IFIW stands for International Fire Instructor’s Workshop. It is a gathering of firefighters, instructors and scientists that happens every year. they share knowledge and experiences. the goal of IFIW is learning from eachother and share knowledge worldwide amongst the fire servce. 

IFIW was founded in 2008 by Stefan Svensson from Sweden. He was working for MSB at the time. It is an organisation which is responsible for firefighter training in Sweden. They are developing knowledge as well. Currently he is an associate professor at Lund University. His responsabilities include experiments into fire and firefighting. 

The workshop took place every year since 2008. The following countries were visited:

2008: Sweden

2009: Australia

2010: Canada

2011: US

2012: Germany

2013: Croatia

2014: Poland

2015: Belgium

2016: Canada

2017: Hong Kong

2018: Sweden

2019: The Netherlands

In 2020, The United States will be the host country. 

 

IFIW 2008 - Sweden

The first IFIW meeting was held in 2008 in Revinge. A limited number of people met to share ideas. John McDonough wrote a short report about the meeting. It can be found here

 

 

IFIW 2011 - US

In 2011, IFIW was organized in conjunction with FDIC (Fire Department Instructors Conference, a huge conference which is attended yearly by 30.000 firefighters). FDIC takes place in Indianapolis. The two-day IFIW event was accessible for paying viewers.

 

The abstracts of all presentations can be found here.

 

Karel Lambert delivered a presentation about the double LODD at the Dieweg Fire in Brussels.

 

 

IFIW 2013 - Croatia

Croatia was host for IFIW 2013. In Sapjane, there is a small fire academy where a select group of experts gathered to exchange ideas during a couple of days. This was followed by a two-day conference for the Croatian fire service.

Karel Lambert delivered a presentation about possible solutions for rapid fire progress.

Nicolas Tramontana gave the presentation "Fire gases - Risk of long term exposure on firefighter's health". 

 

 

IFIW 2014 - Poland

Poland was the guest country in 2014. Szymon Kokot-Góra organised the workshop in conjunction with an open conference.

The presentation of Dario Gauss during IFIW: high-rise firefighting

The presentation of Michael Reick during IFIW: Smoke flow control and related tactical issues


The agenda of the conference can be found here.

The presentation by Stefan Svensson: Fire Ventilation: not any panacea

The presentation by Ed Hartin: live fire training as a simulation: the role of fidelity

The presentation by Peter McBride: Industrial health & hygiene

 

A number of lectures was filmed:

 

The presentation by John McDonouh and Karel Lambert: Training with intent.

A written form of this presentation was published in Przeglad pozarniczy, a Polish magazine for firefighters. The article is available in 5 languages in the articles section of this website.

Michael Reick was also present at IFIW 2014. He wrote a text on smoke flow control.

 

IFIW 2015 - Belgium

 

In 2015 IFIW took place at PIVO, the fire academie of Vlaams-Brabant.

Besides the workshop, which took three days, there was an open conference.

You can find the program of the conference here.  

 

The presentation of Juan Carlos Campaña: Survival of victims in structural fires: the firefighter misconception 

The presentation of Steve Kerber: Why the fire service needs research

The presentation of Stefan Svensson: Fight fires, not progress! 

The presentation of Stéphane Morizot: From fire behaviour to teaching fire fighting

The presentation of Paul Grimwood: Adequate firefighting water

The presentation of Ed Hartin: First due questions: expectations and decision making

The presentation of Art Arnalich: Tools, Techniques and Tactics (3T) in Combination for Firefighting

The presentation of Dogan Gurer: Fireground Tactics: a firefighter's experience in Istanbul

The presentation of Christian GryspeertCFD - a firefighting perspective

The presentation of Shan Raffel: Fire Fighting Operations in Modern Road Tunnels

 

IFIW 2016 - Canada

 

The presentation of Peter Ehler: Leadership and Management

The presentation of Jerry Tracy: Science vs Experience: part 1  part 2

The presentation of Christoph Gruber: Three eyes - a multi-view case study: presentation   video

The presentation of Karel Lambert: The use of water within the fire service

The presentation of Jason Caughey: Honoring Tradition - leading change

 

 

IFIW 2017 - Hong Kong

The meeting in Hong Kong was organized by Dr. Raymond Yu, the officer commanding the CFBT-Unit of the Hong Kong Fire Services Department, and his team. A countless number of interesting lectures was on the program.

 

The presentation of Christoph Gruber: Debrief in training

The presentation of Stefan Svensson: Construction fires

The presentation of Hans Nieling: A view into the near future of firefighting

The presentation of Katherine Lamb: Decision making & operational discretion

The presentation of Peter McBride: Tactical Rehabilitation

The presentation of Jerry Tracy: High Rise: Taking command - part 1  Part 2

The presentation of Dario Gaus: 10 years of CFBT- what have we learned?

The presentation of Karel Lambert: Insulation fire in Evere

The presentation of Jason Caughey: The power of reps

The presentation of Ed Hartin: Effective exterior streams

The presentation of Stuart Helmore: Structural firefighting training in the MFS - Learning from Beverly

 

 

IFIW 2018 - Sweden

 

You can find the program of the open conference of IFIW 2018 here.

During IFIW, professor Kalev Kuklane gave a presentation about heat stress and protective clothing. You can find the video here.

The night before the open IFIW conference, Ed Hartin gave an "ED Talk". It was a very inspiring lecture.

 

The presentation of Peter McBride: Fire literacy & applied fire dynamics

The presentation of Szymon Kokot-Góra: Interior fires: in the buildings and in the hearts, a polish example - part 1   Part 2  Video

The presentation of Jens Stiegel: From blockbusters and mass evacuation  Video

The presentation of Art Arnalich: Performance Based Design for Firefighter Safety

The presentation of Ricardo Weewer: A refreshed view on firefighting   Video

The presentation (video) of Steve Kerber: What we have learned in burning buildings over the past 10 years

The presentation of Raymond Yu: Introduction of high-rise building firefighting in Hong Kong  Video

The presentation of Stefan Särdqvist: The history of Swedish firefighting   Video

The presentation of Ed Hartin: Learning from the experience of others  Video

The presentation of Karel Lambert: Changing the Belgian fire service: what I've learnt  Video

The presentation of John McDonough: The non-negotiables: from training to operations

 

 

IFIW 2019 - The Netherlands

 

In 2019, IFIW was organized by CFBT-NL and the fire academy in Arnhem.

You can find the program of the open conference here.

 

The presentation of Stefan Särdqvist: Three different modes of firefighting

The presentation of Ricardo Weewer

The presentation of Shan Raffel: Smarter Firefighting

The presentation (video) of Lars Axelsson: Straight and fog streams for interior attack

The presentation of Steve Brisebois: The effects of live fire burn training on instinctive reaction: Part 1  Part 2