International Fire Conference & Exhibition Malaysia 2012

Kuala Lumpur Convention Center,20-22 November 2012

WELCOME

In collaboration with institution of Fire Engineers Malaysia(IFEM) and Malaysian Fire Protection Association (MFPA), once again Fire and Rescue Department Malaysia (FRDM) is organizing the biggest International Fire Conference and Exhibition in Malaysia in 2012.

With full of excitement and enthusiasm, the International Fire Conference and Exhibition in Malaysia in 2012, IFCEM 2012, will become a major platform to harmonize issues and technology on fire safety, sustainability, disaster management, fire and rescue operational protocol and experiences.

All professional leader in this expanding field are invited to experience this show case, designed to keep the industrial player ahead of tomorrow

SESSION THEME

Sustainable Built Environment - Life Safety Perspective

Fire Safety ChallengesFire Safety Engineering in the Changi

ng WorldPrevention is Better Than Cure

Sustainable Built Environment – Life Safety Perspective

Keynote Paper 1 : Fire Safety – The Way ForwardDato’ Wan Mohd Nor Bin Haji Ibrahim MIFireE, Director General, Fire and Rescue Department Malaysia, Malaysia

Paper 1 : Challenges for Fire Services in the Modern Built Environment

Mr Guy Foster, Group Manager, London Fire Brigade, United Kingdom

Paper 2 : Sustainable Fire Safety Engineering is the Future Engr. HG Tay FIFireE, I.P. International President, The Institution of Fire Engineers, Malaysia

Paper 3 : Green and Safe Materials-Compatibility of Conflict Professor Jose Torero, Professor of Civil Engineering and Head of School University of Queensland, Australia

Fire Safety Challenges

Keynote Paper 2 : Home Fire Safety - Protecting What We Value Most Mr Gary Keith, Vice President, National Fire Protection Association, United States of America

Paper 4 : Fire Safety for Subway Systems in Hong KongProfessor Chow Wan-ki, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong

Paper 5 : Effective High-rise Fire Fighting ProceduresMr William A. Stewart FIFireE, Retired Fire Chief, Toronto Fire Services, Canada

Fire Safety Engineering in the Changing World

Paper 6 : Fire Safety Challenges Mr Mahmut Horasan, Director, Scientific Fire Services, Australia

Paper 7 : Addressing Real and Perceived Barriers to the Use of Performance Based Design for Fire Safety in BuildingsProfessor Ian Thomas, Victoria University, Australia

Paper 8 : The Future of Performance Based Codes Dr Charles Fleischmann, University of Canterbury, New Zealand

Prevention is Better Than Cure

Paper 9 : Proving an Electrical Fire 1

Proving an Electrical Fire 2

Mr Ronnie Liem, Principal Engineer, Investigative Sciences,

United States of America

Paper 10 : Approach to Fire Investigation Mr Tan Jin Thong FIFireE, President, The Institution of Fire Engineers Singapore Branch, Singapore

SPEAKER Session Chairman : Mr Peter Holland CBE OStJ QFSM FIFireE Keynote Speaker 1: Dato’ Wan Mohd Nor Bin Haji Ibrahim MIFireE Speaker: Mr Guy Foster Speaker : Eng. Hao-giang Tay B.Sc. (Hons), M.Sc. FIFireE Speaker : Professor José L. Torero Session Chairman: Datuk (Dr) Soh Chai Hock FIFireE Keynote Speaker 2: Mr Gary S. Keith Speaker: Professor Chow Wan-ki Speaker: Mr William A. Stewart FiFireE, CFO, CMM Session Chairman: Mr Roy Bishop OBE QFSM BA (Hons) FIFireE Speaker: Mr Mahmut B. N. Horasan Speaker: Professor Ian R Thomas BE (Hons), PhD Speaker: Dr Charles Fleischmann Session Chairman: Ar Chee Soo Teng MIFireE Speaker: Mr Ronnie Liem Speaker :Mr Tan Jin Thong PGP, BBM, MIAAI (USA), FIFireE

Session Chairman : Mr Peter Holland CBE OStJ QFSM FIFireEChairman of IFE Board of Directors

Peter Holland has been the Chief Fire Officer of Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service since July 1999. Mr Holland was previously Chief Fire Officer of Bedfordshire and Luton Fire and Rescue Service from September 1995 until June 1999, prior to that he was Deputy Chief Fire Officer with Lancashire, where he held that position from October 1992. Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service was the only Service to be awarded ‘Excellent’ status by the Audit Commission in the Comprehensive Area Assessment.

