Authors:
Samuel L. Manzello, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), USA
Sara McAllister, U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, USA
Sayaka Suzuki,National Research Institute of Fire and Disaster (NRIFD), Japan

To sign up: https://goo.gl/forms/0TMW2SbWi7mmHYIv1)

Demonstrated Need for Permanent Working Group

Large outdoor fires present a risk to the built environment. Examples often in the international media reports are wildfires that spread into communities, referred to as Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI) fires. WUI fires have destroyed communities throughout the world and are a growing problem in fire safety science. Other examples are large urban fires, including those that have occurred after earthquakes.
Over the past several decades, fire safety science research has spent a great deal of effort to understand fire dynamics within buildings. Research into large outdoor fires, and how to potentially mitigate the loss of structures in such fires, lags behind other areas of fire safety science research1. Fire spread in large outdoor fires is incredibly complex, involving the interaction of topography, weather, and fuels. At the same time, common characteristics between fire spread in WUI fires and urban fires have not been fully exploited. Once a wildland fire reaches a community and ignites structures, structure-structure fire spread can occur under similar mechanisms as in urban fire spread.
On June 11, 2017, a workshop, sponsored by the International Association for Fire Safety Science (IAFSS), was held. Seven panelists from around the world presented regional overviews of the large outdoor fire problem related to the built environment in their respective regions. Presentations explored common characteristics between these fires and were arranged as: European View, Asian View, North American View, South American View, and Oceania View.

A significant discussion outcome of the workshop was the desire of the participants to make this topic a permanent working group under the umbrella of the International Association for Fire Safety Science (IAFSS). So far, this has been done for only one other topic, the Measurement and Computation of Fire Phenomena (MaCFP) working group2, supporting modeling, a far more well-characterized and studied topic in fire safety science.

Due to structure and organization of the workshop, it was apparent that large outdoor fires and the built environment encompass far more than only wildfires, and the working group will address problems with key phenomenological shared characteristics relevant to both urban fires, and wildland-urban interface (WUI) fires. Overall, the workshop was considered a fruitful endeavor and clearly highlighted that much needs to be done in this research area, as it is far behind the well-studied topics that have been around in fire safety science for decades. Many next generation researchers attended and were encouraged to work in this area, as research impact is possible.
A manuscript has been submitted to the official journal of the IAFSS to delineate the key findings of the workshop in fine detail, and form the basis for an international research needs roadmap for this topic. One unique aspect of the paper is that it will also include an African perspective, as this was not presented at the workshop. The interested reader may find all the presentations delivered at the workshop, as well as other details, in an open access report3.

Objectives and Goals

Here, the objectives and goals of the permanent working group are delineated. It is proposed that the group consists of three subgroups focused on the topics of: Ignition Resistant Communities (IRC), Emergency Management and Evacuation (EME), and Large Outdoor Firefighting (LOFF). The IRC subgroup will be focused on developing the scientific basis for new standard testing methodologies indicative of large outdoor fire exposures, including the development of necessary testing methodologies to characterize wildland fuel treatments adjacent to communities. The EME subgroup will be focused on developing the scientific basis for effective emergency management strategies for communities exposed to large outdoor fires. The LOFF subgroup will provide a review of various tactics that are used, as well as the various personal protective equipment (PPE), and suggest pathways for research community engagement, including environmental issues in suppressing these fires.

We strongly welcome your participation in this activity and hope you will join us for the kickoff meeting at the Asia-Oceania IAFSS meeting in Taiwan occurring October 21-25, 2018.

The 11^th Asia-Oceania Symposium on Fire Science and Technology (11^th AOSFST) will be held on October 21-25, 2018 in Taipei, Taiwan.

The AOSFST has been held periodically about 3-year interval at the midterm of the IAFSS international symposia. The two most recent Asia-Oceania symposia were held successfully in Hefei, China and Tsukuba, Japan in 2012 and 2015, respectively.

The 11^th AOSFST will include presentations of peer-reviewed papers, keynote lectures by fire researchers invited from the world, poster sessions for a variety of topics, technical tour and some exciting events. In addition to the technical sessions, numerous social activities are planned, which will provide opportunities to informally meet with colleagues and friends. There will be a rich array of activities available in the companion program and there is much to see in TAIWAN. We heartily invite your participation, not only from Asia-Oceania region but also from any regions in the world.

Manuscripts should be submitted electronically through EasyChair system. The submission due for full papers will be on December 31, 2017. And poster abstracts should be submitted to poster@aosfst2018.com until April 30, 2018.

For your convenience, the submission schedule (for oral presentations) is briefly given as follows:

October 1, 2017 Submission site open

Dec 31, 2017 Deadline for submission of paper manuscripts

April 1, 2018 Notification of review results to authors

May 31, 2018 Deadline for final version

June 30, 2018 Notification of final acceptance and symposium program

Oct 21-25, 2018 Symposium at Tsukuba

For more information see Call for Papers or visit the Symposium website where you can find Author instructions and paper template.

If you have any questions you are also welcome to contact us

11^th Asia-Oceania Symposium on Fire Science and Technology

contact@aosfst2018.com

Margaret Law, an international pioneer and a major influence in our professional world of fire science and fire safety engineering, has died peacefully at her home in London, on 27^th August 2017.

