The Fire Surgery is proud to have worked with the Design Team on the following projects that have won 2024 RIBA Awards:
· Rotherhithe Primary School by FeildenCleggBradleyStudios (RIBA London)
· St John’s Waterloo with Eric Parry Architects (RIBA London)
· The Parcels Building with Grafton Architects (RIBA London)
· The Tree House with Bell Phillips for Lendlease (RIBA London)
· Unity Place by Design Architects - Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios / Alison Brooks Architects /
Gort Scott | Delivery Architects - RM_A Architects (RIBA London)
· Shakespeare North with Helm Architecture and Austin-Smith: Lord (RIBA North West)
· Dining Hall, Homerton College, Cambridge with Feilden Fowles (RIBA East)
· Auckland Castle, Tower and Faith Museum with Niall Mclaughlin and Purcell (RIBA North East)
The Fire Surgery team enjoyed a fun and creative outing yesterday at our team social, where we got hands-on at M.Y.O. We worked with terracotta, shaping our own unique pieces of art and embracing our inner sculptors. Everyone’s creations were as unique as their personalities.
Our Director, Andrew Nicholson, had an exciting day at the Martin-Baker Aircraft Co Ltd site in Oxford, hearing about the development and production of ejector seat technology for fighter pilots. Thanks to Simon Belcher and The Institution of Fire Engineers Thames Valley branch for organizing the visit! It was fascinating to learn about their nearly 8,000 successful ejections.
The Fire Surgery and IGNIS jointly presented our experise in mass timber fire safety to over 350 online delegates during the Timber Development UK webinar.
Our Associate, Alastair Crossley, explained how The Fire Surgery and IGNIS work together to provide full support to mass timber fire safety design throughout the design and construction phases of a project.
Joachim Schmid, from IGNIS, presented technical information on how auto-extinction calculations are undertaken and how IGNIS's expertise can be used to support the development of details that satisfy the performance requirements of the fire strategy.
The 2024 Edition of ABTT's "Theatre Buildings A Design Guide" has been launched
This new edition provides guidance for anyone who seeks inspiration and encouragement to create or improve a place of entertainment or who seeks to understand what might be required to accommodate an audience for the presentation of live performance and the successful use, operation and organisation of such a venue.
Congratulations to our Director, Andrew Nicholson, who authored the fire safety section, highlighting the importance of fire safety in entertainment settings.
Having worked with Ecclesiastical Insurance UK on a number of our high profile heritage buildings, The Fire Surgery Director, Andrew Nicholson, was invited to present at their annual conference.
He spoke about competency in fire engineering and the challenges for fire safety in heritage buildings and presented The Fire Surgery methodology for developing fire strategies. He used some big and small case studies including Royal Albert Hall.
Thank you Claire Attenborough for the invitation.
We are delighted to welcome our new colleague Mazen Salem.
Mazen is a postgraduate student who holds an MSc in Fire Safety Engineering from Ulster University. His dissertation focused on timber mass modular construction, through which he developed a strong understanding of Cross-Laminated Timber (CLT). His primary area of interest is CFD modelling, and as a graduate fire engineer, he is eager to further enhance his skills and expertise.
In his leisure time, Mazen enjoys watching films and football. He is an avid supporter of Al Ahly FC in Egypt and Barcelona FC in Spain.
Welcome to the team!
The Fire Surgery team had a fabulous night at the Women in Fire Safety Awards where our Senior Fire Engineer was a finalist in the Woman of the Year category. It was wonderful to see all the inspiring winners and nominees, and to catch up with old friends and former colleagues!
Huge Congratulations to Richard, Roshni, Ewana, Yen, Frances, Christos and Rumaan (and Megan) for absolutely smashing their fundraising targets for this endurance event.
They raised £2197 entering into the event and the Fire Surgery had committed to matching this to a limit of £1000, bringing their total fundraising for the British Heart Foundation to £3197.
Hopefully now with the blisters, strains and sunburn behind you all – there are already plans for a new event in progress.
Well done team!
Very proud of our Senior Fire Engineer Frances Radford who is a finalist in the Woman of the Year award at the up and coming woman in fire safety awards 2024. Good luck Frances!
Find out more here.
Today the TFS ladies stepped out for a Directors Lunch at The Table Café. Enjoying good food, even better company and some lovely sun rays! #shecanengineer
Anya is an A-level student from Vyners school. She is currently in Year 12 studying Physics, Mathematics, Further Mathematics, and Product Design. She also runs an Engineering Club at her school.
She is doing a work placement at The Fire Surgery to to gain some hands-on experience in fire engineering.
Anya enjoys tennis and coaches children at her local tennis club.
Welcome Anya!
This week we welcome our Director Yen Luong back to the team. After 10 years service, Yen decided to take a 4 month sabbatical from work. She started with a few months travelling in Asia and even completed the Tokyo Marathon in March. She comes back relaxed and ready to continue driving our business strategy forward. Given this success, we have decided to add this sabbatical/ extended leave to all long serving employees.
Welcome back Yen!
The Fire Surgery Team participated in the Peak District Ultra Challenge on July 6th this year. Our team of 7 completed their respective 50km / 25km circuit hikes in the beautiful Peak District National Park to raise funds for the British Heart Foundation. So far, they have raised a total of £2,100 in addition to the £1,000 already pledged from The Fire Surgery. The weekend ended with a tour of the fabulous Chatsworth House and Grounds.
There is still time to show your support and help to raise money for the British Heart Foundation via our JustGiving page.
Ewana Yousuf has attended the 4th Fire Dynamics Modelling Summer School from 24th to 28th June 2024 at the Forschungszentrum Julich GmbH.
During the weeklong event, lectures were held by Kevin McGrattan, Simo Hostikka, Jason Floyd, Randall McDermott, Marcos Vanella of NIST(USA), Bjarne Husted of DBI(Denmark), Lukas Arnold and Alexander Belt of Julich Forschungszentrum (Germany) and Emanuele Gissi of Ministry of National Fire Brigade (Italy).
The main focus of the summer school was to analyse how the chemical and physical processes occurring during fire can be modelled numerically and how these can be implemented in Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS). The participants also had the chance to visit the Supercomputer and Quantum Computers located in the Julich Research Centre.
The Holburne Museum in Bath is embarking on a significant redevelopment, creating a new gallery on the lower ground floor to display Renaissance treasures on permanent loan to the museum from the Schroder family collection.
With plans devised by architect Eric Parry Architects Ltd - the architect responsible for the Holburne’s renowned modern extension which opened in 2011, the building work involves converting archive and picture stores on the lower ground floor into a new gallery underneath the 2011 extension.
The Fire Surgery are proud to support the revised fire strategy.
Our Director Andy Nicholson took part in the great property bike ride today organised by CBRE on behalf of Alzheimer's Society.
Brighton College has completed their new performing arts centre. It combines studios and classrooms with a timber-lined, exquisitely detailed 400-seat theatre space. The design by krft is a sensitive - yet bold - sculpture, that places pupils at the heart of the new space. Using architecture to improve and enhance the education of its pupils has been a key part of the school’s vision. The completion of ‘The Richard Cairns Building’ marks the culmination of a 15-year masterplan that has transformed the 19th-century campus.
Andy Nicholson attended the 2024 BCO conference in Birmingham. This is an annual industry event bringing together key stakeholders involved in the development, design and construction of office buildings in the UK. The conference was a real success with meetings with current and future project teams.
With our work developing the new fire strategy for Clandon Park refurbishment with Allies and Morrison for the National Trust, we had the pleasure escorting Surrey Fire and Rescue Service on a site visit recently.
From the 15th to the 17th of May, our team at the Fire Surgery had a social and professional development visit to Zurich. This exciting trip was organised to foster knowledge sharing with our partners, Ignis Consulting, and to explore innovative advancements in timber fire safety design for mass timber structures.
Sharing Expertise and Capabilities
The core of our visit was a series of in-depth sessions where we exchanged our expertise and capabilities with Ignis Consulting. Both teams brought a wealth of knowledge to the table, leading to insightful discussions on recent changes to fire safety regulations and guidance in the UK, the sharing of best practices in the field of fire safety, fire and smoke modelling and timber design. This exchange highlighted the strengths of each team and identified areas where we can support each other moving forward.
Learning About Timber Fire Safety Design
One of the key focuses of our visit was to delve into timber fire safety design, particularly for mass timber structures. With timber emerging as a sustainable and viable option for modern construction, understanding how to address fire safety in timber structures is paramount. Our sessions included detailed presentations and case studies that broadened our understanding and equipped us with new strategies to implement in our projects.
Meeting the Teams and Exploring Research Facilities
A significant highlight of our trip was meeting the wider team at Ignis Consulting and exploring the renowned research facilities at ETH Zurich. As a world leader in research in architecture and the built environment, ETH Zurich provided an inspiring backdrop for our discussions. Touring their state-of-the-art facilities, we gained valuable insights into the latest research and innovations that are shaping the future of architecture and construction.
Discussing Future Collaboration and Promotion Strategies
Our discussions also extended to future collaboration opportunities. We brainstormed strategies to promote timber design as a sustainable building material, acknowledging its environmental benefits and potential to transform the construction industry in the UK. These conversations laid the groundwork for future projects and joint initiatives that will drive the adoption of timber in mainstream construction.
Socializing and Exploring Zurich
Beyond the professional engagements, our visit to Zurich offered ample opportunities to bond as a team and immerse ourselves in the local culture. We explored the beautiful city of Zurich, indulging in its famous fondue and chocolate, which provided a delightful taste of Swiss tradition.
With many of the team taking on the Peak District Ultra Challenge this summer (Find out more and donate to the British Heart Foundation here), we took the opportunity to climb mountains and enjoy the breathtaking scenery
Looking Ahead
Our visit to Zurich was a resounding success, marked by productive knowledge sharing, enriching professional development, and unforgettable social experiences. We returned with a renewed sense of purpose, armed with new insights to advance our work in fire safety design. The foundations laid during this trip will undoubtedly lead to fruitful collaborations with Ignis and innovative projects in the near future.
Another London gem added to our portfolio. The Old Royal Naval College Painted Hall.
Designed in the early 18th century by Sir James Thornhill, the Painted Hall features more than 3,700 square metres of Baroque walls and ceilings. These surfaces are covered in striking images depicting 200 figures including kings, queens and mythological creatures.
Andrew Nicholson is looking forward to attending the BCO Annual Conference in Birmingham in May.
The British Council for Offices' mission is to research, develop and communicate best practice in all aspects of the office sector. It delivers this by providing a forum for the discussion and debate of relevant issues.
Established in 1990, the BCO is Britain's leading forum for the discussion and debate of issues affecting the office sector.
We are excited to be helping out with fire engineering advice at this magnificent estate in Berkshire! The Grade II listed house has been the filming location for a number of films and TV shows such as X-Man, The King's Speech, Cruella, and The Crown.
From the 17th to 19th April, Frances and Richard attended the 15th SFPE Fire Safety Conference & Expo on Performance-Based Design in Copenhagen. The event was a brilliant display of performance based design from across the world, and an inspiring selection of talks demonstrating innovative solutions. The conference really highlighted the similarities in the approach to fire engineering across the world, despite different approvals and legislation. The keynote speech “The Fire Safety Engineer of the Future is a Great Communicator” (Wojciech Węgrzyński) was a great focus point to understand the role of fire engineers and how we can translate our technical expertise to those outside our field.
In the backdrop of the conference was the ongoing fire at the Copenhagen Stock Exchange, so discussion naturally turned to this and other heritage fires which, with The Fire Surgery’s experience in historic buildings, was of particular interest. A last-minute visit from the Head of the Copenhagen Fire Service was added to the programme, which gave some valuable behind the scenes information and was an impressive end to the week. On returning from the conference, we look forward to implementing some of what we learned there in our current projects and, in the future, sharing our experience in performance based design with others.
The Fire Surgery was glad to host Chinene Chukwuma, a final year Design Engineering student from Imperial College London on 18th April 2025. Through this, we aimed to provide her with experience and insights into the dynamic field of fire engineering in order to support her Masters Project.
Chinene’s project focuses on the development of a digital platform that utilises digital twins of buildings and IoT data to enhance firefighter's situational awareness.
Throughout the day she delved into various aspects of fire engineering by shadowing members of the team, attended a design review and gained practical knowledge on how fire service access and firefighting operations in buildings are addressed in fire strategies. She also gained insight into our work with heritage buildings and how we help end users and building managers manage the fire safety risks within their buildings.
The Fire Surgery is committed to supporting students and believe in the importance of offering students real-world exposure to support their education.
Richard Sherwood and Frances Radford are looking forward to attending the SFPE Fire Safety Conference & Expo on Performance-Based Design in Copenhagen, Denmark this week.
SFPE conferences have established a reputation globally as the premier events for keeping abreast of advancements in fire safety engineering. SFPE Europe has been addressing the regional needs to facilitate greater networking, collaboration, and exchange among fire safety engineering professionals as well as a pursuit of technical knowledge and education.
We are excited to be part of the design team at De La Warr Pavilion working to create a ‘renewed pavilion for the arts for staff, performers, exhibitors and visitors alike’. .
This Grade I listed buidling is an iconic centre for the arts.
We are delighted to welcome our new colleague Penny Nicolaou.
Penny graduated 5 years ago from Loughborough University with a MEng (Hons) in Chemical Engineering. She has a mixed background of UK based commercial and residential projects with a keen interest in commercial buildings after gaining experience working on stadiums and research laboratories. Outside of work, she enjoys mathematical puzzles and being outside either reading, walking and being by the water, especially the sea no matter how cold it is.
Welcome to the team!
Our Directors travelled to Japan earlier this month for the Tokyo Marathon. After years of applying Mel and Yen managed to secure places in this prestigious World Marathon Major.
It was Mels 12th marathon and Yens 2nd and they were excited to be heading over together. Mel was running to support the wonderful Tokyo Toy Museum. This charity has a similar ethos to the London based Young V&A and they made our Directors feel very welcome by taking us out on a familiarisation run the day before the main event and meeting us at the end.
Andy was along to support Team TFS and all 3 had a fabulous experience…it turns out that their oddly named hydration drink – ‘Pocari Sweat’ is actually rather lovely and no way near as sweet as the so-called hydration drinks pedalled over here. Their unusual snacks (doll shaped pancake and pickled plum anyone?) and their fantastically well organised water stations were well up to the task. It was a smooth, professional, and interesting race with lots to see, lots of cheers and glorious weather on the day. To top it all off Mel has now completed all 6 World Majors and has now been welcomed into the Six Star Finishers Hall of Fame.
The Fire Surgery have collected together a wide range of voices to form a working group, aiming to provide guidance on fire safety for e-bikes and e-scooters in buildings. The current risk is growing with more people using e-bikes, and the number of fires involving batteries is growing at a fast rate. Lithium-ion batteries have been identified as a high fire risk, and there is a gap in the current guidance for storage of these devices in commercial buildings. The aim of the group will be to provide some practical guidance to address the risk to life safety, and will combine the opinions of a number of industry experts and experienced fire engineers.
The Fire Surgery is proud to have worked with Design Teams on the following projects that have won 2024 Civic Trust Awards. 56 projects were selected from over 320 national and international entries.
