MINUTES
COMBINED WELLINGTON AND NELSON/MARLBOROUGH BRANCH
TRAINING AND NETWORKING EVENT
held on
80 The Terrace, Wellington
ATTENDANCE:
Fire and Emergency New Zealand:Wayne Goodfellow, Haley Bush
Porirua City Council: Tim Taylor
Hutt City Council: Claire Stevens, Jarrod Ward
Wellington City Council: Peter Burnet, Steve Kallahar, Maggie Kay, Jeremy Strongman, David Mehlhopt, Inka Gliesche-Humphris, David Pawson, Gemma Winstanley.
BOINZ: Jacqui Neilson
APOLOGIES:
Tom Straker, Nick Hill, Mark Fitzpatrick, Jessica Keltie, Chris Scott
WELCOME
Chairman - Wayne Goodfellow opened this meeting, advising this meeting was a Hybrid meeting with both online and face to face participation. This meeting was also a first, with members from Nelson/Marlborough Branch attending online allowing for efficiencies previously not possible; given online technology.
Following on from this, Wayne reflected on the last year and the various Branch meetings listed below:
March (FENZ) Peter Hughes (AON) Interfacing of alarm systems - what's going wrong (Fire Risk and BWOF)
August (FENZ) MBIE ,Showcase with Paul Hobbs (MBIE BSA)
October (KCDC) Coastal Erosion Impacts and Natural Hazards
December (Hutt City Council) with presentations by Sunil from Artisan and recent Fire and Emergency NZ legislation presented by Todd O'Donaghue.
December, Hutt City Council: Todd O'Donoghue, Fire and Emergency Regulations, Responsibilities and Act; Sunil Surujpal, Artisan - An introduction to a digital QA solution for residential inspections.
Wayne then thanked the branch secretary Inka and the branch executive Jeremy Strongman, Trent Fernley and Jessica Keltie for supporting the branch ensuring its members get out of it, what they put in. He also thanked Henry, Nicola, Vivian, Nick and the National Office team for organising the technological AGM opportunity for more of our branch to join our proceedings. Wayne then provided us with a couple of updates along with the board update.
Board Representative Update
- Cancelled conference and Building Pulse in 2020 has prompted a combined Conference/SBCO for 2021
- "Breakfast with BOINZ" - update
- Financial overview:
2020 Revenue down for the organisation as with many organisations due to COVID, but the team have done a great job to maintain a credible position offsetting a lot of the activities BOINZ had to cancel, and that generate revenue from to put into member benefits.
- This year the business plan is about working closely on the membership, education and training and advocacy strategies areas with an emphasis on member engagement and content refreshing after a year of COVID.
- Recent AGM approval for an increase in membership fees staged over three years.
- President and Chief Executive met the Minister for Building and Construction Poto Williams.
- BOINZ are currently heavily engaged preparing submissions for 5 MBIE consultations..
Wayne then introduced to the first of our two presenters.
Guest Presentation 1:
Trent Fearnley GIFireE- Past President, International Board Member, Partner Liaison and MZBED Advisor. The Institution of Fire Engineers
Topic: Personal Development In Fire.
Trent opened his presentation by advising the recently launched New Zealand Diploma in Engineering (Fire Engineering) has been designed by the New Zealand Board for Engineering Diplomas (NZBED) in consultation with the Institution of Fire Engineers, Society of Fire Protection Engineers, Fire Protection Association, and Fire Emergency New Zealand. It will prepare applicants for a career in fire engineering at a technician level.
Trent said the Diploma was now live and in its second trimester with a big uptake of 198 students . This included IQP's, Building Control Officers and AON and he believed it should be a prerequisite for becoming an IQP.
Trent has also been working with the Open Polytech on a Certificate in Fire Safety, which allows one paper at a time.
Furthermore, Trent advisedhe has been running workshops for firefighting professionals but aimed at IQP's and Building Control Officers. The purpose of the workshop is to explain what fire fighters actually do and to provide a practical element such as the search/rescue exercise inside a smoke-filled room. The next workshop is taking place in August in Christchurch.
Trent and Jacqui Neilson (BOINZ) advised they are currently reviewing BOINZ fire courses.
Developing ½ day refresher course - Refre 020 Fire Documents
- To be included in the course
- 1. Updates of the recent Building Code changes and/or Standards
- 2. A review of a simple Building Consent scenario
- 3. A case study of an ANARP Building Consent scenario
Advanced fire course, looking at intermediate course. Inter 020 Fire Course
Course to include;
- Deconstruct and identify components of the FEB process
- Understand and describe the roles of various stakeholders and the extent and limitations of each role
- Define levels of FEB from basic to complex alternative solutions
- Explain and describe the "Prior to Consent" and "At Consent" stages of the FEB process
- Detail the documentation required for a FEB.
Guest Presentation 2:
Paul Richards - Christchurch Fire Engineering Team Leader at Fire and Emergency New Zealand
Topic: The Fire Engineering Unit (FEU)
The Fire Engineering Unit was formed in 2005. There are 12 fire engineers and administration located across the regional headquarters at Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch. The FEU sits under the National Risk Reduction Group at Fire and Emergency New Zealand. The fire engineers are qualified either locally and/or internationally with at least a Master of Fire Engineering Degree along with expertise on structural fire protection, human behaviour, risk management etc.
Fire and Emergency supports professional engineering development for all engineers. It is worth mentioning that they provide a number of full scholarship opportunities every year at the University of Canterbury (http://www.canterbury.ac.nz/get-started/scholarships/).
Paul gave a presentation on the Design Review process and the Fire Engineering Brief as follows.
A question-and-answer session followed.
- Nelson Marborough Branch enquired whether the C/VM2 could be carried out without FEB. Would this be considered an alternative solution?
Paul suggested healthy due diligence as this could end up as a Determination. The BCA should go back to the designer as it is their responsibility to demonstrate compliance.
- Wayne commented that the correct levels of correspondence sent to BCA's at the design review stage was generally a bit light.
Paul indicated he would like to know about specific examples. He said the DR Unit should identify relevant performance/code requirements and any non-compliance. Their role is not to give design solutions.
- Jeremy commented on alternative solutions without FEB that the onus is on the applicant to nominate a means of compliance.
Paul advised this was dependent on the level of scale. Sometimes a couple of emails will be enough. If a designer refuses to provide FEB, the BCA should question the designer competence.
- Jeremy asked whether we could enforce a PN22.
Paul advised this was guidance, issued under s175 BA04. However, without a PN22 how would you confirm documentation coordination has taken place?
- Inka raised an issue around the FENZ close-out letter. When consensus has not been reached this should be clearly explained.
Paul said "no close-out" if there are any unresolved issues.
- Nelson Marlborough wanted to know if FENZ can say they're not happy with the design because it's not practical?
Paul answered by using a staged evacuation as an example saying it was important to separate occupants and fire fighters.
Wayne then thanked Paul for his time and the meeting continued.
General business/matters arising:
Porirua is questioning the practice area of fire engineers shown on the IPENZ register. Claire mentioned their code of ethics.
Minutes:
There were no comments or corrections. The minutes were moved by Wayne and Inka and then approved.
Correspondence:
No outgoing correspondence, BOINZ Straight UP magazine
Facebook chat group launched online.
Meeting closed at 5.15pm.