Margaret was born in London and graduated in physics and mathematics from the University of London (BSc). She joined the Fire Research Station in the UK in 1952, and over 20 years established herself as one of the world’s leading fire scientists, carrying out research into many aspects of fire behaviour and its effects on building materials and structures.  She also became involved in the application of these research results in Building Regulations, Codes of Practice, and design guides.  Her particular research interests included ignition and fire dynamics, heat radiation from fires and requirements for building separation, as well as structural fire behaviour.

Margaret next spent a few years in the Directorate of Research Requirements at the Department of the Environment in the UK, assessing research priorities in the field of building and construction.

The application of research to solve practical problems was of particular interest to her and so in 1974 she joined the Ove Arup Partnership to act as an adviser on fire engineering for projects being designed within the firm.  She went on to create innovative fire safety solutions on major projects such as the Pompidou Centre in Paris, the Lloyds Building and Stansted Airport Terminal Building in the UK and Kansai International Airport in Japan.  She was particularly renowned for her work on structural steelwork in fire, with codified methods still relied on today in the USA, UK and Europe.

Margaret was concerned with all aspects of fire safety, particularly in those buildings for which the standard rules and requirements of regulations were not directly applicable. She always published and explained her work, such that others could understand, interrogate, and implement it.  She was a visiting researcher at the Science University of Tokyo in 1987 and was made Visiting Professor at the University of Greenwich in 1997.  She was actively involved in National and International Committees concerned with fire safety throughout her career, getting fire safety engineering principles accepted within codes / standards and the regulatory framework.  She gave much time to the work of the professional institutions. In the UK, she was instrumental in developments that culminated in fire engineers achieving chartered status through the Institution of Fire Engineers.  She received a number of national and international awards, including an MBE in 1993 for her services to fire safety, and the Arthur B Guise Medal from the Society of Fire Protection Engineers in 1994.

At the end of 1990 Margaret Law retired and became a Consultant to the Ove Arup Partnership.  Her book of papers “Some selected papers by Margaret Law: engineering fire safety” was produced to honour her achievements when she finished this Consultant role in 2002.  The best and most influential 29 papers in the book are testament to Margaret’s high standards, commitment to fundamental scientific understanding, her technical rigour, and her ability to translate fundamental principles into practical building design solutions.

Margaret must have surely rejoiced in 1985 when her fire engineering fraternity colleagues such as Philip Thomas formed the International Association of Fire Safety Science (IAFSS). The aim was to stimulate research into fire science globally, and provide the proper fire scientific basis for fire engineering design.

Margaret gave one of her most significant presentations with a paper entitled “Translation of Research into Practice – Building Design” at the very first International Symposium on Fire Safety Science held at NIST in Gaithersburg in the USA in October 1985. This was at the heart of her message about the importance of bringing fire research into the everyday practice of the design fire engineer.

Margaret continued to attend IAFSS Symposia and, with her Arup colleague Paula Beever, they gave a wonderful presentation of their paper “Magic Numbers and Golden Rules” at the Fourth International Symposium of Fire Safety Science in Ottawa in 1994. In Melbourne at the Fifth International Symposium on Fire Safety Science in Melbourne in March 1997 she gave paper entitled “A review of the Formulae for t-equivalent”. All the while Margaret was driving at moving fire safety design away from prescriptive rules into a robust field of engineering.

Other significant papers in the book which showed her passion and approach to the fire engineering profession include “Using Science and Hunting Facts”, the title of her Arthur B. Guise Medal Lecture to the SFPE in London in 1994, and the “Origin of the 5MW Fire” give at a fire engineering conference in 1995.

It is difficult to communicate just how influential Margaret’s scientific work was, and continues to be; just as her fire safety engineering work during her time at Arup was and continues to be so influential.

She believed profoundly in what she termed measurement and as she herself said in her 1990 Paper – What is a Fire Engineer? “Measurement and quantification are fundamental to any proper engineering design.  It is sad so many people are reluctant to measure things: presumably that might cast doubts on what they know to be right”.

This belief drove her work which was always founded on quantified scientific criteria, and always rigorously derived.

Margaret expected fire safety engineers to be “tough enough to stand up to a good deal of questioning” and in turn “to be able to push other people in the same way: justify what you are saying if you expect to be taken seriously”.  For some therefore she was terrifying to justify a theory to – she had a fearsome reputation, and rightly so.  And this is also exactly why she was so deeply respected and so greatly admired.  She was a devoted, kind and patient teacher to those of us who were lucky enough to work with her, and all colleagues at Arup and others have greatly enjoyed sharing the stories and memories of Margaret through her great career.

There are two great monuments to Margaret’s lifetime achievement. The first is the body of her published work; the second is the worldwide consultancy practice of Arup Fire, now some 220 strong, and still growing. Margaret was a private and humble person.   We don’t know if she ever understood her influence, her global reputation, and the esteem with which she was held by so many.

Arup is looking to develop some lasting technical event, award, scholarship or other means to remember and celebrate the life of Margaret Law.

Peter Johnson,                                                 Barbara Lane

Arup Fellow, Melbourne                                Arup Fellow, London