The Civic Trust Awards proudly celebrated its 65th Anniversary with the Awards Ceremony held on Friday 22nd March at The Concorde Conference Centre, Altrincham.
The Awards Ceremony saw 350 architects, council leaders and built environment professionals from all over the world come together to celebrate the outstanding achievements of those who have contributed to our communities through their exceptional work in architecture, urban design, planning, public realm and public art.
Since 1959, the Civic Trust Awards have become an important platform to recognise the very best in the built environment. We are proud to be honouring this year's winners who have demonstrated excellence and innovation in their respective fields. Their work has not only enriched our physical environment but has also helped to create a better sense of place and identity for our communities.
We are delighted to announce we have started working with another significant heritage building Blenheim Palace.
We will be working on specific projects and also looking for opportunities to improve on their comprehensive fire safety arrangements.
The Fire Surgery's Director, Andrew Nicholson, presented at the Scottish Government Building and Fire Safety Workshop in February 2024 - concentrating on managing fire safety in traditional buildings.
This follows on as a direct action from the Cameron House Hotel Short Life Working Group report, published on 2 October 2023 which looks at the circumstances surrounding the Cameron House Hotel fire and the Fatal Accident Inquiry recommendations.
The workshop provided supportive information around fire safety generally, but also specific to traditional buildings, looking at current fire safety guidance, the law, including dutyholder responsibilities, the role of the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, and active and passive fire safety in traditional buildings. Speakers included:
- Scottish Fire and Rescue Service;
- Historic Environment Scotland;
- British Automatic Fire Sprinkler Association;
- Association for Specialist Fire Protection;
- The Fire Surgery;
- Glasgow University.
The workshop took place virtually over Microsoft Teams on Wednesday 21 February 2024 – 10:00 – 12:30 where 400 participants joined in.
Andrew Nicholson lectured on Heritage Fire Engineering to MSc Fire Safety Engineering students at Ulster University today.
The Fire Surgery's Director, Andrew Nicholson, was a contributing author for the section on Fire Safety.
In 2021, its Diamond Jubilee year, the Association of British Theatre Technicians (ABTT) undertook to revise Theatre Buildings: A Design Guide (Routledge, 2010). This new edition (Routledge, 2023) has substantially re-written text with fresh images and entirely new reference projects, providing essential guidance for all those engaged in the design of theatre buildings. Edited by Margaret Shewring (Emeritus Reader, University of Warwick, former Director of the Postgraduate Diploma and MA in Theatre Consultancy), this new publication is written by a team of international experts, architects, theatre consultants, acousticians, engineers and industry professionals led by Tim Foster (Foster Wilson Size) and Robin Townley (CEO of the ABTT).
It provides an invaluable resource for those looking to build, remodel or conserve theatre buildings, taking into account the significant changes which have taken place in the last twelve years in all aspects of theatre design and technical practice. It locates those changes in the wider context of the need for sustainability in the theatre industry in response to the climate emergency, inclusivity, diversity of access, placemaking and concerns for health and wellbeing.
This new edition provides guidance for anyone who seeks inspiration and encouragement to create or improve a place of entertainment or who seeks to understand what might be required to accommodate an audience for the presentation of live performance and the successful use, operation and organisation of such a venue.
Its generous format and the thirty-two new reference projects, more than 260 high-resolution colour images and 175 diagrams and specially commissioned plans make it accessible and informative both to the general reader and the professional specialist.
You can order your book here.
The Fire Surgery, IGNIS and Elliott Wood have a history of successfully working together on mass timber projects. To further develop this relationship Alastair Crossley from The Fire Surgery (in person) and Michael Klippel from IGNIS (online) provided a presentation on Mass Timber and Fire Safety Design to Elliott Wood.
The Fire Surgery explained the context of mass timber under UK guidance, including the role of the STA Guide, and explained how mass timber design needs to be approached across the design stages. IGNIS presented information on the structural fire design, including auto-extinguishment design, zero strength layer and glue line integrity in fire, and presented solutions to detailing on mass timber projects. IGNIS also shared feedback from the joint IGNIS, The Fire Surgery and Elliott Wood fire testing.
Great to have Neil Badley MRICS in the office today giving a detailed CPD on the building safety act. Very informative. Bring on the gateways!
This is a newly formed charity with an ambition to promote gender equality in engineering.
Last night was the launch of the charity at the IMechE. It’s even more special as two of The Fire Surgery's senior fire engineers are trustees of the charity. Roshni Wijesekera and Frances Radford
We are delighted to welcome our new colleague Christos Elpidoforou.
Christos graduated from University of Surrey with a BEng in Mechanical Engineering in 2022. His dissertation on CFD modelling motivated him to proceed as a Researcher at the University of Nottingham where he enhanced his theoretical and experimental skills in Fluid Dynamics. Now as a graduate fire engineer, he is excited for the opportunity to develop his skills and contribute to fire safety.
As a self-taught guitarist, he particularly enjoys playing the blues and writing his own pieces . In his free time Christos likes to practice his photography skills and read books on personal development.
Welcome to the team!
The presentation on lithium ion battery fires, sponsored by BASIC Expert UK LLP, was organized by the SFPE UK Chapter (Society of Fire Protection Engineers). This exceptional face-to-face CPD event brought together experts and enthusiasts to delve into the complexities of lithium-ion battery fire risks.
We have been developing the new fire strategy for St Paul's Cathedral, London for almost two years. Today marked a nice milestone with the first full fire safety excercise as part of our strategic recommendations. This included a full evacuation of the building, fire fighting search and rescue, fire fighting operations and salvage. A great learning experience for all involved and a special thanks to Mike O'Mahony M.I.Fire.E for developing the exercise with London Fire Brigade. #firesafety #firefighters #heritagebuildings
Our Director Yen Luong attended the @womentalkingfire conference with Marshall Nyamuchiwa on behalf of #thefiresurgery. What a fantastic turn out and engaging speakers. Well done with organisers Andrea White, Katie Lowe and team.
The Fire Surgery is proud to be part of the design team on The Parcels Building.
Arup has won an award for UK Sustainability at the Façade 2023 Design and Engineering Awards for The Parcels Building.
Congratulations to Arup and all on the design team!
We are looking forward to the AJ awards on 22nd November. The Parcels Building, entered by Grafton Architects, is shortlisted for the 2023 Refurb Project award, so fingers crossed for that one too!
We are delighted to welcome our new colleague Rumaan Qureshi.
Rumaan graduated from the University of Huddersfield in 2019 with an MEng in Chemical Engineering. He has been working in the fire engineering industry for 2 years mainly focused on the residential sector in projects across the UK and Ireland and is keen to explore the world of CFD modelling. Outside of work, his hobbies include swimming, cooking and going to the gym.
Welcome to the team!
The Fire Surgery is proud to be part of the design team on St John's Church, Waterloo.
The project has transformed the life and role of St John’s in the wider community, extending its offer and open hand to the city. Where once the building was disconnected from the street and access limited, the building is now opened up, welcoming and accessible for all. The crypt has been transformed from a dark labyrinthian series of spaces to an open place that celebrates community and building history. St John's Church, Waterloo is now recognised as a high quality venue for arts, culture and commercial events, which gives it a sustainable income stream for the future.
Well done to all on the design team!
Our Directors Andrew Nicholson and Melanie Tudor attended the opening of Brighton Dome and Brighton Festival, taking in their first show on Thursday evening. It's always nice to see the projects we work on come to fruition. Thank you for the kind invitation!
We were part of the project team on the refurbishment of the studio theatre and corn exchange by Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios
Director Andrew Nicholson said, "This is one of The Fire Surgery first projects and has just completed. A long and twisting journey.
It’s one of the reasons why we specialised in public assembly buildings. It’s not about approvals. Our fire strategies are there to protect important buildings but make them useable for years to come. Our input is always welcomed.
I am particularly proud of the strategy for wheel chair user evacuation in this building. Worked up very closely with the client and end users who are one of the most engaged clients I have had the pleasure to work with. Zoe Curtis' and Maxine Hort's tenacity and desire to have a safe building which is flexible for their needs is exemplary.
Being able to visit the building and enjoy a performance from Gecko is fantastic."
Director, Andrew Nicholson, was privileged to attend the formal opening of Newsons Yard in Belgravia this morning. A special project we did with Stiff+Trevillion for Grosvenor. What a wonderful space!
Our Director Andy Nicholson and Associate Alastair Crossley presented fire safety design of theatres to Charcoalblue this week looking at current innovations and challenges with theatre fire safety including the safety curtain debate, drenchers, smoke control, and escape strategies.
As the only fire engineering company supporting the ABTT: Association of British Theatre Technicians, The Fire Surgery are in a perfect position to help you understand the issues and help design out common problems.
The Fire Surgery were privileged to attend the grand opening of the Royal Albert Hall archive last night. Read more about the archive here.
The Fire Surgery developed the fire strategy in consultation with the National Archive.
The Royal Albert Hall Archives exists to capture, preserve and make accessible the Hall’s history of performance, the iconic Grade 1 listed building and the organisation itself.
The Fire Surgery team celebrated turning 12 years old with some fancy cocktails and a lovely meal at Zaika on Kensington High Street.
The Fire Surgery Director, Andrew Nicholson, gave a talk on fire safety in historic buildings to chartered architects and historic building consultants, Donald Insall Associates this week. The online talk, which identified the constraints often faced by historic buildings, was attend by the Donald Insall team from all over the country.
The Fire Surgery has a strong repertoire of heritage projects. We have developed fire strategies for a number of Grade I and Grade II* listed building projects we sit on the Institution of Fire Engineers, Special Interest Group on Heritage Fire safety along with Historic England fire safety advisors. We were a contributing author to the fire protection association publication – fire risk management in heritage buildings.
We regularly lecture on the subject of fire engineering in heritage buildings, along with the fire safety advisor for the Historic Palaces and Ecclesiastical insurance. We understand the fire risk and design challenges faced by the refurbishment of existing buildings.
On Friday our female leaders attended a conference held for women in Business and Sports. The day was designed to inspire and develop the entrepreneur within us all and featured some great talks and insights into the personal development journeys of several female speakers including the CEO and CFO of Element 6, the policy lead for Women in Sport and an insightful presentation from Fiona Barron at The Gender Equity.
We don’t always take adequate time to celebrate our successes and do some self-reflection on where our next professional and personal challenges may be. This was a great, inclusive session organised by England Touch and we have definitely left the session with some great resources for our futures and to support our next generation of female leaders and Engineers. You can check out some of the contributors here:
www.e6.com
www.empowering-excellence.co.uk
The Gender Equity Collective, powered by T– - T-minus (wearetminus.com)
www.curiosity-box.com
We are delighted to announce that Ewana Yousuf has been promoted to Fire Engineer. Ewana joined as a graduate having completed an International Master of Science in Fire Safety Engineering degree. Since joining Ewana has successfully worked on a range of projects including retrospective fire strategies, new build offices and heritage projects and has become a highly valued member of the team. We congratulate Ewana on her promotion and look forward to her a long and successful career with The Fire Surgery.
The timber Fire Engineering community came together this week to start a consensus building exercise as part of the work that is being done on the 'Commercial Timber Guidebook' initiative.
Elliott Wood are leading a group of consultants that include Waugh Thistleton Architects, OFR Consultants and Lignum Risk Partners, to develop the Commercial Timber Guidebook which is funded by Built by Nature and co-funded by a group of leading Developers in the UK.
Attendees at the event included OFR Consultants, Design Fire Consultants, Ignis - Fire Design Consulting, The Fire Surgery and Hoare Lea.
The aim of the group is to establish a Fire Engineering framework that establishes common ground across the industry, one that will provide a clear message that designing with timber is safe.
Follow the link for the press release and extra info. on the CTG:
https://lnkd.in/eH-rbaye
#engineeringabettersociety #masstimber #timberengineering #firesafety
The Fire Surgery are delighted to have been invited to join Central Foundation Boys' School to celebrate the completion of their school campus redevelopment project. This is a significant occasion which marks the end of a 10-year undertaking, the purpose of which was to carefully restore the historic school site and to create a school campus that reflects and supports CFBS commitment to educational excellence.
The school’s beautifully restored campus and its ambitious educational provision is well-placed in the local area of historic significance now also a home to a Tech City, a vibrant technology and business hub on the Old Street Silicon Roundabout.
The 10-year campus redevelopment project, which includes a new science centre, an underground sports hall and a central courtyard, has culminated in the completion of a creative arts centre, a stunning conversion of a former 19th century chapel. The celebration event offered a special preview of this venue.
The Fire Surgery's Senior Fire Engineer, Roshni Wijesekera, attended a careers event at St Michael’s Catholic College in Bermondsey, London on 10th July. The event introduced a large variety of careers to students up to sixth form, at which Roshni spoke about fire engineering and the career opportunities within the industry. The school is local to our offices in Southwark and this is the second year in a row we have participated in the event and we look forward to supporting it again in the future.
After seven intensive years of dedicated planning and design, the Young V&A open its doors in Bethnal Green July 2023. Co-designed with children and young people, Young V&A is a free, national museum designed to showcase the power of creativity in children’s lives as they build new skills and develop the creative confidence needed to thrive in our fast-changing world.
The Fire Surgery were involved in the development of the fire strategy for the redesign and, outside of the fire safety challenges of working around open plan gallery space, we were pivotal in helping the museum develop their wheelchair and mobility impaired evacuation strategy which allows for the V&A’s vision to be released whilst ensuring fire safety is still paramount to the design.
The winners of the Top 50 Women in Engineering 2023 have been announced!
Huge congratulations to everyone who was recognised, and especially to The Fire Surgery’s very own Senior Fire Engineer Roshni Wijesekera.
Roshni is a Chartered Engineer and a Senior Fire Engineer at the Fire Surgery. She develops fire strategies for complex buildings, helping clients and architects realise their vision without compromising on safety of the people, the building and its contents. She has sector-wide experience but has developed specialisms in heritage buildings addressing the difficult challenge of improving fire safety in existing buildings without compromising historic features. She has also developed and leads the CFD team at The Fire Surgery.
This is a great achievement. The judges stated that the standard of the nominations was extremely high and is testament to the difference that female engineers are making in keeping the public safe and secure. The 2023 winners are all women who are protecting the public through their work, often unseen and unknown.
#MakeSafetySeen #INWED #InternationalWomenInEngineeringDay #WomenInEngineering #WomenInSTEM #INWED23
The Fire Surgery provided the fire strategy for this project, a new space for the relocation of the nursery after the 2017 tragedy. Working with the design team that included Perkins&Will as the architect, The Fire Surgery helped develop a scheme that created spacious and bright facilities within the available space. The challenges for the project included incorporating the nursery into the fire strategy of the surrounding housing blocks, and providing a sprinkler system that could be extended into future projects for the surrounding buildings. In winning this award, the judges recognised Grenfell Nursery as ‘a clever and sensitive design that places nature-led childcare at the heart of the Lancaster West Community’.
The Fire Surgery was at SheCanEngineer’s INWED 2023 event, held at the IET Savoy, 2 Savoy Place, WC2R 0BL on the 21st of June, celebrating women in engineering. We met lots of interesting engineers and future engineers.
We would like to thank the organising committee for creating such an inspiring programme.
We are proud to sponsor SheCanEngineer’s INWED 2023 Events to celebrate women in engineering and inspire the next generation of engineers!
