Reading the Fire - second edition

Shan Raffel has served as a career firefighter in Brisbane Australia between May 16,1983 to July 16, 2021. His career took a serious change in 1994 after two of his colleagues were killed in the line of duty while conducting fighting operations in a relatively routine fire in a small motorcycle dealership. The coroner's report was unable to identify the cause of two extreme fire events that "caused severe burns, dislocating them from the hose line and rendering them unconscious".In 1996, two other colleagues were seriously injured after being caught in an extreme fire event while conducting search and rescue operations in a smoke-laden section of a Backpackers Hostel in Rockhampton. These events motivated him to develop an extensive report that led to an official international study of compartment fire behaviour training (CFBT) in 1997. He studied at the leading training institutions in Sweden and the UK. Over the next three years, he developed the first nationally recognized CFBT program in Australia. Subsequently, he has assisted numerous fire services around the world in the development of their training facilities, instructors, and teaching materials.In 2009 he was awarded a "Churchill Fellowship" to research "Planning Preparation and Response to Emergencies in Tunnels". This resulted in an intensive ten-week international research tour. This included leading fire services, training centres and tunnel operators in the USA (FDNY), Canada, Germany, Austria, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, and Switzerland. This knowledge was critical in the development of emergency response plans for the 3 largest road tunnels in Australia. His practical training experience spans 26 countries, and his International Compartment Fire Behaviour Training Instructors program gained international credentialing through the Institution of Fire Engineers recognition process in 2018. The International Tactical Ventilation Instructors course was given IFE recognition in 2022. www.linkedin.com/in/shanraffelSince his early retirement from the Fire Service in July 2021, Shan has focused his energy on the development of internationally validated CFBT Instructor development courses. His passion for excellence and safety embraces a broad international network of likeminded professionals.