Fire Protection Engineering

While the craft of fire protection engineering is visible in every day life, few people know that it is indeed its own engineering discipline.  In short, fire protection engineering designs ways to protect people from fire.  Since any feature of the built environment is susceptible to the effects of fire, fire protection engineering is an engineering discipline that crosses over with other engineering disciplines and fields, including architecture, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, plumbing engineering, low voltage systems, and construction.  For this reason, fire protection engineering can be a difficult endeavor, and most practicing fire protection engineers have over 20 years of experience because it requires the knowledge of these other fields and of the many codes and standards within it.

The only engineering discipline that may be as heavily codified as fire protection engineering is structural engineering.  The implementation of fire protection engineering involves state and federal legislation, state codes, national codes and standards, fire testing data from national laboratories, and individual product listings.  The navigation of these requirements necessitates a technical expert, who is not only knowledgeable in the basic scientific principles of fire protection, but also the legal framework of it and how it is mandated in our society.  Fire protection engineering aims at life safety for the public and for firefighters, property protection, ensuring business continuity, and the preservation of the environment.