Organized by SheCanEngineer to celebrate International Women in Engineering Day 2023, the event will be an evening of talks and workshops held at the IET Savoy, 2 Savoy Place, WC2R 0BL on the 21st of June.
The event starts at 6:15 pm and closes at 11:00 pm, with the guest arriving in the networking area at 8 pm.
Different activities have been prepared celebrating women in engineering and showcasing engineering projects women have worked on.
Visit shecanengineer.com for further details. #SheCanEngineer #INWED23 #MakeSafetySeen
Twitter : SheCanEngineer (@shecanengineer)
Instagram: She Can Engineer (@shecanengineer)
LinkedIn: She-can-engineer|LinkedIn-Page
The Fire Surgery have successfully won the bid for the St George’s Guildhall project. Andy and Afroza, along with the other members of the appointed design team, went for a day long site visit on 24 May 2023. They had an informative and exciting tour of this Grade 1 listed heritage building in King’s Lynn.
St George’s Guildhall is the largest 15th Century guildhall in England and hosts the oldest working theatre in the UK. What makes this guildhall more interesting is the fact that, Shakespeare had performed in the Guildhall Theatre!
We are thrilled to be a part of this grand project.
Sam is an A-level student from John Hampden Grammar School. He is currently in Year 12 studying maths, physics and biology.
He is doing a work placement at The Fire Surgery to give himself some useful work experience and help him to decide what his next steps should be.
Sam enjoys playing cricket and has a part-time job as an assistant coach.
Welcome Sam!
The Fire Surgery were the main sponsor of Holyport FC under 14’s for the 2022-2023 season. They play in division 4 of East Berkshire league and managed to finish 5th after their promotion last season from division 5.
Well done Holyport FC! Here they are with coach Andy.
We are working with Sterling Prize Winners Witherford Watson Mann Architects to provide sensitive improvements to this historic building on the Edinburghs Famous Royal Mile.
John Knox House dates back to 1470, which makes it and Moubray House attached, the oldest, original medieval building surviving on the Royal Mile.
Roshni and Richard had a great day at the Fire Service College for a live fire demonstration of a pressurisation system organised by the Advanced Smoke Group Limited.
Alongside the demo, they met some great people and had some good discussions about pressurisation systems, fire dampers and firefighting operations. #smokecontrol
We are delighted that following our annual audit which was virtual again this year, The BSI have confirmed that we continue to operate a robust Quality Management System. This is the backbone of how we provide our customers with a quality service and continually improve our approach to project delivery.
The Fire Surgery's Director, Andrew Nicholson, is at MIPIM in Cannes, this week.
MIPIM continues to be the major international event for industry professionals from around the world to establish valuable connections and nurture partnerships that can lead to new investment opportunities. The most influential players from all international property sectors: office, residential, retail, healthcare, sport, logistics and industrial are brought together at MIPIM, the world’s largest global real estate event. Offering unrivalled access to the greatest number of development projects and sources of capital worldwide, MIPIM gathers all players from the commercial property value chain for a year’s worth of business in four intensive days.
MIPIM takes place on 14-17 March in Cannes, France. The 2023 edition expects to attract 23,000 delegates from over 90 countries
The Fire Surgery is proud to have worked with the Design Team on several projects that have been nominated for RIBA Awards 2023:
Andrew Nicholson and Alastair Crossley are looking forward to attending the SFPE European Conference & Expo on Fire Safety Engineering in Berlin, Germany this March.
SFPE conferences have established a reputation globally as the premier events for keeping abreast of advancements in fire safety engineering. SFPE Europe has been addressing the regional needs to facilitate greater networking, collaboration, and exchange among fire safety engineering professionals as well as a pursuit of technical knowledge and education.
Andrew Nicholson lectured on Applied Fire Engineering Principles in Heritage Buildings to MSc Fire Safety Engineering students at the new Ulster University Belfast Campus.
The Fire Surgery is proud to have worked with Design Teams on the following projects that have won 2023 Civic Trust Awards. 62 projects were selected from over 250 national and international entries.
2023 Civic Trust Awards National and International Winners
Schemes which demonstrate excellence in architecture or design, whilst being sustainable, accessible and provide a positive civic contribution:
2023 Pro Tem Awards National Winner
Recognising temporary structures and installations that make an outstanding contribution to the quality and appearance of the built environment:
The Civic Trust Awards scheme was established in 1959 to recognise outstanding architecture, planning and design in the built environment. As the longest standing built environment awards scheme in Europe, more than 7000 projects have been rewarded and the scheme has continued in its objective to recognise projects that have made a positive contribution to the local communities they serve. The aim of the Civic Trust Awards is to encourage the very best in architecture, to improve the built environment for us all through design, sustainability, inclusiveness and accessibility, and also to reward projects that offer a positive cultural, social, economic or environmental benefit to their local communities.
The 2023 Civic Trust Awards Ceremony will be held on Friday 31st March 2023 from 7pm at The Great Hall at The Marshall Building, London School of Economics and Political Science. Tickets can be purchased online from the Civic Trust Awards website.
Andrew Nicholson will be speaking at the 25th Annual Building Control Northern Ireland Fire Safety Conference being held on 23rd & 24th February 2023 in the Armagh City Hotel. His presentation on the current role of the fire engineer will take place on Day 1.
The theme of the conference is "The changing face of fire safety" and will mark 50 years of the Building Regulations in Northern Ireland. The aim of the conference is the promotion and sharing of fire safety knowledge and expertise throughout the province enhancing the safety of all.
You can book your tickets here.
We are delighted to welcome our new colleague Afroza Mallick.
Afroza graduated from the prestigious Erasmus+ programme International Master of Science in Fire Safety Engineering (IMFSE). She is enthusiastic about practicing Fire Engineering, learning more building codes and developing her core skills with us. She is especially interested in performance based design and human behaviour in fire. Afroza loves to travel, especially to beaches and cities. Her favourite activities include eating out (pizza and chocolate desserts!), exploring new places and watching anime when at home.
Welcome to the team!
We would like to take the time to reflect and share with you some thoughts of our year in 2022.
We finally managed to celebrate our 10 +1 anniversary, which was halted due to the Covid 19 Pandemic. We celebrated with a drinks reception at our first project, The Sam Wanamaker candle lit theatre at Shakespeares Globe in their function room overlooking one of our latest projects St Paul’s Cathedral. We were joined by friends, colleagues and clients and it was a fantastic evening.
Team
We continued our patient recruitment strategy and welcomed Richard Sherwood from NDY as an Associate Director. Richard has made a real impact taking on new projects and mentoring the team. We also have a new Graduate with Afroza Mallick joining us in January 2023.
Our graduate fire engineer, Ewana from the Erasmus+ IMFSE (International Master of Science in Fire Safety Engineering) programme finally had her physical graduation event after the event was postponed for two years.
Frances Radford reached her 5 year milestone, which was duly celebrated.
We are delighted to welcome our new colleague Lakshmi Balakrishnan who has over 8 years’ global experience of delivering fire engineering solutions to clients.
We continue to grow and will be recruiting for senior positions in 2023.
Competency and Outreach
We continue to support the fire and wider construction industry.
Andrew Nicholson was part of the ABTT committee responsible for the re-write of Theatre Buildings, a Design Guide. His section on fire engineering in theatres will update the previous section and is due for publication in early 2023.
Yen Luong and Frances Radford attended The Fire Conference 2022 organised by FPA, IFE, NFCC and FSF on 19th October 2022.
We have continued to improve our competency with mass timber design. Following our large CLT office project approval in London with London Fire Brigade we are strengthening our collaboration with IGNIS fire engineers Michael Klippel and Joachim Schmid. We supported research into CLT timber fires, and Andrew Nicholson and Richard Sherwood attended real fire testing in Austria in September - a loaded full scale fire resistance test of a CLT slab on steel beams with various protection solutions was carried out at the accredited fire lab IBS in Linz. More than 200 thermocouples and 20 deflection recordings can now be used for direct and extended application by advanced modelling in future projects where test data was not currently available.
We are heavily involved with the Smoke Control Association guide to smoke control in single stair offices which is due for publication in early 2023.
Following discussions with London Fire Brigade, we have contacted managers of buildings we developed complex fire strategies for and have offered a free audit of the strategy. This is to see how the strategy is holding up and to feed back into the design process and lessons learnt. Our first audit will take place in February 2023. This supports our ISO 9001 continual improvement process.
Heritage and Valuable Contents
Our strong repertoire of heritage sector projects continues, and we are recognised as the fire engineer of choice for this sector. We were appointed as the fire engineer for arguably the most iconic building in the UK, St Paul’s Cathedral, and we have already made an impact with key fire safety recommendations. Our Directors have been asked to contribute to the update of the Fire Protection Association Handbook – Heritage Fire Risk Management which will be published in 2023.
We have been appointed on some other very high-profile heritage buildings in 2022 such as:
· Marlborough House
· Winchester College
· Kensington Palace
· The Foreign Office
· The Wallace Collection
· Royal Botanical Garden Kew
The Fire Surgery is working with Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew to provide fire engineering services to assist Kew with the restoration of Kew’s iconic Palm House, to protect and conserve this impressive Victorian glasshouse for generations to come. The restoration will introduce lower energy heating systems, supporting Kew’s Sustainability Strategy, which aims to reduce Kew’s carbon emissions and reach Climate Positive by 2030.
Awards
As in previous years, The Fire Surgery is proud to have worked with design teams on several RIBA Award winning projects in 2022.
We are proud to have worked on Borough Yards - Winner of Best Urban Project, MIPIMWorld Awards 2022.
Project team including TFS awarded a high commendation in LABC's Building Excellence Awards 2022 for the London Freeman School.
We are proud to have worked on ArtsEd which is currently shortlisted for several New London Awards.
Corporate Social Responsibility
It’s not all about fire engineering….
The Fire Surgery is proud to sponsor SheCanEngineer’s INWED 2022 Events.
The Fire Surgery's Richard Sherwood completes Jurassic Coast Challenge 2022.
The Fire Surgery runners braved the windy cold weather to run through the heart of the capital, passing world famous landmarks as they completed their 10k challenge for The Cancer Research UK London Winter Run.
Thank you
We are very grateful to our clients and design team members who continue to recommend us and support our mission to be the Fire and Risk Consultancy of choice.
Happy New Year and we look forward to working with you in 2023.
With men holding the majority of roles within engineering and applied sciences, it is crucial that they are involved in making the cultural changes needed to attract and retain women in engineering and applied sciences. The Men as Allies Award, launched in 2017, seeks to celebrate a male engineer, or professional male working within the engineering, technical and applied sciences sectors, who has gone above the call of duty to support his female colleagues and address the gender imbalance within these fields.
See him at the #CarolineHaslettLecture and #WESAwards 2022
Weds 18th January 2023
18:45-20:45
#MenAsAlliesAward
The Fire Surgery team gathered at the scene of their very first birthday party to celebrate their 10th (+1) birthday party at The Swan at the Globe.
With fantastic views of our current project St Paul’s Cathedral and with fire-themed music, we celebrated our first decade with friends old and new.
Our founding Director, Andy reflected on the early years with our first project at Shakespeares Globe and the aspiration to be the fire engineer of choice for public assembly and heritage buildings.
He thanked the team and the wider sub-consultants for their commitment and dedication and welcomed our Fire CLT partners, IGNIS from Switzerland.
He thanked our clients for their continued support in what are challenging times post Grenfell.
Yen Luong and Frances Radford attended the The Fire Conference 2022 organised by FPA, IFE, NFCC and FSF on 19th October 2022.
There was full house attendance for an informative and diverse programme, touching on relevant matters such as sustainability in the built environment to current Professional Indemnity Insurance challenges.
The event also launched the White Paper for “Developing a National Strategy for Fire Safety” published by the Fire Sector Federation Fire Strategy Board which we look forward to reviewing with interest.
#fireconference2022
The performance of cross-laminated timber (CLT) in fire is a continuous developing area. Data on the performance of CLT and other supporting construction elements in fire conditions is important. This provides confidence in the design, approvals and procurement of buildings using Mass Timber. The Fire Surgery recognise the importance of supporting and informing proper planning and verification in this field. Therefore, together with our partners, IGNIS – Fire Design Consulting, a spin off from ETH Zurich, The Fire Surgery have recently travelled to Austria to witness fire testing of different CLT connection details.
A loaded full scale fire resistance test of a CLT slab on steel beams with various protection solutions was carried out at the accredited fire lab IBS in Linz. More than 200 thermocouples and 20 deflection recordings can now be used for direct and extended application by advanced modelling in future projects where test data was not currently available.
We would like to thank IGNIS and their professional partners for supporting this initiative and are looking forward applying the data in coming CLT projects.
IGNIS – Fire Design Consulting
Elliott Wood Partnership Ltd
Sherwin-Williams
B&K Structures
KLH Massivholz
James Hardie /Fermacell
#timber #CLT #steel #interface #fire #resistance #test #evidence #detailing #database #future
The Fire Surgery is proud to have worked with the Design Team on City of London Freemens School, which has been awarded a high commendation in Local Authority Building Control's Building Excellence Awards 2022 in the Best Non-Residential Extension or Alteration category.
Additionally, Gilbert-Ash Site Manager Brendan Carragher has been selected as a regional winner in the South East Site Manager category. This is a fantastic achievement and we are really proud to be working alongside our client and partners to deliver this project.
Gilbert Ash | Hawkins Brown | City of London Corporation| The Fire Surgery | Southern Building Control Partnership |Skelly & Couch
Local Authority Building Control Team: Southern Building Control Partnership & City of London Corporation
ArtsEd, designed by De Matos Ryan, has been shortlisted within both the Education and Retrofit categories of NLA’s annual New London Awards. It is also shortlisted for the Wellbeing Prize. Additionally, the public can vote for ArtsEd to receive the People’s Choice Award through an online vote.
Presented in association with the Mayor of London, NLA’s New London Awards celebrate all scales of projects, from community-led to large-scale mixed-use developments, both built and unbuilt, that contribute to and enhance its vision for a New London: a city that is sustainable, civilised and egalitarian, that seeks to improve the quality and standards of new design. All shortlisted projects across the 14 categories and six special prizes have been carefully selected by NLA's team of London-based Expert Assessors. Each project will be presented to the International Jury ahead of the winners’ announcement in November.
Located in a tight and landlocked block within a largely suburban site, the first phase of the redevelopment and masterplanning of ArtsEd performing arts school in Chiswick reorganises a previously disparate and physically separated educational campus into one cohesive whole. The project will be delivered in three phases over the next decade to minimise disruption to the everyday running of the school and adjoining properties. De Matos Ryan Director Jose Esteves De Matos says, “With space in London limited and at a premium, the masterplanning of this project within its existing footprint unlocks the site’s potential and creates much needed new studio, rehearsal and teaching spaces in the previously unused courtyard and rooftop areas. Our scheme maximises every millimetre of space available to ensure that ArtsEd’s four distinct schools can now all operate from their own state-of-the-art site. The school’s facilities will now match the exceptional quality of teaching to ensure that future generations continue to leave ArtsEd as outstandingly confident and creative young performers.”
The Fire Surgery would like to congratulate our Director, Andrew Nicholson, for completing Ironman Kärnten-Klagenfurt, Austria 2022!
