DFC Director Neal Butterworth was an invited speaker at the BSi Fire Safety Conference in London on 23 November. The conference was chaired by Sir Ken Knight with the keynote speech given by London Fire Commissioner, Ron Dobson CBE.

In the words of Sir Ken, Neal’s talk, “Fire safety, the application of innovation in modern buildings,” gave a very fitting, thought provoking close to the day.

Neal’s key message was that the rate of change in building technologies, materials and construction methods is such that the lessons of the past are unlikely to remain valid, and a precedent lead approach to fire safety is insufficient on its own. A more comprehensive, knowledge based engineering must become the norm rather than the exception. We need to minimise life-cycle social, economic and environmental costs of fire, fire prevention and fire protection. Appropriate competence must be ensured throughout design, construction and operation of buildings. This requires education, honest and integrity about our own limitations and a collective intolerance of incompetence.

Getting this right is the only way to limit failures and enable successful, safe and economic buildings of the future.

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