In just a brief duration of time – in a few minutes or even in a fraction of a second – a fire or an explosion can have catastrophic consequences in residential buildings or in industrial plant.

Some single incidents cost millions of pounds, such as the Windsor Castle fire. The Sandoz industrial fire devastated 500 miles of the Rhine River. Explosion initiated fires can cause severe devastation: in the Piper Alpha disaster in the North Sea, 167 lives were lost and the financial loss exceeded a billion pounds sterling, and the explosion of a gas facility in San Juan Ixuatepec, Mexico killed 262. Loss of life in fires is commonplace and can be in large numbers, as in the Bradford football stadium fire and the Kings Cross fire. 

The total monetary cost of fire and explosions (of losses and safety provision) in the UK is estimated at £5 billion per year or approximately 1% of GDP. 

At present, professionals in fire protection engineering come from a variety of undergraduate degree backgrounds, including civil, chemical, mechanical and electrical engineering. Most gain their relevant fire and/or explosion expertise 'on-the-job' and by attending Continuing Professional Development short courses. 

A complex and fast changing legislative framework and a move towards performance based standards, necessitate a fundamentally based scientific / engineering approach to fire and explosion protection design, of multi-disciplinary and inter-disciplinary nature. There is therefore a strong national and international need for high level training in this area.

Key Features

• Most taught modules are delivered in intensive CPD one week format. Modules are spread evenly throughout the year.
• Extensive participation in course delivery by lecturers from industry brings strong industrial involvement to the training package.
• Projects can be undertaken in the workplace (part-time) or at the University (full time and part time).
• Block module format allows both full-time and part-time students a wide choice of modules.
• The taught modules are assessed by coursework and 'open book' tests; typically within a period of 6-10 weeks from start to finish.

Industrial Support

Key industrialists supported the application to the MTP scheme, and continue to do so; here are some of their comments.

Richard Chitty, Senior Project Engineer, Fire Safety Engineering Centre, Building Research Establishment, Watford.

'This MTP in Fire and Explosion addresses a new and growing activity where there is a need for well qualified professionals to apply performance based legislation and regulations by understanding and using Fire Safety Engineering techniques.'

Dr P Sandham, Senior Chemical Engineer, Manrochem Ltd, Huddersfield.

'As a practitioner in the UK chemical engineering industry I feel it is essential that the provision of CPD in this area should be increased. We as professionals need to have a greater appreciation of this in our design work.

I undertook a one week module in Fire, Flammablity and Explosions……..nowhere else, at any level, was I able to find an intensive and well structured course on Gas and Dust Explosion Protection Design.'

Dr Campbell Hope, Business Manager, CFX International, AEA Technology, Didcot.

'As a vendor of Computational Fluid Dynamic software it is clear that there is a growing demand from clients for information which gives greater confidence in the application of fire and safety related analysis tools. There is, however, a shortage of skilled software users who are able to select the appropriate software, apply it and correctly interpret the results in a relevant way. The MTP in Fire and Explosion will help to overcome this problem so you have our strong support for the project.'

Dr K J Patterson, SHE Advisor, Hickson International, Castleford.

'The sharing of experience in this field is vital to the continued safe operation of the process industries in the UK. We know that the public will continue to demand ever higher standards of SHE performance from us. To provide this we will need well trained people who understand the principles behind the potential problems with can occur. Courses such as this one contribute significantly to this.'

Mr Simon Lay, Director of Fire Engineering, WSP.

'Fire engineering has become commonplace in building design, driven by client requirements to continually push boundaries leading to much higher, larger and more complex buildings than ever before. Fire engineering has therefore evolved into an explicit function of the building design process both in the UK and overseas most noticeably in the Middle East, Korea, Africa and the US. Fire engineering is a now a major contributor to ensuring successful delivery of these buildings and as such the demand for, and expectations of, our fire engineers is great.

To fulfil the needs of this buoyant and vibrant market graduate engineers need to be skilled in the fundamentals of fire engineering, have a thorough understanding of legislative context, and be able to demonstrate the ability to think laterally and look for innovation opportunities. In addition to this, a thorough understanding of the building design process and the way that specialist engineering skills impact on this process are vital for a successful career in this growing sector.'

Further information 
  

A4 course leaflet (223KB PDF)

In addition to this programme, we also offer an MTP in Sustainable Energy Engineering.      Further details here