On Sunday 3rd July 2022, Andy swam in the turquoise waters of the beautiful Lake Wörthersee before biking and running all the way to the finish line in the sweltering heat.
Our graduate fire engineer, Ewana from the Erasmus+ IMFSE (International Master of Science in Fire Safety Engineering) programme finally had her physical graduation event after the event was postponed for two years.
IMFSE is a two-year full-time master’s programme where students have the choice to spend their semesters in different universities around the world with expertise in the Fire Safety Engineering field, such as Ghent University (Belgium), University of Edinburgh (UK), Lund University (Sweden), and more. This is a great way for students to learn from leaders in the Fire Safety Engineering field. You can learn more about IMFSE here.
The Fire Surgery team had a blast cheering Middlesex on at Lords whilst braving the wind and rain. Despite our support, runs on the board for Surrey kept the visitors in relative control.
It was Jason Roy's 81 that really set the tempo and that was backed up by four wickets for Chris Jordan. A 47 from Middlesex captain Stephen Eskinazi did offer some resistance but it wasn't enough to trouble an excellent Surrey side.
Situated on the roof of the iconic National Theatre. Offering breath-taking panoramic views across London, a riverside outdoor terrace.
The Fire Surgery is working with Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew to provide fire engineering services to assist Kew with the restoration of Kew’s iconic Palm House, to protect and conserve this impressive Victorian glasshouse for generations to come. The restoration will introduce lower energy heating systems, supporting Kew’s Sustainability Strategy, which aims to reduce Kew’s carbon emissions and reach Climate Positive by 2030.
Richard Barley, Director of Gardens at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew says, “The Palm House is an iconic Victorian glasshouse, home to an amazing indoor rainforest, with tropical plants from some of the most threatened environments in the world. This restoration project is a unique opportunity to showcase low-carbon heating technologies in a world leading heritage context, and we are delighted to be working with The Fire Surgery on this very important project at Kew.”
We are proud to sponsor SheCanEngineer’s INWED 2022 Events to celebrate women in engineering and inspire the next generation of engineers!
Organized by SheCanEngineer to celebrate International Women in Engineering Day 2022, the event will be an evening of talks and workshops held at the Barbican Centre on 23rd June with registration starting at 5:45pm.
After the talks, the evening will continue with networking, drinks and refreshments in the Barbican Conservatory.
Visit shecanengineer.com for further details. #SheCanEngineer #INWED22 #ImaginetheFuture
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We are delighted to welcome our new colleague Lakshmi Balakrishnan.
Lakshmi has over 8 years’ global experience of delivering fire engineering solutions to clients. Expert in developing strategies involving complex system design, CFD and other modelling software Lakshmi’s projects have covered many different geographic locations, international standards and market sectors, and have allowed her to work closely with different disciplines as part of an effective design team. Outstanding projects which Lakshmi has worked on include Changi International Airport (Singapore), Marina Bay Sands nightclub (Singapore), North East Link Road and Rail Tunnels (Melbourne) and Junction City (Myanmar).
Welcome to the team!
It was tough but he made it through the gruelling 100km of the Jurassic Coast Ultra Challenge at the weekend in approximately 23hrs and 34mins.
Of the 659 participants that started the full challenge 189 had to withdraw from the event and he was ranked 165th overall. The first 50km was beautiful but hilly. The weather was great during the day but some rain in the early hours of Sunday morning made things a bit more slippery and hard going.
A massive thanks to everyone that sponsored him and the team.
We are proud to have been part of the design team on Borough Yards, the winner of Best Urban Project at the MIPIMWorld Awards which took place in March 2022 - the only UK-based project to win an award this year year.
Located next to the historic Borough Market in the heart of London, the recently completed Borough Yards development of new retail streets, cultural galleries and commercial office space is urbane and welcoming. Borough Yards as a place, that resonates with the blended work/play lives of modern urbanites. SPPARC has created an architectural typology which started from the principle that there should be pedestrian lanes within the block linking the river to the historic market, through a series of connecting yard spaces and streets weaved through an impressive Victorian brick arched railway viaduct to optimise the public use and enjoyment.
The Fire Surgery specialise in developing fire strategies for heritage and unusual buildings, usually where applying contemporary guidance is not practical, and therefore we apply our fire engineering experience to unlock the challenges and provide practical solutions.
Over the years, we have been involved in some fantastic high-profile projects including the candle lit Jacobean theatre at Shakespeare’s Globe, Woburn Abbey, The Cutty Sark, Elizabeth Tower and the award-winning Fire Strategy at The Royal Albert Hall.
We didn’t think projects could be any more special. Therefore, we are delighted to have been chosen as the new Fire Consultant for St Paul’s Cathedral.
We are working closely with Oliver Caroe, the Surveyor to the Fabric, to provide strategic fire safety advice across the active, passive and procedural systems across the site to mitigate the risk of fire on this iconic London landmark.
The Fire Surgery's Director, Andrew Nicholson, is at MIPIM in Cannes, this week. The most influential players from all international property sectors: office, residential, retail, healthcare, sport, logistics and industrial are brought together at MIPIM, the world’s leading property market. Offering unrivalled access to the greatest number of development projects and sources of capital worldwide, MIPIM gathers all players from the commercial property value chain for a year’s worth of business in four intensive days.
We are delighted that following our annual audit which was virtual again this year, The BSI have confirmed that we continue to operate a robust Quality Management System. This is the backbone of how we provide our customers with a quality service and continually improve our approach to project delivery.
The Fire Surgery runners braved the windy cold weather to run through the heart of the capital, passing world famous landmarks as they completed their 10k challenge for The Cancer Research UK London Winter Run.
The event, delivered in partnership with Cancer Research UK, has already seen over 100,000 people take part and over 4 million raised for life-saving cancer research. The 2022 event attracted over 11000 runners and raised over £400,000 for Cancer Research UK. If you would like to donate, please follow this link.
The Fire Surgery welcomed the Year of the Water Tiger by celebrating Chinese New Year with a tasty feast, followed by some intense shuffleboarding - a popular game on cruise ships - to sort the tigers from the pussy cats.
The Tiger is the third of the 12-year cycle of animals which appear in the Chinese zodiac and is known for strength and bravery.
We have recently been appointed to develop a fire strategy for Grade II listed Remenham Court, positioned on the banks of the Thames with sweeping views of river and countryside. The building was a private residential dwelling house but is being changed to an event venue with sleeping accommodation for guests. We are providing strategic fire safety advice looking at practical improvements to support the change of use and refurbishment of the building.
We are delighted to welcome our new colleague Richard Sherwood.
Richard joins us from NDY and has 17 years’ experience of providing fire engineering consultancy services and developing performance based design solutions. He enjoys engaging with design teams to deliver practical fire strategies which balance fire safety needs against other commercial and business protection considerations. Richard’s experience covers a wide range of building sectors including high profile public and heritage buildings, transport hubs, research laboratories and high rise commercial and residential developments. Career highlights include working for The British Museum, The National Theatre and the major redevelopment of Birmingham New Street Station.
Richard joins us in a senior position as Associate Director. Welcome to the team!
Not as unusual as 2020, but a different working year for everyone in 2021 and again we would like to take the time to reflect and share with you some thoughts of our year in 2021.
Firstly, the big news for 2021 is our 10 year anniversary, which happened in October. From our first project, The Sam Wanamaker candle lit theatre at Shakespeares Globe, to The Royal Albert Hall, we have been treating your fire safety concerns for over 10 years, winning numerous accolades along the way - how time flies!
With the continued working from home and flexible working we said goodbye to our own offices at The Metal Box. Our friends at Allies and Morrison Architects offered our old space in their studio at 85 Southwark St, which we accepted and has worked really well.
Team
We continued our patient recruitment strategy and welcomed a new Graduate with Ewana Yousef joining in Q4. She has settled in well and enjoying life as a fire engineer in London.
Alastair Crossley reached his 5 year milestone, which was duly celebrated and rewarded!
We secured a new senior position with Richard Sherwood joining us from NDY as an Associate Director. We also have a fire engineer joining in Q2. Watch this space!
Competency and outreach
We continue to support the fire and wider construction industry following the tragic events of the Grenfell Tower fire.
Andrew Nicholson was part of the ABTT committee responsible for the re-write of Theatre Buildings, a Design Guide. His section on fire engineering in theatres will update the previous section and is due for publication in 2022.
We have continued to improve our competency with mass timber design. We have had our first large CLT office project approved in London with London Fire Brigade following our collaboration with IGNIS fire engineers Michael Klippel and Joachim Schmid. They are a key part of our team and we meet weekly to discuss the development of timber and fire in buildings. We will be supporting additional research into timber fires in 2022.
We are delighted that following our annual audit which was virtual this year, The BSI have confirmed that we continue to operate a robust Quality Management System. This is the backbone of how we provide our customers with a quality service and continually improve our approach to project delivery.
Heritage and Valuable Contents
Our strong repertoire of heritage sector projects continues, and we are recognised as the fire engineer of choice for this sector. We have been appointed on some very high-profile heritage buildings in 2021 such as:
· Hurlingham Club, Fulham
· Marlborough House, St James
· The Royal Pavilion, Brighton
· Holkham Hall, Norfolk
The hall is an elegant 18th century Palladian style house, based on designs by William Kent and built by Thomas Coke, 1st Earl of Leicester. The Marble Hall is a spectacular introduction to this imposing building, with its 50ft pressed plaster dome ceiling and walls of English alabaster, not marble as its name implies. Stairs lead to magnificent state rooms displaying superb collections of ancient statuary, original furniture, tapestries and paintings by Rubens, Van Dyck, Claude, Gaspar Poussin and Gainsborough. We will be providing support, advice and recommendations on possible improvements to fire safety for life, property and contents protection.
We have just been appointed as the fire engineer for arguably the most iconic building in the U.K. which we hope to discuss early in 2022!
Our Directors have been asked to contribute to the update of the Fire Protection Association Handbook – Heritage Fire Risk Management which will be published in 2022.
Awards
As in previous years, The Fire Surgery is proud to have worked with design teams on several RIBA Award winning projects in 2021.
Office for Metropolitan Architecture - Brighton College - School of Science and Sport
Allies & Morrison - The Dorothy Wadham Building
Architype - Imperial War Museums Paper Store
Bennetts Associates - Royal College of Pathologists
David Morley Architects - Sports Hall and Swimming Pool Project
Nick Cox Architects with Metaphor - Winchester Cathedral South Transept Exhibition Spaces
Andrew Nicholson bagged Best Fire strategy of the year again from the Society of Fire Protection Engineers for The Royal Albert Hall. This goes with his wins for 2015 and 2016!
We are proud to have been part of the design team on IQL Pavilion in Stratford, the overall winner at the Structural Timber Awards 2021.
Corporate Social Responsibility
It’s not all about fire engineering….
On Sunday 3rd October, our Director Mel Tudor completed the London Marathon in a super fast time of 3 hours 43 minutes in aid of The MS Society.
The Fire Surgery's Directors, Melanie Tudor and Andrew Nicholson swam 2 miles on Saturday 18 September 2021 to help raise funds for Children with Cancer UK which funds vital research into the prevention and treatment of childhood cancer.
The Fire Surgery Directors Andrew Nicholson and Melanie Tudor took part in the JLL Property Triathlon at Dorney Lake on Friday 20 August 2021 which raised an amazing total of £193,036.78 for their charity partner, Crisis.
To celebrate International Women in Engineering Day, The Institution of Fire Engineers interviewed 3 female IFE members who are fire engineers to learn about the work they do, how they got into fire engineering and to hear about their experiences of being female engineers. One of The Fire Surgery’s Senior Fire Engineers, Frances Radford, was interviewed by the IFE.
Thank you
We are very grateful to our clients and design team members who continue to recommend us and support our mission to be the Fire and Risk Consultancy of choice.
Happy New year and we look forward to working with you in 2022.
We are proud to have worked as part of the design team on IQL’s Pavilion. The Pavilion in IQL at Stratford has been awarded 'Winner of Winners' award at the Structural Timber Awards (the overall highest scoring entry!)
The Fire Surgery Director, Andrew Nicholson, has won SFPE's Fire Strategy of the Year 2021 for his work on Royal Albert Hall.
The judges said, “Andy has clearly demonstrated that the use of modern fire engineering techniques, in his case evacuation modelling, can bring great benefit to an iconic heritage building - visualisation.”. They also said, “This strategy provides a very powerful example of how fire safety engineering and the cutting-edge computational tools available to practitioners in 2021 can help to demonstrate the safety of an outstanding piece of our historic built environment, constructed 150 years ago.”.
Well done Andy!
A message from Director Andrew Nicholson:
So 10 years ago this month, I started trading as The Fire Surgery Ltd.
It was just me, with a big ambition to provide focused fire engineering advice and target high profile public assembly buildings in London.
I was told by a few that I was mad for doing this solo and starting a business during uncertain economic times! I also had 3 children under 4!
My very first project was the Sam Wanamaker candle-lit theatre at Shakespeares Globe for which I won Best Fire Strategy of the Year 2015 from the SFPE and from there, I specialised in developing fire strategies for theatres, heritage buildings and unusual buildings with unique collections.
Highlights include plants collected by Darwin at Kew Royal Botanical Gardens Herbarium, The Royal Opera House's complete costume collection, Newton's manuscripts at Clare College Cambridge and the extension to Shaftesbury Theatre.
More recently we have developed fire strategies for other unique London landmarks including The Royal Albert Hall and Alexandra Palace. We were brought in specifically because of our ability to apply fire engineering principles to unlock the challenges with providing the highest level of fire safety without compromising on the historic fabric.
We have always worked in the commercial office market and continue to do so with new and refurbished offices in the city. We have just had our first CLT office project approved in London with our collaboration with IGNIS fire engineers Michael Klippel and Joachim Schmid.
Growth has been patient and considered. Yen Luong joined in my second year and soon became a fellow Director providing much needed support. Matt Ryan chose us from LFB and provided unparalleled technical expertise. He still represents us on a number of British Standards. Melanie Tudor joined us from Accenture as Operations Director and achieved ISO 9001 in record time.
We now have a team of excellent, highly skilled, and motivated and loyal people: Alastair Crossley, Frances Radford, Roshni Wijesekera, Marshall Nyamuchiwa, Guoxiang Zhao, Pearly Tan, Ewana Yousuf.
I believe that this comes from providing a fun place to work, with interesting and innovative projects, and I place a strong emphasis on maintaining a healthy work-life balance. The team was a key feature in our success at the Engineering Talent Awards 2020.
Thank you to all those who have supported me and the team over the last 10 years. I am very grateful and I look forward to supporting you back over the next 10 years (just give us a bit of lead in time!).
We are proud to have been part of the design team on IQL Pavilion in Stratford, the overall winner at the Structural Timber Awards 2021.
Split over three floors, the Pavilion is an extremely lightweight timber structure that sits on top of a DLR tunnel with limited allowances for additional weight or foundations. Constructed using cross-laminated and glue-laminated timber panels, only shallow concrete foundations were needed. Timber has a much lower carbon footprint than more traditional materials and provides warmth and tactility to the interior.
To add to our repertoire of heritage projects we have recently been appointed at The Hurlingham Club in London. We are providing strategic fire safety advise looking at practical improvements to this Grade II* heritage listed building.
