This year marks the 40th Anniversary of fire safety engineering at the University of Edinburgh, the first and largest academic fire safety engineering department in the world, recognised internationally for its pioneering work and the delivery of some of the most significant pieces of fire analysis the industry has seen.
This included involvement in investigations into England’s Kings Cross underground rail fire in 1987, the fire in 1999 in the Mont Blanc vehicle tunnel that links France and Italy, the 9/11 World Trade Centre towers collapse in 2001 and the UK’s Buncefield oil storage terminal explosion and fire in 2005.
In particular, the fire safety engineering department ‘s seminal engineering analysis following the World Trade Centre collapses in 2001 led to the view that fire should be considered a core design load for buildings, which was not previously the case – a landmark achievement in itself.
