Station Officer Shan Raffel has served as a career firefighter in Brisbane for 24 years. Inspired by the book "Fog Attack" in the early 1990's, he began researching the innovative approach adopted by the Swedish Fire Service in the mid 1980's. After the death of 2 colleagues in 1994 and the serious injury of 2 others from the effects of extreme fire behaviour in 1996, he submitted a proposal to study the latest methods of teaching Firefighters how to recognise and safely deal with Flashover, Backdraught and other Fire Phoneme. As a result of this proposal, he was sent to the United Kingdom and Sweden to study the teaching methods and training facilities. During the next few years he gained support and acceptance for these live saving methods in Australia. 

After implementing a nationally recognised training program, he went on to work for 12 months with a Swedish Fire Engineer on the design of the carbonaceous fire training structures for the Live Fire Training Academy in Queensland. This provided a fantastic learning opportunity that gave insight into the scientific explanations and the practical techniques. This laid the foundation for merging these concepts with his practical experiences and has lead to on going international research.

Returning to full time operational duties in 2000 has allowed him to apply the techniques ad tactics in the field. He has assisted numerous fire services in Australia in the development of their training facilities and teaching materials. He has lectured at numerous conferences and delivered practical training in various locations around the world. His papers have been translated into several languages including; German, French, Spanish, Croatian, and Chinese.  

Shan has taken a keen interest in Fire Fighting Tactics, International Fire Service Operations and Humanitarian Response. Through his long term involvement in the Institution of Fire Engineers he has been able to participate in a number of International Training programs and major events such as the NATO "Exercise Iron Sword" in Norway in 2005.

He is a strong supporter of the Institution Fire Engineers which he describes as "a truly International multi disciplinary fraternity that brings together people from every aspect of Fire Engineering, Safety and Protection." He has held numerous state and national positions in the Australian Branch and is currently the National President of the Australian Branch.

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sraffel@tpg.com.au