Fire safety engineering: Current state and possible futures

Fire safety engineering has become generally accepted in developed countries world-wide. Fire safety engineers are employed by government and the private sector. They are involved in almost all major building and infrastructure projects. They play critical roles in high hazard industries. Fire safety engineers enable amazing buildings to be designed and constructed, help clients save millions in building costs, and promise to do so while maintaining acceptable levels of safety. However, as an engineering discipline, we lack the attributes and components that reflect maturity, and although some incremental advances have been made in the last decade, we have not experienced any transformational changes in technology or practice. We also seem unable to deliver consistency to the market. In some quarters, skepticism of our practice is leading to more regulatory controls: a step some might characterize as in the backwards direction. In many respects we seem to be at a crossroad, facing significant challenges and amazing opportunities. If we are up to the challenges and take advantage of the opportunities, we have a chance to evolve the discipline towards maturity and greater respect. If we maintain the status quo, we risk stagnation as best, or in the worst case, devolution to bit players in the field of engineering. With the hopes of creating some controversy and stirring some emotions, I offer some thoughts on where fire safety engineering is as a discipline and what the future holds if we take up the challenges or abdicate our responsibility.