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With a wealth of expertise in fire safety regulations and incident command of major operations, Principal Professional Officer (PPO) Christopher Tan is designing a new postgraduate programme that aims to equip adult learners with fire safety and fire engineering knowledge and skills.
There is someone who stands between architects and their envisioned buildings, whose job is to ensure their plans comply with the Fire Code before any structure goes up in Singapore.
For three years, Mr Christopher Tan was that man. From 1987 to 1990, he worked as a staff officer at the Building Plans Branch in the then-Singapore Fire Service, scrutinising all submission plans for areas of non-compliance together with his fellow colleagues.
Mr Tan (standing) together with Lead Professional Officer Peter Chai viewing the results of a flame test. (Photo: Christopher Tan)
“Until I was certain that the plans were in order, I would not submit them upwards for approval. And until approval was obtained, architects or engineers statutorily couldn’t start work to either build a new building or make alterations.”
Coming full circle, he retired from the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) in early 2019 as Director of the Fire Safety & Shelter Department, where his key functions included regulatory formulations and reviews to ensure a fire-safe and pro-business environment through a robust and consultative fire safety framework.
Mr Tan retired from the SCDF as a Senior Assistant Commissioner in 2019. Pictured are some memorabilia he has collected during his service. (Photo: Christopher Tan)
In a career that spans almost 40 years, Mr Tan has mastered the ins and outs of fire safety regulations.
It is apt that he is now developing a postgraduate programme on fire safety as Principal Professional Officer at the Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT).
The programme, which will be for adult learners, is scheduled to start in April 2025 with an intake of between 15 and 22 learners. The first postgraduate fire safety programme by an autonomous university here, it aims to enhance local expertise in fire safety, fire engineering prevention and safety regulations – a highly technical and crucial field in various industries like engineering, healthcare, sustainable energy and the built environment.
Developing Industry Expertise in Fire Safety
To be launched in collaboration with the SCDF, the 6-month programme is designed for learners looking to upskill, and a graduate certificate will be awarded upon successful completion of the 3 modules. It is particularly relevant to those working in the fire safety industry, but Mr Tan emphasises that fire safety is an essential part of facilities management and the process industry as well.
“We need to provide a higher education pathway for people to meet job requirements, upskill for career transitions, or even aspire to attain higher qualifications,” said Mr Tan, 65, who has a Masters in Fire Safety Engineering from Australia’s Western Sydney University. “We want to raise industry competency in fire safety."
Classes will be conducted in workshop format to facilitate collaborative learning, and also laboratory lessons, during which students can see first-hand the effects of fire on different types of materials, and learn about combustibility, flame spread, and heat release rates of these materials.
Mr Tan, who decided to transit to working in higher education sector to fulfil his personal goals joined SIT in 2024 after four years with Surbana Jurong as Managing Director of Fire Safety Consultancy. He has had to localise the programme to meet industry and applied learning needs here. This includes using examples with a local context, many drawn from his own experiences, in his teaching, and tailoring the programme's content to Singapore’s fire regulatory regime and local industry best practices. Adjunct lecturers will also be tapped from the industry and SCDF.
“Knowledge should be portable. That should also be an outcome for our learners to be able to apply the knowledge in other contexts,” he said.
At SIT, Professional Officers like Mr Tan are industry veterans who leverage their professional experience and specialised knowledge to teach and develop aspects of the curriculum.
You might find them in SIT laboratories, as coaches and mentors to students during practical lab sessions, or developing safety guidelines and procedures to make the lab environment safer. Professional Officers also work with industry partners to undertake innovation projects and research to solve real world problems.
Fireproofing the Next Generation
Of all the myriad roles he has taken on over the years, including that of regulator with SCDF and consultant with Surbana Jurong, Mr Tan enjoys being a teacher and mentor the most.
Mr Tan (front row, 3rd from left) with graduating cadets from the Civil Defence Academy. (Photo: Christopher Tan)
He was Director of the SCDF’s Civil Defence Academy (CDA) from 2008 to 2013, during which he provided academic leadership and guidance to develop training materials and trained firefighters, emergency responders, and paramedics.
“I enjoyed training because I think that's where I make the biggest impact,” he said. “We have this training philosophy called ‘Train as We Operate’. We train the people as they would operate on the ground.”
SIT’s focus on applied learning aligns well with this approach. Designing an industry-oriented course, he says, reminds him of the days when he taught trainees at CDA to be mission-ready for life-saving roles.
His current role helps fireproof Singapore’s future, as he will train the next generation of fire safety regulators and industry practitioners.
“What we share with (learners) has great implications – if a class of 30 students are taught the wrong concepts, rationale or interpretations, this wrong understanding will be perpetuated through the projects they undertake and what they do. The consequences can be grave” he said.
Mr Tan was featured in a Channel NewsAsia series called ‘Last Day at Work’, highlighting an overview of his 35 years in SCDF. Click here to read more on his momentous career in the life saving force.
