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AGM & Egress Design for Human Behaviour

When
Tuesday, May 06, 2025
12:00 PM - 2:30 PM
Location
Northbridge Risk Services Training Centre, 55 Standish Court, Suite 312, Mississauga, Ontario, L5R 4B2
Spaces left
112

Registration

(depends on selected options)

Base fee:

General 1 (IN-PERSON, PRE-PAID) – $50.00
For all non-members of our Chapter.
General 2 (VIRTUAL, PRE-PAID) – $20.00
For all non-members of our Chapter.
Member 1 (IN-PERSON, PRE-PAID) – $30.00
For members of our Chapter in good standing.
Member 2 (VIRTUAL, PRE-PAID) – $10.00
For members of our Chapter in good standing.
Seneca 1 (IN-PERSON, PRE-PAID) – $10.00
For Seneca Students.

SPEAKERS:

Derek Gruchy
Program Coordinator
Seneca Polytechnic Fire Protection Engineering Technology

Derek Gruchy is the Program Coordinator for the School of Fire Protection Engineering Technology at Seneca Polytechnic, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He has been with Seneca Polytechnic since 2006 and previously worked with Morrison Hershfield as a Code Consultant.

Derek studied at Carleton University and obtained his B.Eng in Mechanical Engineering and a M.A.Sc. in Fire and Life Safety. He specializes in Human Behaviour During Fire Emergencies and Fire Dynamics. He has experience in life safety analysis, exposure risk determination, building and fire code interpretation, and suppression system design.

Outside of Seneca, Derek is a Past President for the Southern Ontario Chapter of the Society of Fire Protection Engineers. He is the author of Chapter 2-1 Combustion Chemistry from the NFPA Fire Protection Handbook (21st Ed), as well as for the Seneca Polytechnic Muskoka Heights Fire Case Study. Derek also sits on the Technical Committee for CSA N293: Fire Protection for Nuclear Power Plants as well as CSA N393: Fire Protection for Facilities that Process, Handle, or Store Nuclear Substances.

Derek has performed research on the effects of smoke on occupant evacuation (where results were used in CUrisk and marineEXODUS softwares) as well as performing many live fire demonstrations for Seneca Polytechnic students.

Derek was recognized, by OACETT, with the 2023 Outstanding Educator Award and designation of Fellow, in 2024. He was also recognized by SFPE International with the 2024 Spotlight Award.

SYNOPSIS:

Derek will discuss the impact that Human Behaviour can have on evacuation and how we should take this into consideration when designing egress components for our buildings. As part of the discussion, the Grenfell Tower timeline will be reviewed and shown how design changes could have been made if human behaviour had been accounted for as part of the fire safety analysis over the years.

ITINERARY:

12:00 PM (Noon)			Event link emailed to all registered participants
12:00 PM	to	12:15 PM	Registration & Reception for In-person Attendees
12:15 PM	to	1:00 PM	Lunch for In-person Attendees
12:45 PM	to	1:00 PM	Login & Registration for Virtual Attendees
1:00 PM	to	1:15 PM	Annual General Meeting
1:15 PM	to	2:30 PM	Presentation & Questions

ENGINEERING A FIRE SAFE WORLD