Date: |
02 Dec 2025, 12.00PM – 1.00PM |
duration: |
1 hr |
Location: |
Online |
Cost: |
Free event |
Fire incidents from overseas can provide valuable lessons in how we approach fire safety in New Zealand. By studying major international fires, we gain insights into fire behaviour, regulatory gaps, and effective mitigation strategies. These lessons inform the development of our own building codes, standards, and design practices, ensuring that New Zealand benefits from global experience rather than repeating the same mistakes. Ongoing international events continue to highlight emerging risks, reinforcing the need for our codes to evolve in step with global best practice.
Presenter Bios
Kevin Frank has a PhD in Fire Engineering from the University of Canterbury and has been a Senior Fire Engineer in the Fire and Emergency Fire Engineering Unit for the past two years. Previously, Kevin was a fire research engineer at BRANZ where he led the Fire-Safe Densified Housing research programme and carried out research focusing on external fire spread, fire safety systems and fire risk assessment. As part one of this webinar series, he previously presented on Insights from emergency response and firefighting experience.
Devin Glennie is a Chartered Professional Fire Engineer and currently serves as the Principal Advisor Building Code at the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE). For the past two years, Devin has also been heavily involved in the Government’s review of the fire safety provisions of the Building Code. As part two of this webinar series, he previously presented on Lessons learned from fires in Aotearoa, New Zealand.
This is the final part of a series of webinars looking at the historical fire events. This session looks at fire incidents from around the world and some of the features in building codes from overseas that are absent in the New Zealand Building Code focusing on fires in Australia, Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom.
Fire incidents from overseas can provide valuable lessons in how we approach fire safety in New Zealand. By studying major international fires, we gain insights into fire behaviour, regulatory gaps, and effective mitigation strategies. These lessons inform the development of our own building codes, standards, and design practices, ensuring that New Zealand benefits from global experience rather than repeating the same mistakes. Ongoing international events continue to highlight emerging risks, reinforcing the need for our codes to evolve in step with global best practice.
Presenter Bios
Kevin Frank has a PhD in Fire Engineering from the University of Canterbury and has been a Senior Fire Engineer in the Fire and Emergency Fire Engineering Unit for the past two years. Previously, Kevin was a fire research engineer at BRANZ where he led the Fire-Safe Densified Housing research programme and carried out research focusing on external fire spread, fire safety systems and fire risk assessment. As part one of this webinar series, he previously presented on Insights from emergency response and firefighting experience.
Devin Glennie is a Chartered Professional Fire Engineer and currently serves as the Principal Advisor Building Code at the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE). For the past two years, Devin has also been heavily involved in the Government’s review of the fire safety provisions of the Building Code. As part two of this webinar series, he previously presented on Lessons learned from fires in Aotearoa, New Zealand.
