Fire safety in a changing world: FRA and wildfire management updates

This event, hosted by IFE Northern Ireland branch, will consist of two presentations. The first 'The future of Fire Risk Assessment', will be presented by IFE CEO Steve Hamm. With multiple changes in legislation there is now a new regime placing greater emphasis on fire risk assessors. Steve will explore the future of fire risk assessment and discuss the importance of quality professionals, how we ensure competency and the IFE’s work on future career pathways to support this change in legislation.

The second presentation 'An introduction to wildfires, with first-hand observations from the 2025 California wildfires' will be delivered by Joe Hart. In this talk Joe Hart provides an introduction to wildfires, including relevant case studies and the current standards in place for design, mitigation and management of large-scale wildfire events. The session includes an overview of current state-of-the-art research being undertaken at Delta Research & Development, as well as detailed analysis of observations taken from Los Angeles in January 2025, including of the fire dynamics, smoke plume development and operational firefighting tactics deployed. The session is intended to provide an introduction and high-level overview of the risks associated with wildfires and the reasons for the rapid increase in both frequency and severity of wildfires across the world; as well as a unique insight into the 2025 Palisades wildfire event, the most destructive in the history of Los Angeles.

Host or Publisher Institution of Fire Engineers