
Message-ID: <487309FA.5D49.0032.0@newcastle.edu.au>

>>> Lazaros Filippidis <L.Filippidis at gre.ac.uk> 8/07/2008 12:25 am >>>
Dear Sir/Madam,

This is to inform the Iafss mailing list of the existence of the 
Evacmod.net site.

Evacmod.net - Evacuation modelling portal
Evacmod.net is an evacuation modelling portal for the simulation of 
human behaviour during emergency situations. The site can be accessed by 
clicking http://www.evacmod.net. Almost all content on the site is user 
generated and its aim is to provide a platform for students, fire safety 
engineers, software engineers, behavioural scientists, researchers or 
any interested parties to communicate, and share their knowledge and 
experience. By providing such a platform it is hoped that the field of 
evacuation modelling will be further advanced. Among other features the 
site currently includes more than 800 references, abstracts and links, a 
models directory and an events calendar.


Kind regards,
Lazaros

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From bogdan.dlugogorski at newcastle.edu.au  Tue Jul  8 19:17:49 2008
From: bogdan.dlugogorski at newcastle.edu.au (Bogdan Dlugogorski)
Date: Tue, 08 Jul 2008 19:17:49 +1000
Subject: SFPE>  Positions for fire safety engineers
Message-ID: <4873BD5D.5D49.0032.0@newcastle.edu.au>



>>> Jason Jeffress <jason at defire.com.au> 8/07/2008 7:02 pm >>>
All



Defire are currently looking for fire safety engineers to work in our
Sydney and Brisbane offices.

Please see attached for more information.



Regards



Jason Jeffress
Director
Defire


www.defire.com.au <http://www.defire.com.au/>

P   Please consider the environment before printing this email.




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From david.mcgill at senecac.on.ca  Fri Jul 11 05:15:13 2008
From: david.mcgill at senecac.on.ca (Dave McGill)
Date: Thu, 10 Jul 2008 15:15:13 -0400
Subject: SFPE> Faculty Position at Seneca College, Toronto, Canada
References: <4870BCAD.5D49.0032.0@newcastle.edu.au>
Message-ID: <007b01c8e2c1$479d5d40$6401a8c0@DAVES>

Hello All,

There is a full-time faculty position in the School of Fire Protection at 
Seneca College in Toronto Canada.

http://www.senecac.on.ca/marketing/08F-1013.pdf

Regards

Dave McGill
Professor
School of Fire Protection
Seneca College of Applied Arts and Technology
Toronto, ON, M2J 2X5, Canada
416-491-5050, ext. 6186



From bogdan.dlugogorski at newcastle.edu.au  Sun Jul 13 06:36:39 2008
From: bogdan.dlugogorski at newcastle.edu.au (Bogdan Dlugogorski)
Date: Sun, 13 Jul 2008 06:36:39 +1000
Subject: SFPE> Vacancies in Fire and Chemistry at the University of	Central
 Lancashire, UK
Message-ID: <4879A277.5D49.0032.0@newcastle.edu.au>

We are currently expanding our Fire Safety Engineering and Chemistry areas, and need to recruit staff in both these areas.  If you, or any of your colleagues are interested, please take this message as encouragement to apply.

The Closing Date is Friday 18th July 2008 at 16.00 UK time.

Best wishes

Richard

Richard Hull
 <TRHull at uclan.ac.uk>

Further details may be found at

http://www.uclan.ac.uk/other/hr/jobs/external.htm 


The links below may also work, otherwise, click on the appropriate reference number (below) on the web-page (above):


Lecturer in Chemistry (2 Posts) Organic/Inorganic - 228A-04-07
Lecturer in Fire Safety Engineering - 231A-04-07
Lecturer in Fire Safety/Protection - 232A-04-07
Lecturer in Fire & Rescue Service Management - 233A-04-07
Associate Lecturer in Fire - 230A-04-07
Professor/Reader in Fire Science - 234A-04-07




From bogdan.dlugogorski at newcastle.edu.au  Sun Jul 13 15:33:40 2008
From: bogdan.dlugogorski at newcastle.edu.au (Bogdan Dlugogorski)
Date: Sun, 13 Jul 2008 15:33:40 +1000
Subject: SFPE>  Challenges for Fire Modeling and Risk Analysis
Message-ID: <487A2054.5D49.0032.0@newcastle.edu.au>



>>> "Dr. Monideep Dey" <deytec at frontiernet.net> 13/07/2008 4:28 am >>>
To:  IAFSS List

 