 President of the UK Chief Fire Officers’ Association (CFOA) from Sept 2010 to Sept 2011. He was elected in June 2009 onto the USA based National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) Board of Directors. He is Chairman of the Institution of Fire Engineers (IFE) and also a Past International President (1997/8).   He established the National Fire Sprinkler Network in the UK (July 1998) in conjunction with a UK Member  

of Parliament following work during his presidential year to promote an increased use of sprinklers in both industrial and residential properties,  and was Chairman for 10 years.  The Network successfully convinced the Government to change the Building Regulations to improve sprinkler protection in large single storey retail building and schools and has significantly increased sprinkler protection for life and property protection.

From 2004 to 2009, Peter was Chairman of Fire Conferences and Exhibitions Ltd (FCEL), which organises the largest annual fire conference and exhibition in the UK. He has spoken at many international fire conferences in Malaysia, New Zealand, Australia, Hong Kong, USA, Ireland, Belgium, Germany, Canada and India He started his career in Bristol Fire Brigade in 1972 - the fourth generation in his family to enter the profession.  As the Chief Fire Officer for Lancashire, he is continuing a family tradition.  His father, Sir Kenneth Holland, and his grandfather Percy Holland, were Chief Fire Officers, whilst his great grandfather, Charles, was a Firefighter in Dudley from 1890 to 1914.  

Session Chairman : Mr Peter Holland CBE OStJ QFSM FIFireEChairman of IFE Board of Directors

Following service with Bristol Fire Brigade which became Avon FB, Peter Holland moved to Cheshire as a Station Officer working at Chester and Widnes.  Promotion to Assistant Divisional Officer took him to West Yorkshire where he served on the Bradford Division, Headquarters and Calderdale. During this period he was promoted to Divisional Officer in Fire Safety. 

Two year's later Peter Holland was appointed Recruitment and Training Officer in Staffordshire Fire and Rescue Service and later became Divisional Commander in that County's North Division, based at Stoke-on-Trent, before being appointed Assistant Chief Fire Officer in August 1990. He was awarded the CBE in the 2010 New Year Honours list. In 1997 he was awarded the Queen's Fire Service Medal for distinguished service in Her Majesty's Birthday Honours List and was appointed an Officer of the Order of St John of Jerusalem in 1998.  He was also awarded the Queen’s Golden Jubilee Medal in 2002, the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal in 2012 and the Queen’s Long Service and Good Conduct Medal in 1992. In 2006, Peter received a special Public Health Award from the Regional Director of Public Health and he was also made an Honorary Fellow of the University of Central Lancashire in 2009. He was presented with a CFOA Recognition Award for Outstanding Leadership in 2011 by Bob Neill MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State. Peter Holland’s hobbies are classic cars, cycling and golf.  He was the Chairman of the UK Fire Service Sports and Athletics Association in 1996/97. Peter Holland is married with four children and six grandsons and four granddaughters.  He was born in Accrington, Lancashire in April 1954.

Keynote Speaker: Dato’ Wan Mohd Nor Bin Haji Ibrahim MIFireEDirector General, Fire and Rescue Department Malaysia

Dato’ Wan Mohd Nor Bin Hj. Ibrahim has been the Director General of Fire &

Rescue Department Malaysia since 2010. He graduated with B. Sc. from University

Kebangsaan Malaysia and M. Sc. from University of Putra Malaysia. In 1997, he was

trained at Fire Service College, UK completing the Brigade Command Course. His

vision is to turn the Fire & Rescue Department Malaysia into a world class fire rescue

service in land, sea and air fire fighting and search & rescue operations. On top of

his official duty as head of the FRDM, he is also actively involved in professional

associations; He holds the presidency in The Institution of Fire Engineers (UK)

Malaysia Branch (IFEM) for 2009/2011 and past president of The Institution of

Master in Disaster and Emergency Management Malaysia (IMDEMM).

