
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
‘Playing with Fire’ introduces the complex challenge fire hazard represents to human activities. While learning about fundamentals of fire science and how professionals deal with this hazard, you’ll learn things like why a candle flame has the shape it has and how fire fighters use fire to suppress fire.
Fire has been a fickle companion to human societies and has acted as friend and foe throughout history arousing feelings of warmth and comfort and dread in equal measure. Fire Safety Engineering (FSE) is a broad multi-disciplinary field and often must deal with competing demands such as balancing sustainability concerns against safety. This course is designed to provide a gentle and fun introduction to the fundamentals of this complex field. The nature of fire and the scientific principles governing it will be introduced first. As fire poses a constant threat of potential disaster in urban and suburban areas, human societies endeavor to mitigate this risk through regulations. In this context, the most significant fire safety regulations, by-laws, and standards will be discussed including commonly used fire protection strategies and systems. Human behavior during a fire accident is of major concern and may exacerbate the risk of injury to both occupants and firefighters and also hamper fire rescue operations. Therefore, human psychology and physiology, fire safety management and firefighting strategies are also discussed. Internationally known leaders from research and practice have been involved in developing the course, with demonstrations and experiments to further elaborate the knowledge presented. The intended audience are all those interested in learning more about this fascinating field (with or without any prior exposure). While management of the hazard represented by uncontrolled fire to protect life and property in urban environments has become a highly specialized profession, this course also provides learners with more advanced content with practical activities in the verified track.
Xinyan Huang
Assistant Professor
Liming Jiang
Assistant Professor
Mustesin Ali Khan
Research Assistant Professor
Gigi Lui Che-heng
Senior Teaching Fellow