For your information, I have enclosed below a recent article from the
Associated Press about a recent report on fire protection at U.S. nuclear
power plants issued by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) of the
U.S. Congress.  The article provides a good history of fire issues at U.S.
nuclear plants since the major fire at the Brown's Ferry plant in Alabama in
1975.  The GAO report notes that the NRC and the nuclear industry hope to
address fire issues at nuclear plants using risk-based methods such as fire
modeling and risk analysis.  The report also notes the risk-based approach
itself faces significant challenges including a shortage of "people with
fire modeling, risk assessment and plant-specific expertise" to assure the
safety efforts are focused on the right priorities.  A link to the full GAO
report is included at the end of the AP article.  This report underlines the
importance and significance of the efforts of those of us involved in
developing and assessing risk-based methods such as fire modeling.

 

Please contact me if you have any questions about this report, or on fire
modeling and risk analysis for nuclear power plants.

 

Monideep K. Dey, PhD

 

Deytec, Inc.

HC-64 Box 100-27

Yellow Spring, WV 26865

USA

 

Phone: 1-304- 874-4360

Fax:  1-304-874-4497

deytec at frontiernet.net 

 

By H. JOSEF HEBERT -  

WASHINGTON (AP) - Operators of nuclear power plants have yet to comply with
some of the government's fire safety rules three decades after they were
issued, a congressional report said Monday.

The Government Accountability Office said there were 125 fires reported at
54 power plants since 1995, an average of nearly 10 a year, although none
threatened safe emergency reactor shutdown or posed any significant safety
threats. The fires were mostly electrical or maintenance related.

But the GAO study said the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has been unable to
resolve "several long-standing issues" with the industry over fire safety
including full compliance with NRC fire rules put in place in 1976 and 1980
as a result of the fire at the Browns Ferry plant in Alabama in 1975.

The blaze, which raged for seven hours at the Browns Ferry Unit 1 reactor,
was the worst fire ever at an American nuclear plant. It exposed for the
first time that nuclear reactors needed special fire protection to assure a
fire did not prevent a reactor from safely shutting down.

The report said some nuclear reactor operators are:

_Using unapproved fire safety manuals.

_Relying on interim, temporary fixes in response to fire damage instead of
making permanent repairs. In one case a plant used "fire watches" - designed
as temporary safety procedures - for five years instead of replacing damaged
parts.

_Continuing to rely on manual responses, such as a person having to close or
open a valve, instead of passive fire protective measures.

_Using fire protective wraps around electrical wires without having
conducted needed fire endurance tests on the material.

The nuclear industry had no immediate comment on the report. "We haven't had
time to examine it," said John Keeley, a spokesman for the Nuclear Energy
Institute, the industry's trade group.

Eliot Brenner, a spokesman for the NRC, said the agency considered the GAO
report to be accurate and complete. "We will be giving the GAO's findings
and conclusions serious consideration," he said.

As industry showed problems with meeting the NRC's "prescriptive" fire
safety rules, the NRC in 2004 encouraged reactor operators to adopt a "risk
based" approach in which plant operators focused fire safety efforts in
areas of the plant where a fire would pose the greatest threat to plant
operation and emergency shutdown.

As of April, the new approach had been adopted at only 46 of the 105
reactors, the GAO investigators found.

And the GAO report said the risk-based approach itself faces significant
challenges including a shortage of "people with fire modeling, risk
assessment and plant-specific expertise" to assure the safety efforts are
focused on the right priorities.

___

On the Net

GAO: http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-08-747 

 

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From bogdan.dlugogorski at newcastle.edu.au  Sun Jul 13 15:34:18 2008
From: bogdan.dlugogorski at newcastle.edu.au (Bogdan Dlugogorski)
Date: Sun, 13 Jul 2008 15:34:18 +1000
Subject: SFPE> ESTIMATION OF MATERIAL PYROLYSIS PARAMETERS FOR FIRE	MODEL
	INPUT
Message-ID: <487A207A.5D49.0032.0@newcastle.edu.au>



>>> "Dembsey, Nicholas A." <ndembsey at WPI.EDU> 11/07/2008 7:29 am >>>

ESTIMATION OF MATERIAL PYROLYSIS PARAMETERS FOR FIRE MODEL INPUT

If this important topic is of interest to you as a fire scientist or engineer please note the following two activities that will be occurring in the near term.

#1: NIST BFRL Grant Study

A USA National Institute of Standards and Technology, Building and Fire Research Laboratory sponsored grant to develop an engineering guide for model users to estimate fire model input parameters will be soon underway.