Dato Wan Mohd Nor Ibrahim believes in learning technical issues through

fundamentals and has conducted various technical visits to EN listed laboratory in

Germany, fire equipment and system manufacturing plants in Europe as well as

many other countries to understand the construction of the equipment and the

quality assurance of the entire process.

His is also the Chairman for Industrial Standards Committee for fire Safety and

Prevent which oversees several technical committees and working groups in

development of Malaysian National Standards. Understand the importance of

National Standards development for the fire industry, he as the President of IFE

Malaysia Branch visited DIN headquarters in Berlin to learn from one of the oldest

Standard development agencies in the world.

Speaker: Mr Guy FosterGroup Manager Head of Fire and Arson Investigation & Senior Fire Engineer London Fire Brigade

I have served in the Fire Brigade now for 28 years starting my career in East Sussex Fire and Rescue Service and moving to London Fire Brigade in 1994.

 I have held a variety of positions in the Fire Service but with considerable emphasis on fire safety and fire engineering experience. This has included periods of time as a fire safety enforcing officer, a team leader for fire safety teams in Central London, an area Group Manager in North East London - which included the monitoring of fire safety enforcement activities around Olympic venues - and more recently becoming responsible for managing the Brigades Fire and Arson Investigation section. I still maintain an operational responsibility for attending incidents in the roles of Incident command, Fire Safety advisor or Press liaison officer.  I qualified as a fire engineer in 2004 and spent 5 years as a technical officer reviewing and advising on fire engineering strategies across London. Some of the more notable projects included Wembley National Football Stadium, The Dome, refurbishment of the Savoy hotel and numerous large scale residential projects. I have also assisted on reviewing some of the strategies for venues recently seen during the Olympics and Paralympics in London. I have been responsible for the fire safety audit and enforcement activities for the North East Area of London. This involved a considerable range of enforcement approaches from general fire safety advice to the prosecutions of responsible people in premises where significant fire safety failings were identified. I have recently returned to the fire engineering department as a Senior Fire Safety Engineer responsible for the review of fire safety engineering strategies as well as managing the day to day aspects of the fire engineering policies and procedures whilst maintaining the dual responsibility of the management of Fire Investigation. I am an avid (but poor!) golf enthusiast – and enjoy the occasional motorcycle tour across parts of Europe when the weather and time permit. I am 50 years old married to Sue with two children and two beautiful grandchildren and live in East Sussex in South East England.

Speaker : Eng. Hao-giang Tay B.Sc. (Hons), M.Sc. FIFireEIP International President The Institution of Fire Engineers

Engineer Hao-Giang Tay is a qualified and experienced Fire Engineer. He is a

graduate of University of Edinburgh UK, with a Master of Science Degree in Fire

Safety Engineering. As the principal consultant of Fire Safety Engineering Sdn Bhd,

he has over 33 years of experience in fire engineering. His firm provides advice and

consultancy service to corporate clients with a holistic approach to sustainable fire

safety engineering. He is also involved in performance-based fire safety design.

Having served the Institution of Fire Engineers Malaysia Branch and at the head

office in United Kingdom, he is elected as a member of Board of Directors since

2006 and subsequently IFE’s International President at last AGM in July 2011. He is

a

 

permanent technical committee member of Industrial Standard Committee for Fire Safety and Prevention in Malaysia.

He also chairs the Technical Committee for Fire Properties of Building Materials. With his knowledge and experience,

he is appointed a council member of the Fire and Rescue Department Malaysia and Professional Technical Council.

This council deliberates fire engineering issues and problems for Malaysian construction industry and provides

recommendations and solutions for adoption as national policies.