We are also carrying out a strategic fire risk assessment for Royal Pavilions Brighton.
On Sunday 3rd October, our Director Mel Tudor completed the London Marathon in a super fast time of 3 hours 43 minutes in aid of The MS Society.
We are delighted to welcome our new recruit Ewana Yousuf.
Ewana graduated from the Erasmus+ Master programme: International MSc in Fire Safety Engineering (IMFSE) and joins the team with her passion for performance-based fire safety design. Her field of interest is CFD and evacuation modelling.
Ewana speaks (moderately) fluent Dutch and is a karate gold medallist. When not working, she loves to swim, dance, travel or learn new languages.
We think you’ll be great!
The Fire Surgery's Directors, Melanie Tudor and Andrew Nicholson swam 2 miles on Saturday 18 September 2021 to help raise funds for Children with Cancer UK which funds vital research into the prevention and treatment of childhood cancer.
The day featured open water swimming events in the Serpentine Lake in Hyde Park over a range of distances, including ½ mile, one mile, two miles and six miles. Swim Serpentine, organised by London Marathon Events Ltd, is the biggest open water swimming event in the country. It has rapidly grown to become the UK’s top open water swimming event.
The Fire Surgery Directors Andrew Nicholson and Melanie Tudor took part in the JLL Property Triathlon at Dorney Lake on Friday 20 August 2021 which raised an amazing total of £193,036.78 for their charity partner, Crisis.
Andrew competed for Lendlease IQL in the male relay team. His team swam 0.75km, cycled 21.2km and ran 5km all in 1hr 15mins.
Melanie completed the cycling for 1 of Allies and Morrison's 4 mixed relay teams. She completed four laps (21.2km) of a flat tarmac circuit around the lake in just over 40mins.
2021 was the 14th year of the JLL Property Triathlon event and it has so far raised over £2million for charity. The event which now includes a sprint distance triathlon, duathlon, 2.2K swim and a growing fancy dress wave has something to offer everyone. It’s a fun and inclusive way for people of different ages and abilities to come together, and whether competing or spectating, it’s an opportunity to meet colleagues and friends or make new business connections.
The Fire Surgery would like to congratulate our Director, Andrew Nicholson, for completing Ironbourne 2021 on one of the hottest days of the year! On Sunday 18th July 2021, Andy embarked on the long distance triathlon in Eastbourne, by jumping off the end of Eastbourne's historic pier at 5am. He swam 2.4 miles, cycled 112 miles and ran 26.2 miles to complete the full distance in an impressive 13 hours, 33 minutes and 30 seconds making him The Fire Surgery’s very own Ironman.
The Fire Surgery is delighted to commence our work at Holkham Hall.
The hall is an elegant 18th century Palladian style house, based on designs by William Kent and built by Thomas Coke, 1st Earl of Leicester. The Marble Hall is a spectacular introduction to this imposing building, with its 50ft pressed plaster dome ceiling and walls of English alabaster, not marble as its name implies. Stairs lead to magnificent state rooms displaying superb collections of ancient statuary, original furniture, tapestries and paintings by Rubens, Van Dyck, Claude, Gaspar Poussin and Gainsborough.
We will be providing support, advice and recommendations on possible improvements to fire safety for life, property and contents protection.
The Fire Surgery specialise in fire strategies for Grade I listed buildings.
Director Andrew Nicholson and Senior Fire Engineer Roshni Wijesekera will speak at a session on “IPD and CPD in an SME practice”. They will speak about how SMEs can:
For more details on the conference or to book tickets, please click here.
We are delighted that following our annual audit which was virtual this year, The BSI have confirmed that we continue to operate a robust Quality Management System. This is the backbone of how we provide our customers with a quality service and continually improve our approach to project delivery.
Quality Manual (for External use)
The Fire Surgery welcomed the Year of the Ox with virtual festivities this year due to current restrictions. We were treated to our own feast at home, some traditional decorations and a great lesson in Chinese Calligraphy from our team mate Guoxiang.
A fantastic evenings fun!
The Fire Surgery have been involved with the development of the fire strategy at 4 Handyside Street (S1) at Argents site in Kings Cross for 4 years.
This includes the initial RIBA stage 2 concept design right through the detailed technical design at RIBA stage 4.
We then considered the incoming tenants requirements to change the base build fire strategy. For the last 2 years we have been assisting BAM construction throughout RIBA stage 5 with construction fire safety support.
Last week we completed a final fire strategy review to assist with the development of the Final Condition fire strategy.
This satisfies Regulation 38 of the Building Regulations and helps the users manage fire safety under the RRO and demonstrates The Fire Surgery approach to the “Golden Threat”.
The Fire Surgery would like to wish you a Merry Chirstmas and a safe start to 2021.
We look forward to working with you next year.
2020 summary
Having recently presented at the RICS Annual Fire Safety Conference, and with fire engineering being such a relevant and project critical topic, Andy Nicholson has been rolling out his presentation to Key Project Managers in the industry.
The presentation discusses the key safety concerns relative to improving existing and / or designing new buildings, whilst covering the following agenda:
So far the presentation has been greatly received by Buro 4, Gardiner and Theobald and M3 project managers with Avision Young still to come.
We regularly provide Continual Professional Development (CPD) for our clients to assist them to come up to speed or improve their knowledge and understanding of Fire Engineering challenges, opportunities or legislative changes.
If this is something that you would like us to provide for you or you would like to know more about what we do then please contact us and we would be happy to learn more about your needs and how we can assist.
The Fire Surgery has kicked off this year's Christmas Festivities with a tasting evening hosted by Greg and Tom from Sharphams Vineyard and Dairy.
These award winning Sharpham companies produce classic English Wines and Cheeses from their base on the Sharpham estate on the banks of the River Dart just south of Totnes in Devon.
Under current restrictions, this event was held virtually with everyone receiving a generous selection of goodies to their homes in advance.
It's safe to say that we all thoroughly enjoyed the evening although there may have been a slow start the next day for a few!
Andrew Nicholson enjoyed speaking at this year's RICS UK Fire Safety Virtual Conference. His talk on office buildings and hotels, "Improving existing or designing new buildings - the major fire safety concerns" focussed on:
• Re-assessing fire resistance to maintain safety when improving existing buildings
• How will COVID-19 and social distancing affect new office buildings and hotel design?
• The use of cross-laminated timber – understanding the risks and how it affects fire
safety
• Offsetting the fire risk of single stairs in existing 11m+ buildings
#RICSfiresafety
The Fire Surgery team took part in the one-day virtual conference consisting of talks and workshops by leading fire professionals from the UK and around the world. They took part in discussion and debate on the sector’s most current issues and developments, sparking thought and action for further change within the world of fire safety.
The Fire Surgery is an independent fire engineering consultancy, comprising a diverse group of employees, based in London. We actively support diversity and inclusion in engineering by sponsoring and participating in related events. We encourage our staff to volunteer their time to support these initiatives and also develop a culture where this is instilled in our day-to-day activities. We promote new talent in engineering and have participated in an internship programme, supporting early career engineering events and STEM outreach.
The Fire Surgery have a welcoming and supportive culture that allows open dialogue and implement a ‘results only working environment’ enables our staff to tailor their work to their personal situation. We maintain an excellent employee retention rate and an even gender split at all grades. Our engineers have achieved or are working toward Chartered Status and the team continues to deliver high quality award-winning fire engineering designs.
Congratulations to Marshall Nyamuchiwa and Guoxiang Zhao for promotion to Fire Engineer and to Roshni Wijesekera for promotion to Senior Fire Engineer.
Very well deserved.
Here’s a photo of the #RuleofSix celebratory dinner.
We just wanted an excuse to show off our certificate and trophy. Congratulations once again to our team of talented engineers and thank you to the Engineering Talent Awards judges and sponsors SSE Renewables and Royal Academy of Engineering. #engineering
The Fire Surgery Ltd are working on the refurbishment of Boston Manor in Hounslow west London. It is a grade 1 listed historic house with original features dating back to 1163.
The Fire Surgery had a site visit recently with Purcell Architects to review the existing structural fire protection.
We have compliled return to work guidelines for our staff following our Covid-secure risk assessment which includes guidelines for our staff on safe travel, return to the office and site visits.
London Plan Policy D12 requires development proposals to achieve the highest standards of fire safety, embedding these at the earliest possible stage. Therefore, all major development proposals should be submitted with a Fire Statement.
A Fire Statement is not the fire strategy but is a standalone document which defines the fire safety objectives and performance requirements of a development, and the methods by which these objectives will be provided/ satisfied. The Fire Statement should evidence the provisions made for the safety of occupants and protection of property as well as the provision of suitable access and equipment for firefighting in light of London Plan fire safety policy requirements and the justification for these measures.
A Fire Statement should only be produced by a competent professional. Typically, such a person will be a fire engineer with the ability to demonstrate knowledge and experience relevant to the complexity of the development proposed. Evidence of competency of the author of the Fire Statement should be detailed in a clearly identified section at the beginning of the Fire Statement, and should demonstrate that the author meets the following criteria: a) is a registered fire engineer with the Engineering Council with the post-nominals IEng (Incorporated Engineer) or CEng (Chartered Engineer) after their name, and is registered with the Institute of Fire Engineers with the post nominals MIFireE after their name
The Fire Surgery can work on your projects to develop your fire strategy and ultimately your fire statement for planning. We are “third-party independent and suitably-qualified” and meet the competency criteria above.
The Fire Surgery is proud to have worked with the Design Team on several projects that have been nominated for RIBA Awards 2020:
The Bloomsbury Theatre, UCL by Nicholas Hare Architects (RIBA London)
Boulevard Theatre by SODA Studio (RIBA London)
Royal College of Pathologists by Bennetts Associates (RIBA London)
Kings College Sports Hall and Swimming Pool Project by David Morley Architects (RIBA London)
Brighton College - School of Science and Sport, Brighton by Office for Metropolitan Architecture (RIBA Regional Awards South East)
Imperial War Museums Paper Store by Architype (RIBA East)
Winchester Cathedral South Transept Exhibition Spaces by Nick Cox Architects with Metaphor (RIBA South)
The Dorothy Wadham Building, Oxford by Allies and Morrison (RIBA South)
In February, The Fire Surgery sponsored CHAIN London 2020, an interdisciplinary conference focused on bringing together engineering institutions to see how they can better work together. The theme was “Engineering the New Decade” and there were a range of speakers including our own Andrew Nicholson representing the Institution of Fire Engineers. The organisers have put together a short video showcasing the event.
We look forward to the event returning next year, please visit www.chainevents.org.uk for more details.
With news of a lockdown extension imminent, it seems that the Fire Surgery staff will be working at home for a few more weeks yet - we are well prepared. All of our staff have access to virtual home fitness and we catch up regularly for work and social events. The weekly quiz is as competitive as ever!
Statement on The Fire Surgery’s Response to Covid-19
As the threat of the Covid-19 virus approached the UK, the Fire Surgery already had tested processes in place to address the potential risks to our business in the following areas: People, Processes, Places and Premises. Once the Government advice was updated on March 16th these plans were invoked and have been implemented successfully. As such we are confident that we can continue to operate and serve our clients in a comparable way. A summary of the measures that we are taking are detailed here.
The Fire Surgery has been shortlisted in the Small-Medium Enterprise of the Year category at the inaugural Engineering Talent Awards 2020, a new set of national awards to celebrate the diversity of the engineering and technology profession.
Within our small team of eleven, we have an almost equal gender split. We have 3 directors in our team, of which 2 are women. Our team is ethnically diverse, with team members from all over the world including China, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Vietnam and Zimbabwe.
Our small and diverse team continue to deliver high quality, award-winning fire engineering designs that are client and occupier focussed. We have been fortunate to receive most of our work via client recommendations and repeat business and have received highly positive client feedback.
The 3,000 acre South Ormsby Estate is set in the heart of the Lincolnshire Wolds, in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
With four villages, 150 acres of historic parkland and hundreds of years of heritage and tradition, the South Ormsby Estate is a beautiful and peaceful place to live, work, learn and play.
Since 2016, world-leading architects, conservationists and planners have been developing ambitious and sustainable plans for the area’s future.
The Fire Surgery is proud to be on the team working on the ambitious plans for the future of South Ormsby Estate.
To find out more, please click here.
Woburn Abbey is the family home of the Duke and Duchess of Bedford. The house and gardens are now closed to undergo a major refurbishment programme, re-opening to visitors spring 2021.
The Fire Surgery is proud to be on the team working on the refurbishment at Woburn Abbey and Gardens.
To find out more about the refurbishment programme, please click here.
The Fire Surgery welcomes Rob Luxford to our London Team. Rob brings with him experience in Building Control and Construction Monitoring.
Rob is also a film buff and supports Arsenal FC. He regularly attends pub quizzes and hosts a radio show at his local community station
You can find out more about Rob by going to our profile page.
The Fire Surgery welcomed the Year of the Rat by celebrating Chinese New Year with red packets and a tasty feast hand-picked by our Chinese colleagues.
The Rat is the first of all zodiac animals so this year is set to be a year of new beginnings and renewals. According to a myth, the Jade Emperor said the order would be decided by the order in which the animals arrived to his party. The Rat tricked the Ox into giving him a ride. Then, just as they arrived at the finish line, Rat jumped down and landed ahead of Ox, becoming first.
The Fire Surgery is proud to attend the opening of the new School of Science and Sport at Brighton College. We worked as part of the design team on this refreshing and innovative project which features a swimming pool and rooftop running track.
Click here for more information.
This year, The Fire Surgery is sponsoring the CHAIN London 2020 conference for early career engineers. The theme of this year’s conference is “Engineering the New Decade”, with speakers from 6 different institutions discussing the problems facing engineering and some exciting solutions, with lots of interesting speakers to be announced soon.
CHAIN 2020 is part of a series of events that aim to get engineering institutions to work together and share knowledge. To see what happened at previous events, have a look at the website.
The Fire Surgery is proud to have worked on the following award winning projects recognised at the AJ Architecture Awards 2019.
Heritage Project:
Alexandra Palace, East Wing Regeneration by Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios
School Project:
Music School, King's College School Wimbledon by Hopkins Architects
Workplace (10,000m² and over):
R7 by Morris+Company
Find out more here.
The Fire Surgery is proud to have worked on the following RIBA National Award Winning projects in 2019:
Fielden Clegg Bradley Studios - Alexandra Palace
Mae - Brentford Lock West
Hopkins - Music School, King’s College Wimbledon
Witherford Watson Mann - Nevill Holt Opera
Jestico + Whiles - Pitzhanger Manor and Gallery
Fielden Clegg Bradley Studios - Southbank Centre
The Georgian Group award winners 2019 were announced in London on Tuesday 01 October 2019.
The Fire Surgery is proud to have worked on the following award winning projects recognised at the Georgian Group Architectural Awards 2019:
Re-use of a Georgian Building
Winner: Shire Hall Historic Courthouse Museum, Dorchester, Dorset
Client: Dorset Council
Architect: Philip Hughes Associates LLP
This project saw the transformation of the grade I-listed Shire Hall, erected between 1796 and 1800 to the designs of Thomas Hardwick, from council offices to the Historic Courthouse Museum, a place where visitors can learn about the history of justice and injustice. Historically significant as the site where the Tolpuddle Martyrs were tried in 1834, the building still retains its Crown Court, cells and dock. The work has utilised and enhanced the existing spaces with minimal intervention and harm to the existing fabric while also allowing public access throughout.
