RaCERS Concludes Spring Seminar Series with Discussion on High-Rise Fire Safety

The Christian Regenhard Center for Emergency Response Studies (RaCERS) Spring 2022 seminar series concluded with a panel discussion on ways to increase the fire safety resilience of existing residential high-rise buildings in New York City and beyond. The panel brought together leading engineers and policy experts before an audience of global fire safety experts from the US, Canada, UK, and Australia. The panel featured Atenedoro Gonzalez, representing Council Member Oswald Feliz (Bronx), who also Chairs the Twin Parks Citywide Taskforce on Fire Prevention.

Panelists were:

Background — NYC’s Existing High-Rise Residential Buildings — Charles Jennings, PhD, FIFireE, CFO
Resilience for Tall Buildings — Ali Ashrafi, PhD, P.E.
Fire Protection Engineering – Jeffrey Harper, P.E., FSFPE, Jensen Hughes
Policy/Politics — Atenedoro Gonzalez, JD, Representative of NYC Council Member Oswald Feliz (Dist. 15), and Chair of Twin Parks Citywide Task Force on Fire Prevention

Moderator, Glenn Corbett, M.Eng. P.E.

The session included an overview of protective strategies and approaches taken in other cities, as well as engineering approaches to enhancing safety. Federal legislation revived or introduced since the fire was summarized, as were activities of the NY City Council.

The video of the event can be found here.

Videos of previous events can be found on our web page at http://christianregenhardcenter.org/videos