Belfast, Northern Ireland, known in recent years for its bloody riots and bombings, shook some of its old ways and laid out the welcome mat for the 77th Annual General Meeting of the Institution of Fire Engineers at the end of July.

None of the ugliness was seen during the three days of meetings, and delegates from 23 countries enjoyed the hospitality of Chief Fire Officer John McClelland of the Northern Ireland Fire Brigade and president of the ife Northern Ireland Branch. In addition to the ife meetings, he and his staff hosted the U.K./yU.S. Fire Service Symposium and the U.K. Division of the cuees Extrication Challenge. [Ed: See "In the Belfast lane," page 51.]

The first day of meetings was consumed by the ife International Council, the governing body of the organization, which announced the new international president for 2000-01 as cfo John Herrick, Lincolnshire Fire Brigade. He will oversee the 45 worldwide branches and 11,000 members during the next year.

The International Affairs Committee met to review a document proposing structural changes in the organization as well as increasing its design to serve the growing international membership. Originally a United Kingdom-based organization, the ife has expanded to every continent except Antarctica, and 40% of its members are from outside the United Kingdom.

The final day was reserved for educational sessions, with the presentation of a series of papers on the theme "Safe Bet! Investing in the Science of Safety." The speakers came from four continents and presented a variety of topics.

Performance-based codes. Prof. Jim Shields, University of Ulster, asserted that the current interest in performance-based design for fire codes is politically driven. He noted that it will still take another 20 years for the fire service to realize the benefits of this change.

Natural and man-made disasters. Fidel Ogbogoh of Abuja, Nigeria, held everyone's attention as he detailed several disasters around the globe, both man-made and natural, where it was most likely that mankind was guilty of causing the disaster.

Highlighting some hazmat incidents, floods, tornadoes and droughts, he hinted that all were the result of human intervention or carelessness, the impact of industrialization on the world's ecosystem and the failure to conscientiously manage our surroundings.

South African equality and diversity. cfo Donald Sparks brought everyone up to date on the last 20 years of the Cape Town (South Africa) Fire and Emergency Services. During apartheid, only whites could join trade unions, blacks could not move freely around the country and certain occupations were color-restricted, including firefighters.

Today, policies stipulate that fire crews must represent the demographics of the communities they serve. In 1988 the first "colored" station officers were appointed, and today the department is fully integrated and about 6% female.

Intervention strategies when systems fail. The research of Dennis Davis, H.M. Chief Inspector of Fire Services for Scotland, showed that fire growth and human behavior are not well defined in developing fire service intervention strategies, which led him to ask, "How do we audit fire service intervention in a structural fire for its effectiveness?"

He noted that if we want to incorporate intervention strategies into fire safety engineering and begin to develop standards to measure effectiveness, we need to collect data pertaining to human and equipment resources, tactics, structural integrity and post-fire analysis. Few models have been developed to track such data, but one from Australia seems to be the most promising to date.

Workplace accidents. Kate O'Brien, Salford University, issued "A Wake Up Call" to the U.K. fire service, stating that it's on the verge of receiving notices from the Home Office for workplace accidents caused through negligence. Notices are the equivalent to U.S. grand jury indictments.

Firefighter deaths are on the rise, and O'Brien contends that workplace fatalities are caused by the failure of safety management systems. In short, she believes workplace accidents are acts of manslaughter. During subsequent discussion, the Washington, D.C., case was brought up, in which the family of a firefighter killed in the line of duty sued the fire department for wrongful death. Immunity is now a thing of the past.

Community involvement in fire safety. Chief Bill Peterson reviewed the evolution of community fire safety in Plano, Texas. Beginning in the 1980s with master planning and continuing through today, the community has actively participated in both national and local safety programs, enjoying an envious safety record of no fire deaths in over 18 years.

Several other excellent presentations are profiled in the the conference proceedings, which will be published later this month.