SOCOTEC UK & Ireland host leading Fire Engineering seminar
SOCOTEC hosted a prestigious Institution of Fire Engineers (IFE) event at its London office this week.
The event, held on 23rd March 2026 at SOCOTEC’s Queen House office, was for members of the IFE’s London branch and featured Professor Asif Sohail Usmani, Chair Professor of Building Sciences and Fire Safety Engineering at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University.
The event was the first IFE seminar we have held at Queen’s House, and follows our sponsored session last November. It was a total success, and great to welcome Professor Usmani and our assembled guests to the our offices.
We all gained valuable insight from Professor Usmani, and look forward to attending more IFE events in the future.
Across two hours, the seminar explored the evolution of structural fire engineering from traditional prescriptive design approaches toward knowledge-based, performance-driven methodologies.
Professor Usmani examined how mechanics-based approaches enabled more realistic assessments of fire-structure interaction, drawing upon landmark research and real-world structural failures.
The presentation opened by establishing the limitations of conventional prescriptive frameworks before exploring insights gained from the landmark Cardington fire tests.
These principles can be applied to major fire-induced structural failures, offering engineering interpretations of well-known events, including the World Trade Centre Buildings 1, 2, and 7, as well as the Plasco Tower collapse in Iran.
Attendees gained a deeper understanding of structural robustness, the redistribution of loads and failure mechanisms in real fire scenarios – all critical knowledge that can enhance structural fire engineering practice and improve design resilience.
Professor Usmani’s near three decades of academic excellence in UK and Hong Kong institutions. His seminal contributions to understanding structural behaviour under fire conditions include insights into steel-framed composite buildings and structural collapse mechanisms observed in large-scale events.