He co-authored the technical reference book “Guide to Fire Protection in Malaysia” which is an explanatory guide to

Uniform Building By-law 1984 (Building Regulation of Malaysia). He has been invited as speakers at international

conferences in countries such as United States of America, Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore, China, Philippines, India,

Taiwan, India, England, Scotland, South Africa, Netherlands, Republic of Ireland and United Arab Emirate on topics

related to fire engineering concept, life safety and fire protection design.

 

On the personal level, he has conducted many studies to establish the way forward for sustainable fire engineering

concept and published the findings. He lectures part-time in a local university in Master of Science Degree in Building

Services Engineering. His student conduct field research projects in fire safety for highrise buildings.

Speaker : Eng. Hao-giang Tay B.Sc. (Hons), M.Sc. FIFireEIP International President The Institution of Fire Engineers

Speaker : Professor José L. Torero Professor of Civil Engineering and Head of School, University of Queensland, Australia

José L. Torero joined The University of Queensland in 2012 as Professor of Civil

Engineering and Head of School. He came from The University of Edinburgh where

he was the Head of the Institute for Infrastructure and Environment, BRE Trust/

RAEng Professor of Fire Safety Engineering and Director of the BRE Centre for Fire

Safety Engineering.

He previously held the Landolt & Cia Chair in Innovation for a Sustainable Future at École

Polytechnique Fédéral de Lausanne (Switzerland), Associate Professor at the University of

Maryland (USA) and Charge de Recherche at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique

(France). He is a fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, the Royal Society of Edinburgh and

the Building Research Establishment. In 2008 he was awarded the Arthur B. Guise Medal by the

Society of Fire Protection Engineering and in 2011 the Rasbash Medal from the Institution of Fire

Engineers (UK). He is the author of a book and more than 500 other technical documents for

which he has received multiple awards. He is currently the Editor-in-Chief of Fire Safety Journal

and the vice-Chair of the International Association for Fire Safety Science.

Session Chairman: Datuk (Dr) Soh Chai Hock FIFireE Chairman National Fire Prevention Council

Datuk Dr CH Soh was the founding President of the Institution of  Fire Engineers United

Kingdom Malaysia Branch and a Fellow of the Insitution. He is the specialist Advisor to the

1MDB Kuala Lumpur New Financial Centre and the National Chairman of the Malaysian

Fire Prevention Council under the Patronship of the Minster of Housing and Local

Goverment YB Dato  Seri Chor Chee Hiong He was the Chief Editor for the Guide for Fire

Protection in Malaysia and  the Adjunct Professor for the Master of Science programe in

University Putra Malaysia.  In 1997 he was appointed to sit on the United Nations Fire

Expert Committee in Geneva.

 

In 1999 he retired as Director General of the Malaysia Fire and Rescue Services after

transforming the service into a multi-discipline organization with Land, sea and air response

capabilities. The Asian Productivity Organisation, Tokyo, Japan appointed him as the the

Fire Expert for the Goverment to Goverment Green Productivity Programe for 20 Asia

Pacific Countries. Since his retirement from the Public sector he is still active in both the

public and private sectors.  He was the Director for Proton Automobil (M) Sdn Bhd, Proton

Edar. Sdn Bhd, Asia Insurance (M) Bhd, HOPU Investment Management Co Ltd, ZODD

Design Sdn Bhd and FITTERS  Diversified Berhad.

Keynote Speaker: Mr Gary S. KeithVice President, Field OperationsNational Fire Protection Association

Gary Keith is NFPA’s Vice President, Field Operations, overseeing six divisions

within the organization: Regional Operations, International Operations, Fire Analysis

& Research, Public Education, Wildland Fire Operations and Government Affairs.

Gary has presided over the Home Fire Sprinkler Coalition, a project dedicated to

public education for residential fire sprinkler systems, since its inception in 1996.

 

Prior to coming to NFPA in 1995, Gary worked 15 years for Factory Mutual in

Norwood (Mass.) in various field engineering and management positions. During

that time, he served on several NFPA technical committees and chaired the Pre-

Incident Planning committee. He also served his home town community for 20 years

as a call firefighter and fire protection engineer with the West Bridgewater (Mass.)

