Fire Safety Engineering is often implemented within a framework that requires a recognized and recognizable profession. This article reviews the current state of various attributes that define Fire Safety Engineering as a profession. It is argued that: 1) reliance on prescriptive solutions opens the domain to practitioners that do not possess the required specialist knowledge; 2) the fire safety engineering process is often triggered through non-compliances to individual prescriptive provisions, negatively impacting on the discipline's professional authority; 3) the discipline operates in a manner that exposes it to challenges of its ethical code; and 4), the lack of a well-defined accreditation framework challenges the professional culture. The resulting environment favours a customer relationship between those commissioning the work and the Fire Safety Engineer, rather than the client relationship necessary for professional practise.

Most engineering disciplines respond to failures by formalisation of the profession around its duty of care to society. Conversely, in Fire Safety Engineering such responses have focused on regulation. Recent incidents are a significant impetus and opportunity for the fire safety profession to better formalize itself.

消防安全工程通常在要求公认和认可的专业的框架内实施。本文回顾了将消防安全工程定义为专业的各种属性的当前状态。有人认为：1）对规定性解决方案的依赖为不具备所需专业知识的从业者打开了领域。2）消防安全工程过程通常是由于不遵守个别规定而引发的，从而对该学科的专业权威产生了负面影响；3）该学科的运作方式使其面临道德规范的挑战；4）缺乏明确的认证框架对职业文化提出了挑战。

大多数工程学科都是通过围绕职业对社会的责任来规范职业来应对失败。相反，在消防安全工程中，此类响应集中在法规上。最近发生的事件为消防安全行业更好地自我规范化提供了重要的动力和机会。