Restoration of a Georgian Building in an Urban Setting
Winner: Pitzhanger Manor & Gallery, Ealing
Client: Pitzhanger Manor and Gallery Trust
Architect: Julian Harrap Architects LLP
Pitzhanger Manor was the country estate of Sir John Soane, who purchased it in 1800 as a showcase for his designs and as a means of impressing visitors. Later additions and alterations, including a large 1844 extension, meant that by 2010 the building that Soane had lived in was no longer discernable. The eight-year project restored the Manor to its c.1810 form, demolishing all later additions, with the exception of the late thirties Library building, and, where possible, reinstated significant missing elements of Soane’s design.
Find out more here.
The Fire Surgery and friends got dressed up and heading out to Royal Ascot for Ladies day. Thanks to a fantastic effort from Frankie Dettori on Stradivarious, the team cleaned up on the Gold Cup and finished mostly ahead of the bookies. A great day was had by all!
In2scienceUK is an award winning charity which empowers students from disadvantaged backgrounds to achieve their potential and progress to STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) and research careers through high quality work placements and careers guidance.
The Fire Surgery was excited to participate in the program this July, and had a great week with our summer student Rea Sachdeva, giving her the inside scoop on what life is like as a fire engineer!
Rea's comments on her experience:
For my work placement, I was privileged to join The Fire Surgery for a week. I was welcomed into a friendly team and was given my own desk to work on- making me feel very professional! I learnt a range of things from door widths and travel distances to the use of intumescent coatings. I particularly enjoyed being part of a unique design team meeting and a site visit to Scheduled Ancient Monument. I thoroughly relished my time and found it very beneficial in helping me to decide what I would like to do in the future, definitely encouraged me to look into fire engineering. Thank you to the wonderful team for sharing all the passion, advice and of course the delicious team lunches.
Many thanks to Rea for her week with us through the in2Science UK program. We wish her all the best in her future career!
The Fire Surgery and the Theatre of Comedy Company worked together on this Grade II listed Edwardian theatre in the heart of Londons West End to retrofit a new fly tower within the existing building structure to extend its performing capabilities.
Further information can be found on the RIBA awards website.
The 23rd of June is International Women in Engineering Day (INWED), and this year The Fire Surgery sponsored events to celebrate. INWED is a day to celebrate the amazing female talent we have in the engineering industry and to raise awareness for some significant issues we have in the workplace around gender parity. The Fire Surgery sponsored two events - a daytime event where 75 school students were introduced to all different kinds of engineering, and an evening event for 300, which included talks from a group of notable female engineers, an interesting lecture about unconscious bias, and some great networking opportunities.
The event was organised by a committee of volunteers that includes Frances from our team. You can see more about the events, along with some inspiration and advice from female engineers around the world, by searching #shecanengineer on social media.
The Old Vic is a 1,000-seat, not-for-profit producing theatre, located just south-east of Waterloo station on the corner of the Cut and Waterloo Road in Lambeth, London, England.
Established in 1818 as the Royal Coburg Theatre, and renamed in 1833 the Royal Victoria Theatre, in 1871 it was rebuilt and reopened as the Royal Victoria Palace.
It was taken over by Emma Cons in 1880 and formally named the Royal Victoria Hall, although by this time it was already known as the "Old Vic".
In 1898, a niece of Cons, Lilian Baylis assumed management and began a series of Shakespeare productions in 1914. The building was damaged in 1940 during air raids and it became a Grade II* listed building in 1951 after it reopened.
The Fire Surgery are involled in a number of projects at the Old Vic and support them regulalry with ongoing fire safety advice.
From March 2018, the Fire Surgery welcomes Jack Wilshaw to our London Team. Jack brings with him a broad experience of design, approvals negotiations, construction and operation across the discipline.
He is also a huge sports enthusiast which will keep us all on our toes!
You can find out more about Jack by going to our Profile Page.
Its been another successful and rewarding year at The Fire Surgery and again we would like to take this time to reflect on the exciting projects and initiatives we have been involved with over 2017.
Firstly, however, as Fire Engineering consultants, we should acknowledge the tragedy of the Grenfell fire. This is the largest loss of life building fire that has occurred in modern times. One that appears to be exacerbated through design and construction. This should not have happened in our country in the 21st Century. Our sympathies are with those directly and indirectly affected by this tragedy.
We take our role as Chartered Fire Engineers very seriously and this is a very harrowing reminder of the work which we undertake on daily Basis. We continue to support the Dame Judith Hackitt review through our association with The Fire Engineering Council with the Fire Industry Association by ensuring ongoing competence in Fire Engineering.
We have continued to grow at our steady pace, preferring to turn work down until we have the right quality of Fire Engineer. Frances Radford joined us in the Autumn following 5 years at Aecom. Frances has a 1st class MEng honours degree from Edinburgh University in Structural and Fire Safety Engineering. We also accommodated a summer work placement from our relationship with Letterkenny Institute of Technology. We have a new senior starter in the New Year. Watch this space!
We have contributed to a number of award winning project this year. Four projects were awarded RIBA Regional awards for 2017 and our fire strategy at the new Allies and Morrison building at Kings College school won a RIBA London Award 2017 and RIBA National Award 2017.
Following our success with Fire strategy of the year 2016, we are very pleased to announce that Lisa Farnell was awarded second place for 2017 with her work at St Michaels Mount in Cornwall. We submitted three projects this year which shows the diversity and type of projects and the engineering which we carry out.
We continue to find ways of increasing our knowledge in the wider application of fire safety design. In May this year, The Fire Surgery attended Essex County Fire and Rescue Services ‘Fire Service Operational Activity Awareness Training’ course. This course allowed The Fire Surgery team to undertake practical fire service training exercises that strengthened their understanding of the unique challenges faced by firefighters attending an incident. We also gave a number of high profile presentations on fire engineering through the Institution of Fire Engineers and our work in the heritage sector.
We have continued to build our strong repertoire with Heritage sector projects and have been appointed on challenging projects at Fulham Palace, Winchester Cathedral, Historic Dockyard Portsmouth and St Michael’s Mount. Our relationship with the National Trust has been strengthened with work at Quarry Bank Mill in Cheshire. Working with the National Trust Fire Safety Specialist and their insurers Zurich, we will be successfully incorporating sprinklers in to this unique heritage building.
We are now also recognised as one of the Key Fire Engineers for the London Commercial office market. We have s number of projects at Kings Cross for Argent and also Lendlease at the international Quarter London.
We continue to contribute to the wider fire safety engineering community, and participate on national standards and industry best practice committees (including fire engineering related British Standards, the Smoke Control Association, Institution of Fire Engineers Special Interest Groups, and CIBSE Guide E).
Its not all about fire engineering. We have some affiliated sporting and charity achievements this year including Andy Nicholson, cycling to Cannes for the Corum Foundation, Mel Tudor running London Marathon for Heads Together, Matt Ryan completing the Prudential Ride London for Young Epilepsy and Lisa Farnell leading England’s Women’s Curling team in the European Championships in Switzerland.
We are very grateful to our clients and design team members who continue to recommend us and support our mission to be the Fire and Risk Consultancy of Choice.
Merry Christmas from all at The Fire Surgery!
​Brighton College Music School by Eric Parry Architects for Brighton College won a RIBA South East Award 2017
This was a tight constrained site, congested by accretive infill buildings where the best solution was not obvious. EPA has come up with a very inventive solution to maximise the potential of the site and to bring a sense of coherence and hierarchy to this area of the school. The project has transformed not only the way you view and appreciate the Gothic Revival school range by George Gilbert Scott but, from within the new recital hall, the way you embrace the city beyond.
An interesting aspect of the fire strategy was developing suitable fire fighting access to the building which has very limited vehicle access due to its proximity to the sports grounds, adjacent to the north exits. Intially, East Sussex Fire and Rescue were proposing sprinklers as an alternative to poor fire fighting access. The Fire Surgery, however, developed a risk assessment and working with the Fire Authority provided a suitable strategy for a vehicle access testing single track routes to the North East corner of the building.
Read the full RIBA review here
The new Allies and Morrison building at Ins College school won a RIBA London Award 2017 and RIBA National Award 2017.
Founded in 1829, King's College School moved to its present Wimbledon site in 1897. This new building is the latest implementation of the school's development masterplan and provides new teaching accommodation and improved circulation in this part of the campus.
This is the latest addition to a school complex already occupied by projects designed by other well-known architects for which The Fore Surgery are also involved.
The challenge of this necessary modesty is to provide architectural personality on the one hand, whilst avoiding dullness or any pastiche on the other. The building achieves this balance admirably. These thoughtful, composed and formal elevations; decorated in places by applied and delicate steelwork; are clever, and are highly appropriate to this educational setting.
There were a number of Challenges to the fire strategy including external fire spread to the adjacent science block and also escape for those in wheel chairs from the upper floors.
resolving the access adn facilities for the fire service for a building in the middle of an existing site formed a key part of the discussions with London Fire Brigade.
Read the full RIBA review here
The University of Nottingham - George Green Library was recently announced as RIBA East Midlands Award 2017, RIBA East Midlands Sustainability Award 2017.
The University of Nottingham needed to double the size of its existing academic library to cater for an expansion in serious scientific study. Hopkins Architects faced the difficult task of doubling the size of a rather unremarkable 1960’s building (designed by Basil Spence), on a tight sloping site. They developed a clever concept, by using bold asymmetry, to successfully marry the old and new halves of the modernised library; two new entrances are created at the junction, leading into a full-height atrium – and, incidentally, providing an uplifting shortcut through the campus.
There are actually two atria created in the new building which are open to all floor levels. There is a café area on the ground floor for drinks and light snacks. The extension and existing building will create one new building which are treated as one fire compartment in the fire strategy.
The extension and refurbishment will greatly improve the current situation in the Library and bring it up to modern fire safety standards. The Fire Surgery developed a fire strategy in close consultation with the University Fire Safety Officer. Of particular interest to the fire strategy was the smoke management system in the two atria created in the building.
Read the full RIBA review here
Our Director Andrew Nicholson was a key speaker at the Heritage Fire Safety Conference for the Institution of Fire Engineers Eastern Branch on the 13th of September.
The event, Secure or Sacrifice, was held at the impressive Imperial War Museum in Duxford where The Fire Surgery are providing advice on a new archive store.
The presentation was very well recieved.
An overview of the event can be found here.
The Fire Surgery has welcomed Frances Radford to the team. Frances joins us as an accomplished Engineer and brings some fantastic stadia experience. We are very pleased to have her join us. We also would like to congratulate Matt Ryan who was recently promoted to Associate Director. Matt joined us over 2 years ago from the Fire Brigade and has developed our internal technical capability whilst also supporting the industry through his commitment to the SCA guide and CIBSE E. Finally, we were sad to say goodbye to Ryan Griffin, who joined us as a summer intern from the Institute of Technology, Letterkenny - we wish him all the best in his final year of Engineering.
We had a celebratrion dinner at our friend Micheal Nadras Primrose Hill restaurant.
At the request of the Society of Fire Protection Engineers (UK Chapter committee), Andy Nicholson gave his fire strategy presentation on the Sam Wanamaker Theatre at Shakespeare’s Globe, which won best Fire Strategy of the year 2015.
Shakespeare’s Globe were kind enough to lend the use of the theatre, so the presentation took place to 30 SFPE members on the stage and under candlelight. What could go wrong?
A key part of the fire strategy was on the ongoing management of the candles in the theatre. So, naturally, the Globe’s Candle Technician, Cleo, was present to ignite the candles as she does for all performances and answered a number of questions from the audience on the types of candles, how they are stored, where they come from and of course the fire safety precautions that are in place.
Andy said, “what is great to see is the development of the role of Candle Technician which was an idea in the fire strategy to convince the Fire Brigade that candles will be used safely. It closes the circle of fire safety between design and ongoing operational management.”
The Fire Surgery attended Essex County Fire and Rescue Services ‘Fire Service Operational Activity Awareness Training’ course. This course allowed The Fire Surgery team to undertake practical fire service training exercises that strengthened their understanding of the unique challenges faced by firefighters attending an incident. This increased understanding will be used to inform future designs and support the development of fire engineering solutions which are sympathetic to the needs of all stakeholders.
Andy Nicholson took part in the Cycle to Cannes Charity bike ride last week. Read below for his personal account:
Firstly, I just wanted to say a big thank you for all the people that sponsored me for my ride to Cannes. I know there is a lot of charity events at the moment so I really appreciate your support.
I raised £3118 for the Coram Foundation which I am very proud of.
So, how was the ride…….Hard!
The full course from London to Cannes is 1500km over the 6 days. The hotel alarms go off at 4.45am each day (which is 3.45am GMT for the first few days!!). Cycling starts at 6am prompt and you generally spend 14 hours to get to the next hotel (there are very short breaks and lunch in between).
The minimum distance one is expected to do is 120km a day (720km in total). I managed 1150km, which is an average of 192km a day, or for you imperial folk, 120 miles. I would have liked to have done more but no amount of fire engineering experience could extinguish the small fire which had started between my shoulders.
I had a low point on day three and could only manage 150km. There was a representative from the Coram there in the evening who reminded us all of the great work they do. She told the story of 7 year old, who comes from a very difficult family back ground. He has struggled to get adopted over a number of years. Coram have recently taken on this little boy and will use our money to help him find a new family. I have 3 boys, one of which is 7. Needless to say, I rode 237km the next day.
I have now had the bike surgically removed from me and there are no long lasting effects. The tingling in my little fingers (cyclist Palsy) subsides after two months I am told.
Thanks again for your generous support.
Read more about Coram here.
The Fire Surgery’s Lisa Farnell has won England’s National Women’s Curling Championships, defeating the defending national team 3 games to 1 in a best-of-5 series held last weekend. Lisa and teammates Sara Jahodova, Victoria Kyle, and Niamh Fenton are very excited to represent England at the European Curling Championships, 17-25 November in St Gallen Switzerland. Go Team England!!
From the 9th – 14th March 2017, Andrew Nicholson will be cycling from London to Cannes - a distance of 1500km - on the annual Legal & General Real Assets Cycle To MIPIM.
The ride is extremely challenging, with early starts, long days and late finishes and is organised by Club Peleton with over 150 professionals from the property industry taking part.
The main grant recipient - receiving two thirds of all funds raised - is Coram, the UK’s oldest and first children’s charity that has been supporting vulnerable children for over 275 years. Their flagship service, Coram Adoption, is the most successful voluntary adoption agency in the UK., finding loving and secure homes for some of the most vulnerable and hard-to-place children in the country. They now help more than 1.25 million children and young people every year, and this would not be possible without the generosity of our riders.
Please sponsor Andrew Here.
Read more about the ride Here
Another year passes and...
we have grown from 5 to 6 people,
we attained ISO 9001,
we moved offices to Southwark,
we won Best Fire Strategey of the Year 2016 for Croome Court (Pictured)
we were also runner up for Worthing Pier!
our project at Shafterbury theatre won best small project at the Building Awards,
we have contributed to two pending industry guidances documents from CIBSE and the Smoke Control Association,
we have lectured numerously on heritage fire safety
this is all working towards our goal to be the Fire and Risk Consultancy of choice.
we look forward to working with you in 2017.