Fire Department.

 

Gary has a B.S. degree in mechanical engineering from Wentworth Institute of

Technology and is a graduate of the Management Development certificate program

from Harvard Business School.

Speaker: Professor Chow Wan-kiHead, Department of Building Services Engineering The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Professor W.K. Chow is the Chair Professor of Architectural Science and Fire Engineering

at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. He is also the Head of the Department of

Building Services Engineering since 2009. Professor Chow started his teaching career at

Hong Kong Polytechnic as an Assistant Lecturer in 1981, promoted to Chair Professor in

1998. Currently, he teaches graduate level courses on Fire Dynamics, Fire Engineering

Systems, and overseeing student research projects and dissertations.

He has published over 450 refereed journal articles. Professor Chow has graduated 300

MSc/MPhil students and supervised 50 PhD students. He also leads the Research Centre for Fire

Engineering at the University, and the former Area of Strength: Fire Safety Engineering. He is the

Editor–in-Chief of the International Journal on Engineering Performance-Based Fire Codes and

International Journal on Architectural Science. He is active in performance-based design, assisting

government to approve big construction projects and mentoring officers. Professor Chow is the

President of the Asia-Oceania Association for Fire Science and Technology and the Founding

President of the Society of Fire Protection Engineers (SFPE) - Hong Kong Chapter.  He was

awarded the Nelson Service Award in 2006 and John L. Bryan Mentor Award in 2011 by SFPE.

Speaker: Mr William A. Stewart FiFireE, CFO, CMMRetired Fire Chief Toronto Fire Services 

Bill served as Fire Chief for the Toronto Fire Services from May 1, 2003 to April 30,

2012 at which time he retired from the service after serving 39 years. Prior to the

amalgamation of the new City of Toronto on January 1, 1998, Bill served in the

former City of North York Fire Department for 26 years. He served as an operations

fire fighter, Captain, Administration Chief, Assistant Deputy, Deputy Chief and was

the Fire Chief from May 1, 2003 to April 30, 2012.

 

Bill currently serves as a Director and a Past International President of the Institution of Fire

Engineers and is a Past President of the Metropolitan Fire Chiefs Association, International

Association of Fire Chiefs/National Fire Protection Association. He is also a Past President

of the Institution of Fire Engineers (Canada Branch), has served as a member of the

Professional Standards Setting Body, Ontario Fire College, in the review of all standards for

fire fighter training in Ontario, is a past Advisory Board Member of Humber College, Fire

Services Program, and past member of the Board of Directors for the Fire Marshal’s Public

Fire Safety Council. Bill is committed to lifelong learning, and is currently serving as a Board

Member for Public Administration and Governance, Ryerson University.

Session Chairman: Mr Roy Bishop OBE QFSM BA (Hons) FIFireEInternational President The Institution of Fire Engineers

Roy has been a member of the IFE for over thirty years and has been a Director and

Trustee for the past three. He was a member of the London Branch of the IFE and a past

branch President. He believes that the IFE is uniquely placed to support all those who work

in, or are protected by, the ‘fire industry’ worldwide.

Roy currently works as a training consultant for the design and delivery of training to fire

services internationally.

Prior to this Roy served for over thirty years in the London Fire Brigade and concluded his career

in the fire service as Deputy Commissioner (1999-2009). This varied and challenging role entailed

the responsibility for 6,500 staff and 112 fires stations, and the strategic management of LFB’s

annual £250 million service delivery budget. Roy’s responsibilities covered a broad range of

functions including Operations, Community Safety, Regulatory Fire Safety, Equalities, Operational

Policy, Health and Safety and Command and Mobilising (Dispatch).

 

Roy spent five years managing Training and Development for the London Fire Brigade and was

involved in the implementation of The Integrated Personal Development System (IPDS). As

Deputy Commissioner Roy was the Brigade’s most senior commander at a large proportion of the

major incidents which occurred across London in the previous decade. During this time (and in

his previous role as Assistant Commissioner) he has attended numerous large structure fires,

bomb/terrorist incidents and other major incidents. Roy has briefed at the most senior levels of

central UK government and has had a leading role in advising key London politicians on fire

service related issues.

