the institution of fire engineers...and negligible false alarm rate) - train and metro tunnels...

N O V E M B E R - D E C E M B E R I S S U E 2 0 1 2

President

Vice

President

Honorary Secretary

Honorary Treasurer

Tan Jin Thong PGP, BBM

FIFireE, MIAAI (US)

Azmi b Adam FIFireE

Yeow Mei Leng FIFireE

K Ramanathan GIFireE

Koh Soon Chuang MIFireE

Chairman of Examination Committee

Dan Chong Kok Hoe MIFireE

Chairman of Education Committee

Ivan Sin Siang Meng MIFireE

Chairman of Membership Committee

K Ramanathan GIFireE

Chairman of Social Committee

Chiam Boon Hui MIFireE

Chairman of Publication Committee

Vincent Leong Kuan Yu MIFireE

Webmaster

Michael Mok Aik Chin AFFireE

Vijay Rajaram MIFireE

David Goh King Siang AFFireE

-

Council Members

SINGAPORE

THE INSTITUTION OF FIRE ENGINEERS

Executive Council

Members

Singapore Branch

Guangdong Summit Forum

The Guangdong Summit Forum was held on 19 September 2012 in Guangzhou in

conjunction with the Annual Meeting of the China Fire Protection Association

(CFPA). The Summit Forum was attended by over 420 delegations from fire

departments and fire protection associations of most provinces in China.

Speaking at the Summit Forum were Dr Siew Yee Cheong from Singapore, Joe

Kwok from Hong Kong, Zhao Kang from Taiwan, Sun Jin Hua from Beijing and Ni

Yang from Guangzhou.

The topic that our former vice president, Dr Siew Yee Cheong, presented was Fire

Safety Design and Management for high rise building in Singapore. It was delivered

in Mandarin.

INSIDE THIS ISSUE:

Summit Conference

Exhibition

SCDF

FSSD

Article

For members interested in Dr Siew’s paper, you can access IFE Singapore webpage to view or download the paper.

International Fire Conference & Exhibition Malaysia 2012 & 2nd

IFE APAC

Our President, Mr Tan Jin Thong, has been invited to speak at the International Fire Conference & Exhibition Malaysia

2012 organised by IFE Malaysia, which will be held in Kuala Lumpur Convention Center on 20 and 21 November 2012.

The theme of this event is "Fire Safety - The Way Forward". IFE Singapore Branch will be organising a trip to Malaysia

to support the event. For members who intend to attend, please email to [email protected]. IFE Singapore

will make arrangement for the transport if there are sufficient headcount.

In conjunction with the conference & exhibition, the 2nd

IFE APAC will be held. Our President will be in attendance, with

our vice president, Mr Azmi b Adam, as observer.

mailto:[email protected]

Our Ref. : CD/FSSD/12/02/03/01 Tel : 68481457 Date : 10 Sep 2012 Fax : 68481489 Registrar, Board of Architects (BOA) Registrar, Professional Engineers Board (PEB) President, Singapore Institute of Architects (SIA) President, Institution of Engineers, Singapore (IES) President, Association of Consulting Engineers, Singapore (ACES) Dear Sir/Mdm, AMENDMENTS TO THE FIRE CODE: FIRE SAFETY REQUIREMENTS FOR THE USE OF FIRE SHUTTERS IN BUILDINGS There has been an increasing use of fire shutters as a means to comply with fire compartmentation requirement in the Fire Code. In view of this development, the Fire Code Review Committee had conducted a review with the purpose of stipulating the conditions for its use. 2. These conditions are set out in new clauses 3.7.7 to 3.7.10 of the Fire Code. Annex A shows the reprint of the relevant pages of the Fire Code incorporating these clauses. 3. The circular shall take effect from the date of this circular i.e. any plan of fire safety works submitted to SCDF from this date shall comply with this requirement. 4. Please convey the contents of this circular to members of your Institution / Association / Board. The circular is also available in CORENET-e-Info: http://www.corenet.gov.sg/einfo. 5. For any inquiry or clarification, please contact Mr Pang Tong Teck (SCDF) at Tel: 68481403 or E-mail: [email protected]. Yours faithfully, Maj Lee Kok Chuen Secretary, FSSD Standing Committee for Commissioner Singapore Civil Defence Force


