Nicosia in Cyprus was the venue for a ground breaking seminar on the subject of Fire Safety Engineering (FSE) on 21 January 2006. Peter Jackman, Technical Director of the IFC Group of Companies gave the opening lecture which identified how the adoption of functional regulations, supported by sound Fire Safety Engineering, would reduce the onerous exercise of writing regulations that reflect the risks of the Cypriot life style in the context of the design and construction of Cyprus’s building stock. It was pointed out that regulations in most countries reflected the fire tragedies that had occurred in those counties and measures were introduced retrospectively to guard against a reoccurrence. As a consequence one country’s legislation did not transfer across boundaries because frequently the hazards and solutions were different. FSE, when used correctly, addresses the hazards that actually exist and provides a bespoke solution which is infinitely more effective than imposing measures that probably evolved in a different culture. The presentation included a review of the various Fire Safety Standards and Codes and concentrated on developing a strategy based upon BS7974, the Fire Engineering Standard.
The second presentation was given by the Director and senior Fire Safety Engineering Consultant, Dr Spyros Spyrou of Intfire (Cyprus) Ltd a member of the IFC Group with offices in Limassol. The company is rapidly gaining an excellent reputation for all fire safety matters in Cyprus.
Spyros’s paper compared the recommendations in the existing Fire Brigade Code and compared them with the results that would be generated by a Fire Safety Engineered analysis. The comparisons were significant with the FSE solution often providing a safer solution, which surprised most attendees.
Additional papers were given by Eurosure Insurance Company Ltd, Nicosia, Cyprus and Nullifire Ltd from the UK. The first of these outlined insurance rules for fire protection measures and it was obvious that these were not as hazard focused as an FSE solution would be. Nullifire gave an overview of the products available in Cyprus, through their agent EKA Ltd, www.eka.com.cy the sponsors of the seminar, to meet the passive fire measures required via either the FSE or prescriptive route, albeit all evidence was restricted to standard classification periods and criteria.
The seminar was attended by 150 professionals, despite being held on a Saturday morning, starting early! Question time ran on into the early afternoon, despite which approximately half the audience stayed until the end. Peter and Spyros fielded the majority of the questions showing that FSE has a healthy future in this part of the Mediterranean and Intfire (Cyprus) Ltd will be there to service it.
|