SFPE WEBINAR: THE JAPAN AND US FIRE SAFETY CONTRAST: VERIFYING FIRE AND LIFE SAFETY PERFORMANCE

https://www.sfpe.org/events/EventDetails.aspx?id=1364809&group=

Presented by: Joseph Vaughn, Japan and Pacific Rim Operations Director, Jensen Hughes

Join us for a case study for the construction of a new United States military medical/dental clinic in Japan. The facility was complex in terms of size, building use and operation, as well as the often conflicting fire and life safety requirements between the United States and Japan governments. The challenge was to ensure that the facility met both US and Japan society's accepted levels of fire and life safety performance in order to occupy building on time and on budget.

Joe Vaughn will discuss the project’s major challenges, including a holistic evaluation of the facility’s fire and life safety systems, determining equivalency, and evaluation of alternative approaches to life safety.  In addition, many fire and life safety engineering evaluations rely on basic performance assumptions.  What we find in practice is that we cannot expect what we do not inspect.

The project case study emphasizes the important role of fire protection engineering oversight in the commissioning verification and validation process.  It is also critical that the validation spans the system design; selection of materials, equipment, and hardware; installation, inspection and testing; and maintenance. The commissioning process identified and corrected critical installation issues that prevented crucial fire and life safety systems from operating at the desired level of performance.