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Coffman Engineers Inc., the multi-city engineering firm with a large office in Spokane, has hired two new senior fire protection engineers, says CEO Dave. Coffman.
The fire protection engineers are Bob Libby, of St. Simons Island, Ga., and Byron Briese, of Charleston, S.C. The two will be working remotely with all of Coffman's offices, which are located in Spokane; Seattle; Bozeman, Mont.; Anchorage, Alaska; Oakland, Calif.; Los Angeles; Honolulu, Hawaii; and Hagatna, Guam. They also will travel to project sites.
Coffman launched the company 35 years ago with offices in Seattle and Anchorage. It opened its Spokane office 17 years ago, and the branch operation here now employs 75 of its 305 total employees. Its Spokane operations are located in 14,000 square feet of space in the Peyton Building at 10 N. Post downtown.
Fire protection engineering, which is a service that Coffman or the project architect or contractor previously subcontracted out, is a subspecialty of engineering that falls under mechanical engineering, and involves the design of fire protection, detection, and suppression systems in a structure.
Dave Ruff, the Spokane-based managing principal and vice president for Coffman, says many fire protection engineers will have other undergraduate engineering degrees, such as mechanical or electrical, and then take an exam to receive their professional engineering license in fire protection after gaining some experience in that field.
"There are only a couple of schools where you can get a degree in fire protection," Ruff says.
He also says that an engineer can get master's-level certifications in fire engineering through the National Institute for Certification in Engineering Technologies, which is a division of the National Society of Professional Engineers.
Coffman says that Libby and Briese bring...