November – December, 2012 Newsletter

Our Ref. : CD/FSSD/12/02/03/01 Tel : 68481457 Date : 12 Sep 2012 Fax : 68481489 Registrar, Board of Architects (BOA) Registrar, Professional Engineers Board (PEB) President, Singapore Institute of Architects (SIA) President, Institution of Engineers, Singapore (IES) President, Association of Consulting Engineers, Singapore (ACES) Dear Sir/Mdm, Launch of “Fire Safety Guidelines for Open Plant Structures in Oil, Chemical and Process Industries” In the past, the design and construction of chemical open plant structures in the oil, chemical and process industries were largely based on building codes and a process of close consultation between developers and the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF). To eliminate unnecessary time loss in clearing grey areas and application for waiver, SCDF, the Oil and Petrochemical Industries Technical Safety Committee (OPITSC) and the Singapore Chemical Industry Council (SCIC) formed a working group in 2008 to develop a set of fire safety guidelines for the design and construction of open plant structures for the oil, chemical and process industries. 2. The draft fire safety guidelines was completed in August 2010 and after the public comment period which ended in December 2010, the final draft was approved by the working group. Since then the final draft has been used as a reference for interested parties and professionals. 3. The new fire safety guidelines “Fire Safety Guidelines for Open Plant Structures in Oil, Chemical and Process Industries” (the Guidelines) will be jointly launched by SCDF and the SCIC on 12 Sep 2012 for use as a reference document by all interested parties. 4. The QP and operator for any new development of and alterations & additions to such open plant structures shall consult SCDF with the necessary plans and details to ascertain the overall design is acceptable. The plans should incorporate all recommendations as stated in the Quantitative Risk Assessment (QRA) report and conditions imposed in the QRA Approval. 5. The implementation of this set of guidelines shall take immediate effect. Please convey the contents of this circular to members of your Institution/Association/Board. The circular is available in CORENET-e-Info: http://www.corenet.gov.sg/einfo. You may download the Guidelines directly from the SCDF and SCIC web-sites. 6. For any inquiry or clarification, please contact Maj Han Fook Kuang at Tel: 68481467 or email: [email protected]. Yours faithfully, MAJ Lee Kok Chuen Secretary, FSSD Standing Committee for Commissioner, Singapore Civil Defence Force



Our Ref. : CD/FSSD/12/02/03/01 Tel : 68481457 Date : 12 Sep 2012 Fax : 68481489 Registrar, Board of Architects (BOA) Registrar, Professional Engineers Board (PEB) President, Singapore Institute of Architects (SIA) President, Institution of Engineers, Singapore (IES) President, Association of Consulting Engineers, Singapore (ACES) Dear Sir/Mdm STANDARD FOR FIRE SAFETY IN RAPID TRANSIT SYSTEM (SFSRTS) 2012 EDITION The current 4th edition of the Standard for Fire Safety in Rapid Transit Systems has been reviewed by a committee chaired by SCDF and comprises representatives from the Singapore Institute of Architects (SIA), Institution of Engineers, Singapore (IES) and Land Transport Authority (LTA). 2. We are pleased to announce the completion of the review and the release of the 5th edition of the Standard for Fire Safety in Rapid Transit Systems (SFSRTS 2012 edition). The standard is made available in SCDF web-site address: http://www.scdf.gov.sg. In order to facilitate easy identification of the changes that are incorporated in this edition, a black vertical line is drawn on the left-hand side against the clause. 3. Any plans of fire safety works for new and existing rapid transit systems that are submitted to SCDF shall comply with this latest standard with effect from 11th Dec 2012. 4. Please convey the contents of this circular to members of your Institution/Association/ Board. The circular is also available in CORENET-e-Info: http://www.corenet.gov.sg/einfo. 5. For any inquiry or clarification, please contact: Mr Randy Tan at Tel: 68481461 or Cpt. Mahdi at 68481413. Yours faithfully, Maj Lee Kok Chuen Secretary, FSSD Standing Committee for Commissioner, Singapore Civil Defence Force



