What Can We Do for the Developing World? SFPE Denver Inspirational Talks

Arup's Ray Grill on the Denver Sunrise Sunrise Walk.

On Monday, the first conference day, early birds joined the Denver sunrise walk/run. For a jet-lagged Swede like me, waking up 4.45 am, it wasn't hard to make it for the 6.30 am scheduled walk. Conferences means sitting still a lot so starting the day off with a walk does the trick.

Following the introductions we got to hear where President Laurie Leshin of WPI presented "Inspiring Future Innovations", telling us her story and about really cool space exploration projects - a very exciting area for mankind and our (and possibly others) existence. There's always need for innovation in any business, not least in fire safety. Listening to leaders in other industries is very refreshing and a good (and new I believe) addition to the North America Conference.

Laurie Leshin of WPI holding a very inspiring talk on innovation. 

Finally, in the morning session we also had a talk on a subject that means something extra for me. We were fortunate to have Cathy Leslie speaking to us on "Engineering in Developing Countries" which is a very interesting topic in my opinion. Cathy is the CEO of Engineers Without Borders USA-branch. Globally, more people die in fires than in warfare and I do think that we as a global fire safety engineering community could do more. Cathy gave us interesting examples and also pressed the need for local support. It is also vital to have a good understanding of the third world problems. Applying rich world solutions to third world problems will not work.

CEO Cathy Leslie of Engineers Without Borders
delivering a highly relevant speech to SFPE.

However, I think we can look back in the history of the developed countries and see how fire protection developed. From the Swedish perspective, a simplified way to look at it is that we've gone from preventing cities from burning down, limiting the fires to a block of buildings, later being able to have fire walls and other measures to keep the fire within on building. In the later half of the 20th century we're protecting the compartments, and we're now using suppression systems and other measures to prevent the rooms, or even prevent ignition or growth. To some degree, this may be seen as a path of development. As society's develops and reaches a higher welfare level, it may be possible to add another level of fire safety. Recognizing this may help in finding the right level of fire protection for the risks that developing countries face.

I do believe that EWB is a natural partner for SFPE.  Most fire casualties are in the developing world and as a global engineering society I think SFPE has a unique opportunity to make a difference. What could SFPE and its members do for developing countries? Let me know what you think!