Towards a Global Agenda for Fire Research

Published

December 1, 2001

Author(s)

J E. Snell

Abstract

The Forum for International Cooperation on Fire Research, FORUM, was established about 14 years ago as an informal organization to provide a means for sharing on mutual issues and needs, communication, and cooperation among the world's leaders of fire research programs or facilities [2]. Membership includes 15 members from Canada, China, Finland, Germany, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, Taiwan, United Kingdom, and the United States and 24 corresponding members. The Forum meets annually at the site of one of its members and co-hosts a national symposium for bringing international attention and expertise to issues concerning the advance of fire safety engineering in the hos's country. Nine members from 7 nations participated in the 13th meeting, which took place in Taipei, in October 2000. Past symposia have addressed issues such as advancing fire safety engineering, performance-based codes, and developing fire research capacity.One of the most notable products of the FORUM was a survey of computer-based fire models written by Ray Friedman of Factory Mutual Research Corporation (FMRC) in 1990 and updated by popular demand by him in 1991 [3][4]. The documents have been widely used and cited in the fire safety engineering community. More recently, the Forum has initiated cooperative research projects involving a number of member institutes. The most recent of these is a project being led by Dr. William Pitts of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), on heat flux measurement. (I will say a bit more about this project and other FORUM activities later in this presentation.) Also, the FORUM actively supports the activities of its members' staff who participate in the international Council for Researvh and innovation in Building and Construction (CIB) Working Commission W14 on Fire and related International Organization for Standardization (ISO) activities in TC 92 on Fire Safety. I have had the honor to chair the FORUM since its inception until now. My successor as chair of the FORUM is Paul Croce of Factory Mutual Global who will provide a complementary perspective on the future for fire research in his presentation at the close of this Conference.

Proceedings Title

Proceedings of the United Engineering Conference

Conference Dates

January 7-11, 2001

Conference Location

San Diego, CA

Conference Title

United Engineering Foundation Conference

Pub Type

Conferences

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Keywords

fire research, fire safety engineering, global agenda, global fire research agenda

Citation

Snell, J. (2001), Towards a Global Agenda for Fire Research, Proceedings of the United Engineering Conference, San Diego, CA, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=860056 (Accessed April 26, 2024)