Speaker: Mr Mahmut B. N. HorasanDirector, Scientific Fire Services, Australia

Mahmut Horasan has been involved in fire and risk engineering consultancy,

education and research since early 1990s. He is a Director of Scientific Fire Services

Pty Limited. Mahmut Horasan has Chartered Professional Engineering accreditation

in Australia and is registered as a fire safety engineer in a number of jurisdictions.

 

Over the last 20 years he has been involved in more than 800 fire safety engineering assessments

in different countries, varying from large shopping complexes to exhibition centres, airports,

tunnels, sporting facilities, multi-storey office buildings and hospitals. Since the year 2000 he

participated in numerous projects in Malaysia as a fire safety engineer and he is highly familiar

with the local building and fire safety industry.

 

Mahmut was a senior lecturer at Victoria University and he continues teaching in various post

graduate courses and seminars on Fire Safety Engineering. He also was an active member of the

committee which produced the International Fire Safety Engineering Guidelines (2005).

His specific areas of interest include performance based fire engineering techniques, probabilistic

risk assessments, human behaviour in fires and behavioural simulation modelling of evacuations.

Mahmut Horasan is the author of many papers and he previously presented papers at many

conferences.

Speaker: Professor Ian R Thomas BE (Hons), PhDHonorary Professor CESARE, Victoria University, Australia

Professor Thomas is an Honorary Professor at the Centre for Environmental Safety

and Risk Engineering (CESARE) at Victoria University in Melbourne, Australia. He

was Director of CESARE from 1999 to 2010. In this role he was responsible for

research related to fire safety engineering and for graduate courses in fire

engineering and performance based codes conducted by CESARE.

Prior to this appointment he was for twenty years with the BHP Melbourne Research

Laboratories where he was responsible for engineering research. He helped initiate and

was involved in the Warren Centre project on Fire Safety and Engineering that led to the

adoption of performance based design for buildings in Australia. He is particularly interested

in the use of risk based approaches to design for fire safety in buildings and in the influence

on the level of fire safety in buildings of human behaviour and activities. He has been

involved in fire engineering research and design for fire safety in buildings for over 30

years.

Speaker: Dr Charles FleischmannAssociate Professor, University of Canterbury, New Zealand

Charley Fleischmann is an Associate Professor at the University of Canterbury

where he has been a major contributor to the Graduate Fire Engineering Program

since it’s inception in 1994. Charley received his Bachelors degree in Fire Protection

Engineering from the University of Maryland and his Masters and PhD from the

University of California at Berkeley. Much of his research focuses on fire modelling

both experimentally and numerically with particular interest in compartment fire

phenomena including backdraft and flashover.

 

Charley has over 25 years of experience in fire engineering research and practice.

His consulting work includes fire cause, origin, and development as well as specialist

consulting on fire design issues. He has given expert witness testimony in civil,

criminal, and family court. Since 2004, he has served on the Fire Advisory Panel for

the New Zealand Department of Building and Housing. In 2006 he was engaged as

a consultant to work on developing a new framework for performance based design

for fire safety in New Zealand. He has over 100 academic and professional

publications and has presented many invited and key note presentations

international

Session Chairman: Ar Chee Soo Teng MIFireEPresident, The Institution of Fire Engineers (UK) Malaysia Branch

Chee Soo Teng graduated with a Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Strathclyde

in Glasgow in 1981 and worked for the Strathclyde Regional Council for two years. He

returned to Malaysia in 1983 and worked for the Malaysian Architectural firm of TRHamzah

and Yeang for 5 years before joining Sunrise Bhd, a Malaysian property developer in 1988.

He is currently Senior Partner at ARC Partnership, a 45 strong architectural practice which

he started in 1990 with his partner.

