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Useful experience for fire engineers includes:

• any voluntary or paid firefighting work
• general engineering work
• any work in the building industry
• any experience in the armed forces.

Fire engineers may do some or all of the following:

• design features in buildings and structures to detect, control or reduce fire and smoke damage
• design or review safety feature modifications in renovated buildings
• discuss designs with colleagues, architects, electrical engineers, or builders
• create detailed drawings for fire safety features
• produce technical instructions for, and assessments of, safety features, and do design calculations
• create computer models to predict how fire will behave in buildings or structures
• analyse how fire safety features performed after a fire.

Growing demand for fire engineers

Demand for fire engineers is growing due to:

• an ageing workforce, with many fire engineers approaching retirement age
• new legislation on fire safety and evacuation schemes, which is creating more work for fire engineers.

However, not enough graduates are coming through to fill vacancies. Many employers report that they recruit workers from overseas due to a shortage of graduates and experienced fire engineers in New Zealand.

There are about 800 fire engineers and 200 fire engineering companies in New Zealand.

Opportunities for graduates

Many large fire engineering companies:

• offer internships to engineering students
• pay for graduates to complete a Master of Engineering in fire engineering on the job.

Types of employers varied

Fire engineers may work for:

• construction and fire engineering businesses
• Fire and Emergency New Zealand
• insurance firms
• local government.

Fire engineers may also be self-employed.

Canterbury University

(03) 369 3113 - enquiries@civil.canterbury.ac.nz - www.canterbury.ac.nz

Engineering NZ

(04) 473 9444 - hello@engineeringnz.org - www.engineeringnz.org

Society of Fire Protection Engineers (NZ)

(09) 308 7030 - secretary@sfpe.org.nz - www.sfpe.org

After completing a Master of Engineering in fire engineering and then three to five years of work experience, fire engineers may progress to become Chartered Professional Engineers (CPEng) or Chartered Engineers (CEng), and work as team leaders or oversee projects.

Fire engineers may specialise in designing safety features for:

• railways
• tunnels and mines
• confined spaces in buildings or structures
• space technology such as rockets
• ships.

Fire engineers need to be:

• analytical and good at problem solving
• adaptable and creative
• accurate, practical and good at planning
• able to work well under pressure and in a team
• strong communicators, and able to explain complicated ideas in simple language.