While Asia’s crowded cities are moving into a new era of “super high rise” buildings, leading international fire safety engineer and academic Jonathan Barnett says high-rise occupants are often safer than people living at ground level.

Dr Barnett, a former US academic who is now based in Melbourne, will speak at next week’s Asian Claims Convention in Bangkok.

He is regarded as a global leader in the analytical modelling of fire dynamics, smoke movement, and high-rise building designs that give occupants the best chance of surviving a fire.

He says he will discuss the structural behaviour of New York’s World Trade Centre buildings destroyed in the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001, and how the lessons learned are being applied.

“The terrorist attacks that caused the buildings to collapse were unique, but they did lead to new building regulations in the US for super-tall buildings,” he told insuranceNEWS.com.au.

The conference, the second to be held in Asia by the Australasian Institute of Chartered Loss Adjusters, will hear how fire safety can be increased when designing new buildings and how fire resistance can be adapted in the renovation of older buildings.

Dr Barnett says a number of high-rise fires have been experienced in Asia and particularly China as cities grow, “and their record is in fact very good”.

“High-rises cut a lot of the potential life loss.”

insuranceNEWS.com.au is the media sponsor for the Asian Claims Convention, which will be held on March 21-22.