from Peter Thorby, Department of Building and Housing
I would like to clarify the purpose of a workshop being held in Auckland and Christchurch in September.
As you are probably aware, the Department has been working on the development of a method of verification for fire safety. This development has been presented at a number of conferences in New Zealand and overseas over the last two years.
The Department will be presenting an overview of the methodology at the FPA conference in September. The FPA conference is being held in combination with IFE, and there is a developing history of participation at the conference by professional fire engineers.
The method has now reached a stage that the Department is seeking the assistance of professional fire engineers to ‘road test’ the method.
The Department is seeking the assistance of a limited number of designers to use the methodology on designs that they are developing currently and provide feedback on the usability and results obtained from the methodology. Some BCA officials have been invited to provide comment from a BCA perspective.
To take advantage of the attendance at the FPA Conference of the target “trial users” community, the Department has chosen to convene a workshop for “trial users” at the conference to provide more in-depth guidance on the method for the purpose of trialling it.
Testing the method has also been organised as part of the ME (Fire) course at Canterbury University, and a Christchurch based workshop has been organised. This workshop has been opened up to intending “trial users” if they prefer to attend there.
I appreciate that some potential “trial users” may not be able to attend either of these workshops but unfortunately it is not possible to convene additional workshops.
I would like to emphasise that this is a technical test of the method, not a consultation on whether the method should be used or not. Any proposal to use the method for establishing Building Code compliance will be considered only after it has been “road tested” and will be fully consulted on.
Please contact me or Nick Saunders if you have any queries about the workshops.
Regards
Peter Thorby
Manager Building Standards Group
Department of Building and Housing