Civil Engineering August 2022 | Vol 30 No 7

Civil Engineering August 2022 47 He has burned down more than 70 full-scale houses for research purposes and has collaborated and published more than 30 interna- tional journal and conference papers with leading fire and structural engineers and researchers across the globe. He lectures in the prin- ciples of fire behaviour, structural fire engineering and fire modelling at Stellenbosch University. Antonio also supervises a number of PhD and master’s students working on structural and fire related topics. Guy Didcott Guy is a consulting engineer in fire and event risk environments. He holds a BSc and MSc in engineering and an IFE Diploma. He is currently self-employed and con- sults to the construction and events industry. Guy has focused his efforts in the fire in- dustry over the last five years, having started his career in mining and manufacturing en- vironments. He has found it particularly rewarding being engaged in multi-storey projects and sourcing appropriate solutions for clients. It continues to be a highlight to engage fellow specialists as the fire industry increasingly formalises in our local market and abroad. Guy assists with legislation and compliance aspects of the committee. Johannes (Johan) Maarten Jansen van Vuuren Johan is a director at MR Consulting. He holds a bachelors in housing development, a National Higher Diploma in civil engineering and has been an ECSA registered professional engineer technologist since 1994. He is also the vice-chair of the SAICE Limpopo Branch. Johan has accumulated over 35 years of experience in the built environment. He has participated in many continuous development courses and has made a point of growing his knowledge of the engineering industry as much as possible. He participated in a variety of civil and structural engineering fields including roads and stormwater, water reticulation, residential units and industrial buildings. He enjoys expanding his knowledge base and contributing to this field, protecting life, assets, and the environment. “Fire engineering is meticulous, and such a fast-growing field of engineering that every project poses new problems and mitigating factors. This means we, as fire engineers, get to build up our knowledge through finding solutions that benefit both client and higher authority,” says Johan. Johannes (Johan) Andries La Grange Pr Eng Johan is a fire engineering specialist who assists a number of consulting engineering practices with large and complex fire engi- neering solutions based on the FM Global and NFPA international standards. He holds a BEng and MEng in civil engineering. Johan has 42 years of civil engineering experience across all disciplines. This includes five years as a systems engineer in military equipment at Armscor, 20 years in petro-chemical systems and advance control engineering and ICT, and for the last 10 years in dedicated fire engineering doing more than 500 projects from simple to large hotels, shopping malls and factories. A highlight of his career has been large mining process fire sprinkler and detection projects, working on more than 20 mining and industrial fire protection projects based on FM Global >R100m, as well as the development of a unique solution for a specific high-risk plant by collaborating with experienced fire engineers from multiple countries. Johan was involved with the creation of SAICE’s Fire Engineering Division and creating a special Fire Rational Designer category with ECSA. Johan contributes to fire safety competence by training and consulting to create safer buildings, factories and mines for people in South Africa and reduces the risk and magnitude of fire events for owners. He manages training programmes for registra- tion purposes and supports universities with training for fire engineering industry needs. Prof. Richard Shaun Walls Pr Eng Richard is a professor of structural and fire engineering and heads up the Fire Engineering Research Unit at Stellenbosch University (FireSUN) which focusses on research and testing in areas including structural fire engineering, informal set- tlement fire safety, product development, post-fire assessments, 3D printed concrete in fire, and recycled material fire safety. His team is actively developing MEng and PhD programmes in fire engineering. Richard says the part of his career in fire engineering that he enjoys the most is getting to destroy things while making the world safer. He assists with the academic liaison, education and event organisation aspects of the committee. David Ronaasen Pr Tech Eng David started his career in 1968 in the City of Cape Town’s City Engineers Department. After two years he was offered the opportunity to move into the consulting engineering sphere. In 1971 he, being one of the juniors in the firm, was tasked with undertaking the design of wet services and firefighting installation within buildings. In 1989 he registered with ECSA and in 1992 the op- portunity to open his own consultancy practice was thrust upon him and is still going strong. Debbie Besseling Debbie has worked as a consultant to SAICE for nine years and is the technical divisions administrator for a number of SAICE’s divisions. With extensive experi- ence in public relations, communications, events management and publishing, Debbie specialises in the more technical fields of engineering and the mining sector. For the SAICE Fire Engineering Division specifically, she works on a number of portfolios including marketing and communications, as well as events and site visits. She constantly strives to raise the bar for the divisions whose aim is serve the members of SAICE, as well as the civil engineering sector.