The Fire Surgery and their Financial conscience having a nice meal at their local The Swan, opposite St Pauls.
We would like to wish all our friends and their families a very merry Christmas and happy new year.
The office is closed from 23rd December until 3rd January 2017.
We look forward to working with you in 2017!
Our new address is:
85 Southwark Street
London SE1 0HX
Telephone 020 7921 0220.
5 years ago today The Fire Surgery Ltd was born, with one employee and 1 project. Today, we are a proud home to 6 employees and have provided engineering design services on over 400 projects nationwide.
Thank you to everyone who believed in us and supported us - here's to the future and continued success!
Matt Ryan completes 5 km run in aid of Young Epilepsy Charity
Earlier this month, Matt and some of his LFB colleagues completed the Colour Run to rasie money for the Young Epilepsy Charity which supports people who are diagnosed with Epilepsy and associated conditions in their youth. They have so far managed to raise over £1800 and you can also support him via his fundraising page.
At the request of the Insitution of Fire Prevention Officers, Andrew Nicholson of the The Fire Surgery will be presenting at a special conference on the 350th Anniversary of the Great Fire of London.
The presentation, taking place at Southwark Cathedral this week and entitled "Great - Fire Engineering" will look at Fire safety Design of buildings over the years and see how the current Building Regulations has been shaped by many other serious fires.
It will then look at modern Fire Engineering Principles that are used on some of the contemporary building designs of the 21 Century which are based on fire engineering principles of fire dynamics, Human behaviour and building physics.
Last Thursday we closed the office and took friends and family to Henley to enjoy some English Summer racing by the river. With the champagne flowing, we watched over 80 races and had a great time.
The Fire Surgery are delighted to announce their appointment as Fire Engineers on the design of S04 and S09 at The International Quarter, Stratford, confirming our position as leading fire engineers in the London office market, which also includes buildings at Argents site at Kings Cross with Duggan Morris architects and buildings at British Lands Paddington Basin with Allies and Morrison.
Together, Lendlease and London & Continental Railways (LCR) are creating London’s newest commercial district, with up to 25,000 people who will work there over the next ten years. It will become an integral part of Stratford City, complementing the already complete East Village, Westfield Shopping Centre, and the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park and prospect of Olympicopolis
S04 is a 19 storey commercial office building and S09 is a 10 storey commercial office building, both designed by leading international architect Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners.
Read more about The International Quarter at http://www.theinternationalquarter.london/
The open doors project has started on site at the Mansion House in York and the construction hoarding includes The Fire Surgery details!
to read more about the project click here.
Yesterday, the Fire Surgery was treated to an afternoon of 'chess on ice' – also known as Curling. This is a sport, invented in medieval Scotland, in which 2 teams compete to slide 8 highly polished, granite stones weighing more than 20kg called ‘rocks’, across a 45m ‘ice sheet’. The aim being to land as many of your rocks as possible in the ‘house’ - a circular target marked on the far end of the ice.
There are similarities with boules or bowls, however the fun starts with the introduction of sweepers with brooms, who may be able to induce a change in the curved path of the sliding stones and also by the addition of some very slippery footwear, which encourages you to travel with your ‘rock’ for as long as possible, thus ensuring the perfect trajectory and curling motion. Sounds easy – well check out some photos of us in action and judge for yourself.
The Fire Surgery has passed the first stage of formal assessment for ISO9001:2015 and hopes to be fully certified by the BSI Auditor in May. The feedback received was extremely complimentary and the benefits of the mangement system are already being felt throughout the business.
You can review our updated policy statement here:
Frustrated with big business politics and bureaucracy? You could be part of a small, growing, passionate fire engineering business.
We need people with a proven track record of delivering fire engineering strategies. We expect you to maintain and advance our fire engineering consultancy.
In line with our Business Plan and Growth Strategy for 2016, The Fire Surgery are looking to recruit Senior Fire Engineers/Associates in our London Office. We have been appointed on a number of high profile projects and have a pipeline of some very exciting work. We are also the principal authors of two important new fire engineering guidance documents due in 2016.
We would like you to be a CEng status with the IFE or working towards this.
If you want to be part of our fun and dynamic team, please get in touch. Our contact details are here.
Andrew Nicholson presented in the Ecclesiastical Architects’ and Surveyors’ Association (EASA) October conference at Hampton Court. Read about it here
Andrew Nicholson's recent article on Fire Engineering in Heritage Buildings has been published in the Winter 2015/16 Ecclesiastical Architects' and Surveyors' Association (EASA) Journal. Read the article here
2015 has been a significant year for us.
We have grown from 2 to 5 people.
We have taken part in a government backed business growth program.
We have commenced the process to become ISO 9001.
We now offer Business Continuity Consultancy.
We won "Best Fire Engineering Strategy 2015."
We joined the ABTT, the FIA and the FPA and the HHA.
Oh yeah, and we developed a number of Fire Engineering Strategies!
Above all we had fun along the way. Thank you to all our friends that continue to support us. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
The CBCI certification is an assurance that professionals have the full knowledge and understanding of the theory of global good practice BC. This theory is based on the Good Practice Guidelines (aligned to ISO 22301) the global guide to good practice in Business Continuity
Melanie received a pass with Merit (above 85%). This is an achievement obtained by only the top 25% of candidates and enables her to progress to Membership status of the Business Continuity Institute.
On December 1st, The Fire Surgery passed the first stage of the ISO9001 journey with a successful pre assessment completed by the BSI. The feedback stated ‘you’ve been recommended to proceed to Stage 1 of the application process. This is great news and demonstrates the efforts your business has put in to get to this point of the application process’. We will begin formal assessment in February 2016 and hope to be fully certified by May.
The Burnham Beeches Annual Run took place last Saturday, 31st October. We were blessed with a bright sunny day, although the trails through Burnham Beeches were a little muddy in places, the autumn colours of the trees provided a lovely backdrop for the event.
In total 261 athletes took part in what proved to be a competitive race.
Well Done Mel and Yen on completing this challenging course, seen here cheered on by the family!
Earlier this week, The Fire Surgery were invited by The National Trust to observe an Emergency Response exercise being jointly run by one of their flagship properties and the local Fire and Rescue Service. This provided an opportunity for us to increase our understanding of the considerations for Emergency Planning and Salvage in Heritage buildings. The objectives of the exercise were to test the communications procedures, the site security and staff welfare provisions in the event of the loss of the primary site and to complete some emergency salvage of a variety of assets from the property. The scope of the exercise included the Fire Service personnel, National Trust Staff and Volunteers and local residents.
The Fire Surgery Wins Fire Strategy of the year 2015
Described by the judges as: “An excellent fire engineering strategy with particularly unique challenges, great architectural merits, design and craftsmanship and a range of outstanding features. Turning a 17th Century design into a successful 21st Century fire engineering strategy, surmounting all of the varied obstacles involved in such a task, is a commendable achievement and is a brilliant demonstration of the value of Fire Engineers in “engineering a fire safe world”.” This was a well-deserved winner of the award.
The Fire Surgery's Yen Luong took part in a Macmillan's event on Saturday, 8th August.
The 15mile route tackled 8 of the Lake District's most famous peaks, including Scafell Pike, Bowfell and Crinkle Crags in a 12 hour period and all for a fantastic cause!
The Fire Surgery's Andy Nicholson and Matt Ryan took part in the GVA cycle ride on Friday 10th July.
The 130km route, starting at Windsor Rugby Club, swept passed Windsor Castle, then Henley on Thames before taking in some of the Chilterns amazing scenery and climbs!
PUBLIC BUILDINGS
Unbuilt Winner
Elexandra Palace, N22
Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios for Alexandra Palace and Palace Charitable Trust
Commentary from the awards book:
The much-loved Alexandra Palace, in line for a welcome, light-touch, lottery-funded refurbishment, received the unbuilt prize, with the judges impressed with what promises to be a sensitive treatment of a much-loved part of London't history and built fabric. 'It's been waiting to happen for so long, it's just amazing that as a resource it has been eleft underused for thirty or forty years', said Peter Murray.
Melanie has joined The Fire Surgery fom Accenture, where she was in the Security Practice as a specialist in Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Planning.
During her 13 years with Accenture, she gained experience leading both consulting and client teams in the delivery of local and international projects, and she led their global BCMS community.
She is also an accredited lead implementer of ISO22301:2012 (PECB)
Melanie joins the Fire Surgery to lead Business Operations and Resilience since 80% of businesses fail following a serious fire.
Melanie will develop and lead The Fire Surgery's Business Continuity Management Consultancy and her skills will be particularly relevant to our Heritage and Museum clients.
As a specialist in Theatre Fire Engineering, The Fire Surgery attended the Associate of British Theatre Technicians Theatre Show at Alexandra Palace.
By Coincidence, we are the Fire Consultants developing the fire strategy for the refurbishment of the Victorian Theatre there.
Here we see The Fire Surgery's Matt Ryan and Yen Luong enjoying a tour of the theatre from "The Friends of Alexandra Theatre" group (FAPT).
More information on FAPT can be found here.
Gold Cup / Ladies Day at Royal Ascot was the setting Summer Party. It was a perfect sunny day and was made better with wins in each race throughout the team.
The Fire Strategy for the Grandstand Enclosure, the first to use the full BS 7974 process in the U.K. was briefly acknowledged!
We have worked with Matt over a number of years in his role as a fire engineer for London Fire Brigade (LFB), reviewing and approving our innovative designs.
Matt has 11 years experience working in the fire safety sector, all of which were in the employment of the LFB.
Starting out as a Fire Safety Inspecting Officer, on attaining a BEng (Hons) in Fire Engineering, Matt joined LFB’s Fire Engineering Group in 2009. Whilst there he worked on an eclectic range of fire engineered projects across London, with notable projects including the Battersea Power Station redevelopment, Brent Civic Centre, and The Tower, Vauxhall.
Matt also actively contributed as part of various technical committees to the drafting of industry standards and best practice guidance including British Standards relating to automatic fire curtains and fire service access, and the Smoke Control Association guide for residential common parts smoke control.
Continuing to pursue academic study, Matt was awarded a Masters degree in Fire Safety Engineering in 2012, and soon after was awarded Chartered Engineer status by the Engineering Council.
We are delighted that in looking for new and exciting opportunities in Fire Engineering he chose The Fire Surgery.
Following our ever increasing work load in the heritage sector, we have recognised the importance of planning for unwanted fires.
We can develop appropriate fire strategies for buildings, but what if a fire does occur.
The Fire Surgery can help your business to prepare for possible risks to your operations and form a strategic plan to get back on track following an unplanned disaster – whether this be big, small, manmade or natural. Business Continuity Planning can help your business to survive if a disruption cannot be prevented by enabling you to react in a co-ordinated way and minimise the impact of any unplanned outage.
The Fire Surgery presented at the 20th annual Fire Safety Conference for the Northern Ireland Fire Safety Panel.
The conference on the 19-20 February at the Killyhevlin Hotel & Health Club Enniskillen, Co Fermanagh, had a theme of Heritage, Hospitality and Healthcare.
Andrew Nicholson presented The Fire Engineering of a Grade 1 Listed buiding.
Other interesting presentations included a legal perspective on Fire Safety by Saba Naqshbandi a leading Barrister in Fire Safety.
The picture shows Bert Johnston - Chairman of Fermanagh District Council, Mabel Higgins – Building Control Chairman of the Fire Safety Panel NI, Saba Naqshbandi Barrister, Three Raymond Buildings and Assistant Chief Fire Officer Dale Ashford, NIFRS (QFSM).
The meeting of the Social Housing Fire Strategy Group is meeting in Llandrindod Wells on the 21st Jan.
Andrew Nicholson will be presenting the issues associated with extra-care facilities and assisted living and looking at the unusual fire safety arrangements needed for this type of building and use.
The presentation follows a number of projects where The Fire Surgery has developed strategies in this type of residential accommodation.
On 5th January 2015, the fire surgery welcomed new team member Lisa Farnell, all the way from Toronto, Canada. Lisa has five years of experience in the Canadian fire protection industry, with particular interest in evacuation and CFD modelling. She has consulted on a variety of projects ranging from small scale business and residential buildings, to large shopping centres, sport facilities, and more. Lisa holds a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and Engineering, and currently completing her master’s degree in Applied and Industrial Mathematics. She is excited to be starting the new year here in London with The Fire Surgery!
Wishing all our friends a very merry Christmas and prosperous New Year.
We have had an excellent 3rd year including two awards, and great projects with new clients including Argent at Kings Cross, British Land at Paddington Central and the National Trust at Croome Court.
We will continue our work in the Heritage and Theatre sectors and will be presenting the Croome Court Fire Strategy at a number of high profile conferences in 2015.
It is an exciting year ahead following our acceptance on the Government backed growth scheme for small businesses and we are looking forward to welcoming our new starters... more on this in the coming months!
The office is closed from Wednesday 24th of December to Monday 5th January 2015.
We look forward to working with you in the New Year.
Best Wishes
Andy and Yen
Our contribution to the winning project in this year's Wood Awards for 'Commercial and Public Access' as featured in the RIBA Journal.
Ian Shakespeare, Chairman of the IFPO presents The Fire Surgery Director with an official Institute tie follwing a presentation of Fire Engineering in the Sam Wannamaker Theatre.
The presentation took place at Southwark Cathedral in London.
The Christmas festivities are underway. The Farmiloe project, is the refurbsishment of the Heritage listed Glass and Lead works on St Johns Street in Clerkenwell, London.
Christmas drinks proceeded a recent meeting and were provided by the Client Tim Farmiloe, seen here with the design team which includes architect Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios, Building Services Consultant Skelly and Couch and Structural Engineer AKT2 and SLW project management.
Photo courtesy of Sara Fox, the client representative!
The Fire Surgery attended the retirement party for Malcolm Hopkins of Chubb Insurance this week.
Andy Nicholson has worked with Malcolm as far back as 2000 on the BBC White City Development in London.
The latest collaboration was the Sam Wanamaker Play House at Shakespeares Globe for which Chubb are principal insurers.
Malcolm took a very proactive approach to reviewing the fire strategy principles and provided valuable input to facilitate the use of candles in the theatre.
The Fire Surgery presented Malcolm with a personalised Candle stick holder!
The Fire Surgery was mentioned at the Wood Awards for their innovative fire strategy at the Sam Wanamaker playhouse.
The annual awards took place at the Carpenters Company, Carpenters Hall, London last week.
The project won the best building in the Commercial and Public Access category.
The judges comments included "This is a tour de force of joinery and is also to be applauded for satisfying fire regulations with the timber structure which is lit by candlelight"
Each year the Fire Surgery looks to provide charitable contribution to a worthy building project, last year we developed a fire strategy and operational risk assessment for St Peter's Church extension project in Maidenhead, Berks. The year before, we developed a strategy to remove an extisting external stair from a Hospice in East London as part of their refurbishment.
Recently, we were contacted by the Trustees of Jamies Farm, which exists to transform the lives of vulnerable children in challenging urban schools, by providing a unique combination of ‘farming, family and therapy’ through a short stay residential and follow up programme. They aim to re-engage children with educational life, and enable them to fulfil their potential both in school and the wider social setting.
