Mid-Career College Confirm IFC to Present FSE for Further 12 Months

Peter E Jackman IEng MIFireE MBEng AIWSc
Technical Director
International Fire Consultants Ltd

When the Mid Career College, the well established and respected provider of professional CPD in the field of Building Services, Fire Performance and Lighting, planned to run 3 day courses on the ‘Principles and Practice of Fire Safety Engineering Design’, they recognised the breadth of knowledge within International Fire Consultants Ltd which made us a natural partner. As a consequence, IFC put together an interesting and varied programme of lectures for delivery over a 3 day period generally presented at CIBSE with all speakers being drawn from within IFC’s Engineering Team.

Each of the presenters is an expert in his own right with years of experience in their chosen field. Howard Morgan is as synonymous with smoke as Peter Jackman is with fire resistance. Paul Harris in his role as Senior Consultant leading IFC’s Fire Engineering Section is continually exposed to the interaction of the design with compensatory measures, such as, suppression and detection and the need to evacuate people out of the building. Hans van de Weijgert who provides structural fire engineers assistance to the FSE team is highly skilled in respect of heat transfer and the structural response of materials, including the application of EuroCodes. All of this expertise makes IFC a natural presenter on a course of this nature, especially as the practice is one of the longest established fire safety practices in the UK, rapidly approaching its 21st Birthday. During this time it has amassed a wealth of experience applying the functional approach to building design in some of the UK’s most prestigious building projects.

The timing of the new courses is excellent with the new BS7974 Standards on the ‘Application of Fire Safety Engineering Principles to the Design of Buildings’ and its associated Published Documents (PD’s) all being referenced in the Approved Document ‘B’ that has just been released for Public Comment (August 2005). There are 7 associated PD’s;

PD1: Initiation and fire growth
PD2: Spread of smoke and toxic gases
PD3: Structural response and fire spread beyond the enclosure of origin
PD4: Detection of fire and activation of fire protection systems
PD5: Fire Service intervention
PD6: Evacuation
PD7: Probalistic Risk Assessments

and of these IFC, authored PD3 on fire containment under contract to BSI. This intimate knowledge allows IFC to present very authoritatively on the course in this subject.

IFC were represented on the British Standard Committee (FSH/24) which was responsible for the complete suite of standards throughout the drafting process and since, contributing actively when necessary, again allowing the team to dispense up to date information.
The June 2005 Course, were so well subscribed that IFC will be presenting the same course again, albeit gradually updated accordingly, on 24,, 25 & 26 January 2006 and again on 20, 21 & 22 June 2006. Details from Mid Career College at P O Box 20, Cambridge CB1 5DG (Tel No. 01223 880016).