Civil Engineering August 2022 | Vol 30 No 7

46 August 2022 Civil Engineering SA I CE & Profess i onal News F ire safety is a very broad field in that it overlaps with almost all human activities. We traditionally think of fire safety in terms of fire trucks and possibly the red pipes in office buildings. However, fire safety engineering has a critical role to play in every building, transportation facility, educational institution, municipal infrastructure plan, as well as informal settlements. Being a part of growing local competence in the field of fire safety engineering is a core deliverable of the division. The division serves 364 members from across the country, with a large percentage of the membership being in the younger age group of 25 to 30, and 28.8% of its membership being females. Here we fea- ture the Fire Engineering Division’s committee, led by Jocelyn Evans. Jocelyn Camille Evans Pr Eng, PMSFPE Chairperson Jocelyn Evans is the managing director of Hofman & Evans. She is a specialist fire safety engineer, academically trained in the field and professionally registered with the Engineering Council of South Africa (ECSA) and the Society of Fire Protection Engineers. She holds a BEng (mechanical) from the University of Pretoria and an MSc (structural and fire safety engineering) from the University of Edinburgh. Jocelyn has worked in turnkey design, supply and install, as well as specialist consulting in the field of fire safety engineering. Risk assessment and application of appropriate internationally accepted codes of practice to effectively mitigate risk of fire and explosion in industrial and commercial settings form the basis of her approach. She has enjoyed collaboration with risk engineering divisions within the insurance industry, being a part of the professional team on construction projects, providing specialist consultation for loss adjusters, as well as providing expert opinion in legal matters working with both the attorneys and advocates. Michael John Hofman Pr Eng Vice Chairperson Mike is the founding member of Hofman & Evans and holds a Hons BEng (civil) from Stellenbosch University. Mike started in the construction sector, moving into wet services designs which introduced him to the wet systems of fire engineering. He has worked on a myriad of industrial special risk projects as well as being a 1980s ASIB ticket holder with vast experience in sprinkler and special risk design work. He is recognised by ECSA for his competency in fire engineering and also serves as an assessor for specialist practitioner applications in fire engineering disciplines for ECSA. Willem Albertus (Bert) Evert Pr Eng Tech Past Chairperson Bert is the owner of Fenco Fire Engineers and Consultants and specialises in the design of fire protection and suppression systems, as well as rational fire designs and certifications for a variety of buildings. He holds an N:Dip in fire. Bert has been involved in the develop- ment of new innovations such as the Wet Glass Protection System which gives laminated glass and framework a fire resistance, as well as the Tri Fluid Spray System for rack protec- tion which has been submitted for Agrèment certification. One of the highlights of his career was the creation of the Brandvlei research and development centre for fire protection systems. Through his work Bert says he saves lives and saves the economy from the devastation and destruction of fires. Sarel Odendaal Pr Eng Treasurer Sarel is the CEO at DSB Consulting Engineers. The company specialises in wet services and fire engineering with designs in accordance with SANS regulation as well as local and international standards (FM Global and NFPA). Designs include deem to satisfy up to detailed rational designs satisfying project and client requirements. Sarel says the best part of his career is being able to provide well developed and due diligent designs that exceed client expec- tations. After completion of such designs and installations it is encouraging to see the systems in action, knowing that they will be to the benefit of the occupants for both fire and wet services. Dr Antonio Cicione Antonio is a fire and structural engineer with an undergraduate degree in civil engineering and a PhD in fire engineering, both from Stellenbosch University. He is the Founder of CFS Engineering Consultants, a Fire Safety Engineer for Kindling and an Adjunct Senior Lecturer at Stellenbosch University. Antonio’s engineering firm has consulted on several projects, providing both fire safety services (smoke extraction design, sprinkler designs, fire investigations, council approval, rational fire designs, CFD modelling) and struc- tural design services. He has extensive experience designing and implementing fire experiments ranging from small-scale experi- ments at the University of Edinburgh to full-scale compartment fire experiments at the Underwriters Laboratories in Chicago. Meet SAICE’s Fire Engineering Division Established in 2018, the SAICE Fire Engineering Division is one of the South African Institution of Civil Engineering’s (SAICE) newest divisions.