Texas A&M Offers New Fire Protection Engineering Class
Posted in Student on Wednesday, August 13th, 2008
COLLEGE STATION, Texas, Aug. 12, 2008 – Intelligent and effective design of industrial facilities can be just as critical to extinguishing a serious industrial fire as timely emergency response, says a Texas A&M University authority on disaster mitigation.
M. Sam Mannan, director of the Mary Kay O’Connor Process Safety Center in the university’s Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering, says that because industrial fires are complex phenomena, facilities must be designed in an optimum manner that allows for these blazes to be controlled, contained and extinguished with relative ease.
With this in mind, the chemical engineering department and the process safety center are partnering with the Texas Engineering Extension Service (TEEX) Brayton Fire School to offer engineering students the opportunity to enroll in a new fire protection course at Texas A&M.
“It’s natural to assume that putting out fires is a simple phenomenon, but that’s only for simple fires,” Mannan said. “In industry, you don’t have simple fires. You have fires with hydrocarbons, fires with hydrogen, which is completely invisible to the naked eye, and you have fires with other compounds. And if you fight these fires with just water, you will aggravate the fire.
“Engineering is a very big part of effectively dealing with these fires.”
And that’s where the new fire protection course comes in.
Offered this fall and instructed by Thomas Sturtevant, who has more than 30 years of experience in fire protection, the course (SENG 422) will be open to engineering students from all disciplines.
“I believe SENG 422 is an excellent course for engineering students, as it provides a basic understanding of risks related to fires and explosions for a wide cross section of industrial facilities to include chemical, petrochemical and hydrocarbon processing installations,” Sturtevant said.
Through the course, students will gain an appreciation of their role and responsibilities for safety and fire protection within an industrial setting, Sturtevant says. Highlights of the course include students extinguishing a small fire at the Brayton Firefield and tours and reviews of fire protection features at various industrial facilities.
Operated by TEEX, the Brayton Fire School is the largest, live-fueled fire fighter training facility in the world. More than 81,000 emergency responders from all 50 states and more than 45 countries train at the TEEX facility each year.
“With the TEEX Brayton Fire School, I think it’s safe to say that we have the world’s best firefighting capability,” Mannan said.
The fire protection course is part of Texas A&M’s Safety Engineering (SENG) program, which is administered by the Mary Kay O’Connor Process Safety Center and the Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering.
Through the program, students are able to earn a safety engineering certificate or pursue a master’s degree in safety engineering.
While enrolled in the program, students are exposed to relevant principles and case histories, which are part of a curriculum that emphasizes the interdisciplinary nature of safety, health and environmental engineering. The program aims to develop in its students the knowledge and skills not only needed by those who specialize in safety engineering but by any engineer, Mannan said.
“As our safety engineering program continues to expand, this is a natural outgrowth, and it’s natural that we partner with the fire school in addressing this important area of fire protection engineering,” Mannan said. “Such a combination of knowledge and resources is unparalleled anywhere else.”
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For more information, contact M. Sam Mannan at Contact: M. Sam Mannan at (979) 820-0036 or via email: mannan@tamu.edu or Thomas B. Sturtevant at (979) 458-1821 or via email: thomas.sturtevant@teexmail.tamu.edu .