The grant will support work by WPI Fire Protection Engineering (Nicholas Dembsey), Southwest Research Institute (Marc Janssens) and the Society of Fire Protection Engineers (Morgan Hurley) which will have as its objective the development of a guide for model users to estimate deterministic fire model input data related to material pyrolysis.

The guide will be focused on integrating current knowledge related to measurements, pyrolysis models and optimization routines to provide the model operator with processes to determine needed fire model input.  Quite simply, how does one measure and interpret input parameters for fire models?
Currently, there is no consensus on this matter.

A key aspect of this grant will be working with many segments of the international fire community to help shape development of the guide.  Inquiries related to this grant should be directed to Nick Dembsey
(ndembsey at wpi.edu<mailto:ndembsey at wpi.edu>).


#2: IAFSS Fire Spread Modeling Workshop

A workshop on fire spread modeling will be held in conjunction with the upcoming 9th International Association for Fire Safety Science Symposium in Karlsruhe, Germany on 21 September 2008. Details can found at http://www.iafss.org/html/karlsruhe/WorkshopFire.htm.  The workshop is co-chaired by Nick Dembsey and Simo Hostikka (VTT).

A significant portion of this workshop will address the problem of developing deterministic fire model input data related to material pyrolysis from a practice viewpoint.  Interested fire scientists and engineers are
encouraged to attend.  The symposium will also provide scientists and engineers an opportunity to talk with Nick, Marc and Morgan about the NIST grant.


Nicholas A Dembsey PhD, PE
Associate Professor
Fire Protection Engineering
WPI
100 Institute Road
Worcester, MA 01609-2280
tel: 508.831.5971
fax: 508.831.5862
ndembsey at wpi.edu 




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From bogdan.dlugogorski at newcastle.edu.au  Sun Jul 13 17:26:58 2008
From: bogdan.dlugogorski at newcastle.edu.au (Bogdan Dlugogorski)
Date: Sun, 13 Jul 2008 17:26:58 +1000
Subject: SFPE>  Research Foundation news
References: <B826EE602644074BA6BA48C9BD9732CF0FBB2078@email.nfpa.org>
Message-ID: <487A3AE2.5D49.0032.0@newcastle.edu.au>

>>> "Peterson, Eric" <epeterson at NFPA.org> 10/07/2008 5:08 am >>>
Enclosed is the July-August edition of the Research Foundation
newsletter. Topics include:

 

Symposium

Fire Protection and Safety: Preparing for the Next 25 Years

 

New Projects

Intelligibility of Fire Alarm and Emergency Communication Systems

 

Reports

Residential Electrical Systems Aging Research Project Final Report

Fire Protection Challenges Presented by Combustible IBCs

Compact Mobile Shelving Fire Testing Project Final Report

Fire Performance Evaluation of Nominal K=5.6 Ceiling Sprinklers for
Protecting 8-ft. High Storage of Paper Files in Compact Mobile Shelving
Under a 10-ft. Ceiling

 

Research Planning

Fire Detection and Alarm

Firefighter Protective Clothing and Equipment

Automatic Sprinkler Fire Protection Research Council

 

If you don't wish to receive future newsletters, reply with DO NOT SEND
in subject line.

 

Eric Peterson

Administrator

The Fire Protection Research Foundation

617.984.7281

epeterson at nfpa.org <mailto:epeterson at nfpa.org> 

 

"Celebrating 25 years of research in support of the NFPA mission"


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From bogdan.dlugogorski at newcastle.edu.au  Thu Jul 17 20:44:39 2008
From: bogdan.dlugogorski at newcastle.edu.au (Bogdan Dlugogorski)
Date: Thu, 17 Jul 2008 20:44:39 +1000
Subject: SFPE>  Fire Standards in Bulgaria
Message-ID: <487FAF37.5D49.0032.0@newcastle.edu.au>

>>> "Jon Barrett" <JBarrett at foremanroberts.com> 15/07/2008 9:22 pm >>>
Is anyone able to advise on what fire standards are applied in Bulgaria? Local standards, UK, NFPA etc.?

 

Thanks,

 

Jon

 

Jon Barrett   MIFireE
Associate
Foreman Roberts
Kings Court
St Ann's Square
Manchester M2 7HA 
DDI : +44 (0)161 831 6545
Tel : +44 (0)161 831 6565
Fax: +44 (0)161 831 6575
Mobile: +44 (0)7917 693286 
www.foremanroberts.com <http://www.foremanroberts.com/>  

*   Please consider the planet's resources before printing this email.

 


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