The practice carries out a whole range of commissions from township master planning to

architecture ranging from corporate offices to mass housing in Malaysia and Vietnam. He was a

Council Member of the Malaysian Institute of Architects (PAM) (2000-2002) and is currently the

President of the IFE (UK) Malaysia Branch. Ar Chee sits on the Board of Architects Malaysia

Examination Council in addition to regularly lecturing and running seminars for both the IFE (UK)

Malaysia Branch as well as the Institute and Board of Architects Malaysia covering a range of

subjects from Contracts to Strata Titles.

 

He is currently a member of the Joint Committee for Fire and Rescue Services Department and

Professionals in Malaysia as well as the Malaysian Standards Department Committee for Fire

Industry Standards. Mr Chee was one of the drafting committee members for the PAM Forms of

Building Contract 2006 as well as Co Author of the “Handbook for PAM Contract 2006”. He was

also contributing writer to both editions of the Guide to Fire Protection In Malaysia published as a

joint effort of the Fire And Rescue Department Malaysia, IFE (UK) Malaysia Branch and the

Malaysian Institute of Architects (PAM).

Speaker: Mr Ronnie LiemPrincipal Engineer, Investigative Sciences 

Ronnie Liem, Principal Engineer and IAAI-Certified Fire Investigator, founded

Investigative Sciences, a forensic engineering company specializing in the

investigation of fires and explosions involving electrical systems and electro-

mechanical machinery. He has extensive field experience in investigating electrical

accidents and fires in industrial, marine, and structural settings.

He is an expert in laboratory failure analysis and testing of household

appliances, as well as industrial electro-mechanical systems. Ronnie has

performed over 1,200 in-depth forensic analyses of various sizes since 1985.

His diverse set of investigation experience includes a $1.2 billion wild land fire

that burned over 1,000 homes due to an arcing power line, a $600 million

explosion loss of an aluminum processing plant, a $60 million fire loss in a

food processing plant allegedly caused by a utility power fluctuation, a severe

burn injury house explosion caused by a natural gas leak, an $8 million yacht

fire, and multiple fatality residential fires.

Prior to founding Investigative Sciences in 1994, Ronnie was a Senior

Engineer for Failure Analysis Associates, a Research Scientist for Sigma

Research, a Technical Consultant for The Aerospace Corporation, and a

Research Engineer in the University of Washington's Applied Physics

Laboratory.  Ronnie holds a Master's of Science (1979) and a Bachelor's of

Science (1976) degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of

Washington, where he graduated Tau Beta Pi, Phi Beta Kappa, and magna

cum laude. Ronnie has lectured in numerous US public agency fire seminars

and for the Taiwan National Fire Agency in the area of electrical fire

investigation.

Speaker :Mr Tan Jin Thong PGP, BBM, MIAAI (USA), FIFireEPresident, The Institution of Fire Engineers Singapore Branch 

Mr Tan Jin Thong is a former Director of Singapore Fire Service and Deputy

Commissioner of Singapore Civil Defence Force with 37 years of experience in Fire

Service operation. A Fire/Arson Investigator consultant by profession, he is currently

a Fellow of the Institution of Fire Engineers and the President of the IFE Singapore

Branch. He is also a member of International Association of Arson Investigators

(USA).

 

He was awarded the Colombo Plan Scholarship in 1974 to attend the Fire

Administration Course in Japan; awarded the United Nation Development Program

(UNDP) in1980 to study in USA Fire and Arson Investigation; Incident Command in

Highrise Building fires; fighting oil and flammable liquid fires and operational risks

analysis in the National Fire Academy with attachments to various Fire Departments

for on the job training including Seattle Arson Squad. Throughout his career, he also

attended Divisional Command Course in Fire Service College, Moreton-in-March;

Fire Dynamics Simulation course; NFPA course o Flammable/Combustible Liquid

Code and Confined Space Safe Practice.

 

Apart from conducting fire investigation, he provides fire/arson investigation training

course for engineers of Emirates National Oil Corporation, fire department in Dubai

and insurance companies in the Middle East region. He often serves as fire /arson

investigation expert witness and has been engaged by International Under Writer

Corporation to undertake fire/arson investigation cases in Asian countries. In

recognition of his participation as grass root leaders in community service, he has

received many Singapore National Awards/Medals for service rendered.