LINEAR HEAT DETECTORS FOR FIRE DETECTION IN HARSH ENVIRONMENTS

Line type heat detectors (LTHD) offer the possibility of detecting fires quickly and reliably even in aggressive environments. They are resistant to off gases, dust, humidity, salt mist, etc. and give a very reliable detection even of smaller fires. For a quick and reliable detection in applications like tunnels, cable trays, and industrial production areas today mostly semiconductor and fiber optic sensor cables are used. Both technologies are state-of-the-art and fulfill the requirements for traffic system installations. Semiconductor sensor cables consist of an electrical cable with integrated discrete semiconductor sensors in defined distances, usually between 4 and 10 m. The maximum length can be up to 2000 m. The information from the single sensors is transferred to a central control unit at the end of the cable. The information can be used to trigger alarms by absolute temperature thresholds or by temperature gradient thresholds. The reaction speed is very high (about 30 seconds for 5 MW fire). The temperature profile can be visualized and the different sensors can be configured with different sensitivities. The main advantage of these systems is the lack of any consumables and maintenance work. In addition the electrical sensor cables are easy to install and handle. In consequence they are today dominant in European road tunnels. Fibre optic sensor cables use Raman backscattering of a laser pulse for temperature measurement. In the control unit, the temperature distribution is calculated from the backscattered light signals. The result is always a compromise between fibre length, temperature resolution, spatial resolution, and detection speed. The maximum length of the fibre optic systems is up to 10000 m. For the typical length and required resolution in road tunnels, the reaction speed is middle (about 60 seconds for 5 MW fire). The information can be used to trigger alarms by absolute temperature thresholds or by temperature gradient thresholds. The temperature profile can be visualized. Typical application areas for LTHD are:

- Road tunnels (LTHD are the only reliable detection method with precise localization of a fire and negligible false alarm rate)

- Train and metro tunnels (increased risk, if power cables are installed along the tracks) - Underground Metro stations (concealed areas difficult to access are preferred applications for

LTHD, as these systems don’t need any maintenance to the sensor cable) - Cable tunnels (High performance systems with real temperature measurement can even

react on temperature increase of the cables due to excessive power in the cable and allow power transmission optimization)

- Industrial production facilities (including hazardous applications in chemical and oil+gas industries with systems applicable in explosive environments)

- Conveyor belt monitoring (especially for bulk goods with high fire or explosion risk as coal, sugar, or other organic materials)

- Building installations with several different temperature zones including refrigeration areas (e.g. in food processing and storage)

In other words, LTHD are always a perfect solution for fire detection, when point detectors cannot be used due to harsh environmental influence or limited access.

Article by IFE members, Michael Mok Aik Chin and Dr Arnd Rogner

Members are welcome to submit a one page article relating to fire safety, fire engineering design,

innovation, new products and materials for publication in IFE Newsletter. Interest members can

email their article to [email protected]. The article will be subjected to review, and

publication will be at the discretion of the IFE Singapore council.




Institution

of Fire Engineers

Singapore

32, Ang Mo Kio Industrial Park 2, #07-06 Sing Industrial Complex,

Singapore 569510

Phone:

6338 9274

Fax:

6481 4066

E-Mail:

[email protected]

Page 4

We’re on the Web! See us at:

www.ife-singapore.org

Page 8 Page 8

The President and Council Members Wish all

IFE Members a Happy Deepavali, Merry

Christmas and Happy & Prosperous New Year

SCDF Star Customer Award

Dr Siew Yee Cheong and Ms Yeow Mei Leng

were two of the three recipients of the SCDF

Star Customer Award. This is the first time that

SCDF had presented the award in recognition of

the outstanding contributions to SCDF. Both Dr

Siew and Ms Yeow are IFE representatives to

FSSD’s various working committees. IFE is

proud of their contributions and trust that they

will work harder going forward.



OS+H Asia 2012 | 12 - 14 Sept 2012 | Suntec Singapore

IFE (Singapore) is the supporting organisation of the 8th Occupational Safety+Health Exhibition for Asia (OS+H Asia 2012) and was offered a free booth at the exhibition. The booth was decorated with posters to publicise IFE’s vision and objectives so that to attract interest parties to join IFE. Our affiliate members, Ademco & Best Technology, with the agreement of the council, also exhibited their products at the exhibition.


the institution of fire engineers...and negligible false alarm rate) - train and metro tunnels...

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