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The IAFSS Committee welcome bids for the 15th IAFSS Symposium, to be held in Europe in 2026.
Selection of the host for the symposium will be made by the new Management Committee at its April meeting, which will be associated with the virtual 13th IAFSS Symposium organized and hosted by the University of Waterloo. An exact date will be defined and communicated by those sending in a bid.
If you are interested in hosting the 15th IAFSS Symposium please click here for further information.

Poster submissions have re-opened on Easy Chair for the 13th IAFSS Symposium. Final poster submission (NEW contributions): January 30, 2021. Read more here: https://uwaterloo.ca/international-symposium-on-fire-safety-science/

In light of developments related to the coronavirus (COVID-19), and the need to protect our own and extended communities, the Symposium Planning Committee, in consultation with the IAFSS Executive and Management Committees, has decided that the 13th IAFSS Symposium will be an on-line event. Further information can be found on the FAQ webpage.

The IAFSS will be holding a workshop on the afternoon of Tuesday, 11 September, just ahead of the ESFSS in Nancy, France.

Although great strides have been made in reducing the negative impacts of fire over the past few decades, the global impact of fire remains staggering. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates global burn deaths to 180,000 annually, the vast majority of these in low and middle-income countries. Within Europe, more than 3,500 people are killed annually. The losses in the USA are similar. In most developed countries the cost of fire damage is estimated to be at least 1% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). In the USA, alone the total cost of fire has been estimated at US$328.5 billion. Global loss due to wildand fire is presently greater than at any time in the past. SwissRe has reported that the combined insurance losses from all wildfires worldwide in 2017 were US$14 billion, the highest ever in a single year. According to Allianz, fires and explosions in the built environment accounted for 59% of 1,807 business interruption claims globally from 2010-2014, resulting in billions of US dollars in loss.

Something must be done to facilitate substantial reduction in these losses. To better characterize the problems and develop solutions, fire safety science and engineering research needs to be integrated into societally-transformative risk mitigation and resiliency initiatives. Grand societal challenges such as changing demographics (an aging and diversely able society), rapid urbanization, the need to be more sustainable, the need to slow climate change, and the need to develop more resilient communities all have fire safety implications. Yet fire safety is rarely thought of as part of the solution to these challenges.

We would like your help in raising the profile of the benefits of fire safety science and engineering research in helping to solve critical societal challenges facing the world. We therefore invite you to participate in the IAFSS Workshop, Agenda 2030 for a Fire Safe World, on the afternoon of Tuesday, September 11, to begin work on this challenge. We have prepared a short White Paper that you should read in advance of the Workshop, which provides additional detail on the challenges and objectives moving forward.

If you accept this challenge and invitation to participate, you will be tasked with helping to draft text that can be used with key research funding entities, governmental agencies, and NGOs worldwide to facilitate funding to advance a fire safe world. Participation will be limited to the first 50 registrants. Please register only if you want to actively help develop a research strategy, talking points, and potentially white papers, which will be used to facilitate the generation of directed funding towards fire safety science research to address emerging societal challenges. Your participation will not require you to sign a joint statement on research needs although this will be encouraged as one possible outcome of the Workshop.

Registration for the workshop can be done here and register for ESFSS here. The tentative workshop agenda is below.

Tentative Workshop Agenda, 13:00-17:00, Tuesday, 11 September 2018

13:00-14:00    Introductory presentations to frame the challenges

14:00-16:00    Break-out groups to work on strategies to address future challenges

16:00-17:00    Reporting, consensus development, and framing steps forward

As we get closer to the date of the Workshop, additional information will be posted, and registrants may receive additional information by email. Thank you for your interest in this important initiative, and we look forward to seeing you in Nancy in September!

A number of both established researchers and students were recognized for their fire science  posters and images at the 12th International Symposium on Fire Safety Science. The awardees are listed below, congratulations!

Judges Choice Outstanding Image

• Longhua Hu, “Blooming Fire”
• Laurens van Gelderen, Hamed Farmahini Farahani, Ali Rangwala and Grunde Jomaas, Boilover of a crude oil burning in an ice cavity

Judges Choice Outstanding Student Poster

• Sriram Bharath Hariharan, Huahua Xiao, Evan Sluder, Michael Gollner and Elaine Oran, The Structure of the Blue Whirl: A Soot-free Vortex Phenomenon
• Park Seong-Geun, Shin Kyung-Jae, Lee Yu-Hyeon and Min Gi-Yo, Mechanical Properties of Structural Steels at High Temperature

Judges Choice Outstanding Poster

• Andy Rodriguez, Xinyan Huang, Shmuel Link, Sandra Olson, Paul Ferkul and Carlos Fernandez-Pello, Piloted Ignition of Cylindrical PMMA and Wood
• Torben Grumstrup, Jason Forthofer and Mark Finney, Wildfire Flame and Plume Attachment on Slopes
• Masayuki Mizuno, Kosuke Fujii, Hiroyuki Kadokura, Fuqiu Wang, Tomonori Sano and Ai Sekizawa, Development of Mathematical Model of Evacuation Flow in a Staircase Based on a Survey Result of a Real Evacuation Drill in a High-Rise Office Building

Delegates Choice Outstanding Image

• Sriram Bharath Hariharan, Michael Gollner and Elaine Oran, The Blue Whirl in Transition

Delegates Choice Outstanding Poster

• Yuqi Hu, Nieves Fernandez Anez and Guillermo Rein, Review of Emissions of Regional Haze Episodes from Smouldering Peat Fire

Honorable Mentions

• Carmen Gorska Putynska, Juan P. Hidalgo and Jose Torero, Self-extinguishment of Exposed Cross Laminated Timber Walls in Compartment Fires
• Yoshinari Kobayashi, Yusuke Konno, Xinyan Huang, Shinji Nakaya, Mitsuhiro Tsue, Nozomu Hashimoto, Osamu Fujita and Carlos Fernandez-Pello, Dripping Behaviors of Melted Insulation in Wire Fire under Opposed Flow

Thank you to all the judges and organizers, who were led by Prof. Naian Liu, USTC.

The International Association of Fire Safety Science (IAFSS) is launching two new awards, the Proulx and Magnusson Early Career Awards. These two awards are to be presented for the first time at the 12^th Symposium in Lund, Sweden in June 2017.

The Proulx and Magnusson Early Career Awards recognise meritorious achievement by members of the IAFSS who are early in their careers and have contributed a body of work that is of significance to any area of fire safety science. The two awards are distinguished by the period of time from completion of the candidates’ most recent educational degree (Ph.D., M.Sc.).

Eligibility to the Proulx Early Career Award

For the Proulx Award, candidates must be within five years from completion of their most recent degree at the time of nomination (i.e., Oct 15, 2016). The award commemorates Dr. Guylene Proulx (1960-2009), an expert in human behaviour in fire at National Research Council Canada, and IAFSS Board member at the time she passed away.

Eligibility to the Magnusson Early Career Award

For the Magnusson Award, candidates must be within five to ten years from completion of their most recent degree at the time of nomination (i.e., Oct 15, 2016). The award commemorates Prof. Sven Erik Magnusson (1938-2014), pioneer of parametric fires and risk management at Lund University, Sweden. He was one of the driving forces during the start-up of IAFSS educational committee by drafting the first education curriculum for fire safety engineering.

Privileges of the recipient

Each of the awards consists of a grant of US$4000, a plaque, and free registration for the Symposium.

Each recipient will deliver at the Symposium a review paper drawn from his/her body of work. Each recipient will be asked to prepare a paper, as per submission guidelines of the Symposium (an exceptional extension to the submission date will be granted for these papers). Papers will undergo peer review and if accepted will be presented during breakout sessions and included in the Symposium proceedings.

Selection Process

The awards will be administered together with all other IAFSS awards. The Awards Committee will nominate a Chair for Proulx and Magnusson Early Career Awards who will call upon three co‐Chairs (one representing each region). For each eligible candidate, the Chair and co‐Chairs will request at least one independent review by a subject matter expert. Chair and co‐chairs will rank submissions based on their own assessment and the views provided by the independent reviewers.

Normally, one Proulx award and one Magnusson award shall be made at each symposium; however, fewer awards will be made, if in the opinion of the committee, candidates of sufficient merit have not been proposed. The awards shall be presented at the IAFSS Symposium.

The four criteria used to select the recipient include:

• Pertinence: Are the subject matters of the body of work within the scope of the science and engineering of fire safety?
• Quality: Are the methodologies applied in the body of work sound and correct?
• Significance: Do the results of the body of work add to our knowledge? Were the results new, accurate, useful and important?
• Impact: Do the results of the body of work have a broad impact in the science and engineering of fire safety?

 Important Dates

• September 15, 2016                  Period for nominations opens.
• October 15, 2016                       Period for nominations ends (at midnight, UK time).
• December 15, 2016                   Recipients will be contacted
• February 15, 2017                     Deadline for submission of the review paper.

Nomination process

Nominations must be made by an IAFSS member in good standing. Self-nominations will be considered too. During the period for nominations, the following documents should be submitted by email to the Chairman for Proulx and Magnusson Early Career Awards:

Dr Guillermo Rein, Imperial College London, UK, [email protected]

• Cover letter stating why the candidate is worthy of the award. This letter must also show that the candidate is eligible for the award based on the period of time from most recent. Letter must not exceed 2 pages.
• Curriculum Vitae of the candidate (excluding publication list).
• List of publications of the candidate. The list should be comprised of accepted journal articles and accepted conference publications. Publications submitted or in preparation or draft should not be listed.
• Recommendation letters, no more than two pages in length each, from two experts of international standing in the field. No more than two letters from experts will be accepted.