They are undertaking a new project at a farm in Herefordshire, which is the conversion of an existing farm building to provide contemporary residiential accomodation to those involved.
The Fire Surgery developed a strategy to remove an external fire escape stair and demonstrate to Building Control that an internal protected stair was suitable, saving the project valuable funds that can be used elsewhere in the organisation.
More information on Jamies Farm can be found here.
The Fire Surgery has been requested to present a fire engineering case study by the Chairman of The IFPO Ian Shakespeare.
Andy Nicholson has known Ian for 17 years. Ian was the locaL Inspecting Fire officer on the Newmarket Race Course Millennium Grandstand project for which Andy developed the Fire Engineering Strategy in 1998.
The Fire Surgery have been asked to present the Fire Strategy at the Candle Lit theatre at Shakespeares Globe.
The Fire Surgery has been asked to present at the up and coming Institution of Fire Engineers and London Fire Brigade Heritage Under Fire Seminar in February 2015.
The Fire Surgery will be presenting the innovative approach to heritage fire safety engineering at th Grade 1 Listed Croome Court Building in Worcester.
There’s been a fair amount of progress on site recently, with the RC frame close to topping out.
This is the extension to the Engineering and Science Library at the University.
The Fire Surgery developed the fire strategy for the innovative atria.
Pictures courtesy of Rory Crawford of Hopkins Architects
The Fire Surgery reached their 3rd birthday this month and with that milestone have outgrown their intitial Business Plan.
However, with the help of a Government backed initiative aimed at supporting talented young businesses, The Fire Surgery have started to develop a new longer term business strategy that helps ambitious businesses to grow through coaching, workshops, masterclasses and match funding.
Commenting on the new horizon, Andy Nicholson, Director, says "We are at a pivitol point in our young business and putting the right procedures and people in place will help accelerate our growth in a sustainable manner in line with client demands and help reach our full potential within an industry recognised scheme".
The Fire Surgery Director Andy Nicholson enjoys a nice lunch break at a corporate cycling day organised by property Consultants GVA. The ride which started in Horsham and took in 60 miles of the south coast was a great success.
The Fre Surgery have been appointed by Mansion House York to develop a fire strategy for the Grade 1 listed building refurbishment. The 'Open Doors Project' is Heritage Lottery Funded and looks to provide a new visitor experience which will see the gold a silver collection go on display.
The Fire Surgery will use their strong heritage fire safety experience to provide a suitable fire stratgey, which realises the aspirations of the client and architect, De Matos Ryan, is sympathetic to the historical fabric, but will meet the functional requirements of the Building Regulations 2010 for fire safety.
Andy Nicholson has been asked to present the Sam Wanamker theatre fire stratgey at a heritage fire safety conference organised by East Sussex Fire and Rescue.
The Fire Surgery is delighted to be working with Scott Brownrigg in a collaborative project to develop the fire strategy for the Ambassadors theatre, newly aquired by Sir Cameron Machintosh.
From The Standard, May 2014
Sir Cameron plans to turn the Ambassadors, now showing Stomp, into a receiving house for seasons of new productions. Plans include the creation of a non-proscenium stage in 2015.
He said: “My plan is to rebuild the auditorium to fulfil a longstanding dream for the West End to have a transfer house, primarily exciting productions from theatres in the subsidised sector seeking an environment that mirrors their own stages. To this end we will be providing a glamorous 450-seat studio environment.”
Thanks to Horizonscan and University of Greenwich for putting on a great show.
We are super pleased to recieve our first RIBA certificate for the work on Brighton College with Allies and Morrison. Read more about the building here
With the appointment of two high profile projects in London, Alexander Palace and buildings at the Kings Cross Development site and also a number of exciting potential projects, we are looking for talented fire engineers to join the company.
A good construction/fire engineering degree and two years experience are preffered.
If you would like the opportuity to work on some challenging schemes and influence a growing business we would like to hear from you.
The Fire Surgery are pleased to announce their appointment by Kings Cross Central Limited Partnership on two large new projects.
What is emerging here is a vibrant new city quarter of offices, homes, community facilities, schools, a world-renowned university as well as a host of shops, restaurants, bars and cultural venues. When complete, there will be 50 new and refurbished buildings set in an exciting and inspiring network of new streets, squares, parks and public space.
The Fire Surgery are again working with Duggan Morris Architects on an exciting commercial office building and also for the first time with Piercy and Co on a mixed use residential development.
Alexandra Park and Palace Charitable Trust have announced the appointment of Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios (FCBS) as the lead designers for the Palace’s Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) supported regeneration project.
The design team, including The Fire Surgery as project fire engineers, will be responsible for the refurbishment of the historic BBC Studio and Victorian Theatre.
Restoring the Victorian theatre will see the venue brought back into use as a permanent performance space for the first time in around 80 years.
A significant element of the HLF project will see the BBC studios transformed into an interactive centre for education displaying digital imagery and artefacts important to the history of broadcast television at Alexandra Palace.
More information can be found on the Alexandra Palace website (click here).
After months of hard training TFS director, Yen Luong, completed her first marathon last Sunday raising money for Cancer Research.
Yen said "what an amazing experience, the weather could'nt be more perfect for running and the crowd support was fantastic....but (probably) never again!".
Andy Nicholson met Prince Phillip, The Duke of Edinburgh at the opening of the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse.
Prince Phillip was particularly interested in how the candles were approved in a modern theatre and also the fire safety systems in the space.
Allies & Morrison was lead architect on the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse which opens this week at the Globe. Associate director Oliver Heywood explains how they tackled the fire risk witth help from The Fire Surgery!
read the full artcle from Building Design here
An extract from the Guardian on Sunday 12th January commenting on the Fire Engineering the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse...
"Then there is the return to the 17th-century use of candlelight in indoor theatres, which will play a similar transformative role in the playhouse to the open air in the Globe. The light makes an architecture of atmosphere that was once commonplace and is now unexpected. Although the new playhouse has the facilities for more modern lighting, it also has naked-flamed candelabra descending from the ceiling, candles in sconces and, if desired, in the hands of actors. It changes the space, picking out spots of gilt, and facets and angles of decoration, as intended by Greenfield.
To have candles in a timber structure is not out of the best-practice rulebook for health and safety in modern theatres, and its achievement is due both to the sophistication of smoke detectors and the patience and creativity of the fire consultant Andy Nicholson, the fire brigade and various other relevant authorities. It is unusual to credit fire consultants in reviews of buildings, perhaps wrongly so, but here the contribution is vital: without the combination of wood and flame, which makes the interior feel like a kind of boat, floating in shadow, more than half the point of the project would be lost." read the full article here.
To continue our work in the Heritage sector, The Fire Surgery have been appointed by Bob Bantock, Operational Risk Business Partner
(Fire Specialist) at National Trust, to develop a fire strategy for the refurbishment of the Grade 1 listed Manor House, Croome Court in Worcester.
Taken from the National Trust web site...
"Find Croome Court, the home of the Earls of Coventry, at the heart of the park, which has been patiently waiting for its revival. Its time has come in 2014 as Croome Redefined starts to pull this glorious yet faded house back from the brink. Explore un-restored spaces and the intricate repair works which will see the house change forever.
The building is being designed by Purcell Architects.
Our Fire Strategy for the Candle lit theatre is on show tonight for the first time. Unlike other members of the design team, we want our hard work to go unoticed.
There will be no emergency call outs or clinics during this time!
We celebrated our second birthday at Restaurant Michael Nadara in Primrose Hill, London.
Andy Nicholson said "At 2 years old we are now walking confidently but still rely on the support of those here" referring to the friends and asscoaites working with the Fire Surgery.
Engineering and Science Library, University of Nottingham
The Fire Surgery were commissioned as sub-consultants to Hopkins by the University of Nottingham to provide fire engineering support to the proposed refurbishment and extension of the George Green, Science and Engineering Library.
The objectives of this fire engineering appointment were to provide a strategy that demonstrates that the design complies with the functional requirements of the Building Regulations 2012 for part B, Fire Safety.
Outline discussions took place with the University Fire Officer, to show that the strategy will meet the University Fire Policy and to ensure that the building can be managed once occupied, as required under the Regulatory Reform (Fire safety) Order (RRO) 2005.
The new building will contain lower ground and ground floors plus 5 upper stories. There are two atria created in the new building which are open to all floor levels. There is a café area on the ground floor for drinks and light snacks. The extension and existing building will create one new building which will be treated as one fire compartment.
see more here
The Fire Surgery have been appointed by the Royal Opera House to provide fire engineering support to their new Costume Centre at the High House Production Park in Purfleet, Essex. The building, designed by Nicholas Hare Architects will house the vast collection of Royal Opera House costumes including items of historical interest. As a result, the Fire Surgery have been working closely with the Royal Opera House and their insurers to develop a suitable contents fire protection strategy.
The Fire Protection Association is the UK’s national fire safety organisation. Established in 1946 they have become recognized as an independent and authoritative source of information and advice relating to all aspects of fire safety, risk management and loss prevention.
Our Membership allows access to a significant fire protection library, keeping us upto to date with the fire safety advances.
Find out more here
The Fire Surgery are pleased to announce that the new boarding facility at Brighton College is open. The 3 storey building has been carefully deigned by Allies and Morrison architects adjacent to the grade II listed Dawson Building on Eastern Road, which was designed by Sir Gilbert Scott.
The Fire Strategy, worked up closely with the college and East Sussex Fire and Rescue service, has incorporated an atrium through the protected corridors and has a single stair fire strategy.
Today marks the end of another busy and exciting year at The Fire Surgery.
Some of our highlights include winning the SouthBank Festival Wing project in London, an 18 storey school with olympic size swimming pool and a collection of London West End theatres. We even extended our horizons overseas to Doha in Qatar and Lagos in Nigeria.
We would like to take this opportunity to say thank you to all our Clients, Design Teams, Contractors, London Fire Brigade, Building Control Authorities, Friends and Families for your support and co-operation, without which it wouldn't be as 'fun' to come to work every day.
Let's hope it continues for the year ahead!
Andrew and Yen
Following the success of the English Heritage Fire Safety Conference at Knebworth House in June, where the Fire Surgery presented the Cuttyu Sark redevelopment, the Fire Surgery are further invloved in this sector.
We have recently been awarded a grade II listed office building in Central London - The Farmiloe project, and Brighton Colleges Tower Project to add to the Shaftesbury Theatre and 50 Victoria Embankment heritage projects.
In addition, Andy Nicholson has been requested as a key note speaker at the Heriprot Fire Safety Conference in Liverpool, which aims at bringing all the knowledge of fire safety at European level under one overarching initiative, which can pool together experience, transfer of knowledge, best practices and case studies, which will in turn strengthen the management Heritage Sites risks within the European Union. see more here
The Fire Surgery will be attending the Institution of Fire Engineers Special Interest Group on Heritage Fire Safety in September.
Safeguarding Our Heritage is a fire safety conference organised by the Heritage Fire Safety Group of the Insitution of Fire Engineers and English Heritage. It is taking place at Knebworth Conference hall on June 25th 2013.
Andy Nicholson will be presenting the Cutty Sark Fire Strategy, which is the £50m restoration of the Grade 1 listed ship.
He will discuss the fire safety challenges and how heritage fire engineering addressed these with a comprehensive fire strategy that was worked through with all key stakeholders.
image courtesy of Grimshaw Architects
Counter Terror Expo 2013 is the largest international event to mitigate threats, protect against terrorist attacks & understand current modern day risks, in a secure environment.
The Tall Buildings Group participated in the Counter Terror Expo, briefing Partners Programme with sessions for senior people who own, manage, and design security and fire safety within tall buildings.
Tall buildings dominate the skyline of all the major cities in the world and present their own unique security risks. The world has changed since 9/11 yet how do tall buildings balance the need for robust security against the highest level of fire safety?
With her strong back ground in Fire Engineering Design and her previous role as the Regional Fire Safety and Risk (Asia) Executive at Goldman Sachs (she was responsible for the strategic design, construction, operation and fire safety management of all Goldman Sachs Asia offices) Yen was a key presenter and discussed - "Managing Fire Safety in Tall Buildings - a Fire Engineers’ Perspective". The session was very well recieved.
The old Midlands hotel at St. Pancras Station in London was reborn as the five-star luxury Marriott Renaissance at St. Pancras International. Finding its rightful place on the English Heritage list, this magnificent building was saved from demolition and turned into luxury apartments atop a new Marriott hotel.
Marioff, the market leader in high pressure water mist with their "HI Fog" product, kindly showed us around the building including a review fo the equipment and plant spaces.The system is fed by a full capacity standalone water tank and HI-FOG pump unit installed in a small basement vault room. The HI-FOG system was also extended upwards to protect both the apartments above the hotel. This allowed local au- thorities to give a concession allowing the building owners to forgo installing a fire barrier between the hotel and apartments, saving money and structure integrity.
We are very pleased to announced that the Fire Surgery has been appointed through GVA Acuity on the refurbishment project at the Shaftesbury Theatre in London.
The project is designed by Bennetts Associates architectural practise and adds to the increasing expertise the Fire Surgery has in theatre designs.
To celebrate the Chinese New Year, The Fire Surgery Directors celebrated at the Royal China in London.
The seventieth annual NI Fire Safety Conference is a two-day conference that was opened on 7th February 2013 by, Alderman PJ McAvoy the Mayor of Ballymena Borough Council at Tullyglass House Hotel Ballymena.
He said “It is important to keep staff aware of new thinking and of up to date research, and to work jointly with colleagues in similar, potential life-saving roles. Joint working between Building Control, the Fire Service, Department Finance and Personnel and Entertainment Licensing is to be commended, and joint training with local experts and those from further afield, looking at relatively diverse areas is particularly valuable for the delegates”.
An intensive two-day exchange of research ideas, case studies, statistical analysis, new technologies and modern approaches were chaired by Dale Ashford Assistant Chief Fire Officer NI Fire & Rescue Service on day one and Mabel Higgins Principal Building Control Officer with NEG BC and Chairman of the Fire Safety Panel NI on day two.
Andrew Nicholson presented the Sam Wanamaker Theatre fire Strategy at Shakespears globe and also the Cutty Sark Fire Strategy (courtesy of WSP group).
Initial feedback from the delegates was both presentations were thoroughly enjoyable.
Back row: Andrew Nicholson the Fire Surgery, Mabel Higgins Chair of the NI Fire Safety Panel
Front Row: David Ware Fire Risk Consultancy, Dale Ashford Assistant CFO NIFRS, Alderman PJ McAvoy Mayor of Ballymena, Seamus McCrystal Head of Building Standards Department of Finance and Personnel and Brian Magill Assistant Building Control Manager Belfast City Council
Yen Luong has been asked to present her experience of operational fire safety management in tall buildings, following her tenure as Fire Safety Manager (Asia) for Goldman Sachs. This will take place in April at the Counter Terro Expo at Olympia in London. More detail can be found here...
Andrew Nicholson will be presenting two project case studies at the Northern Ireland Building Control Fire Safety Conference 2013. He will discuss the challenges of the candle lit theatre fire strategy at Shakespeare's Globe and through kind permission from WSP group, will be presenting the unique fire strategy at the Cutty Sark restoration project in London. More details of this event can be found here
The Fire Surgery are delighted to be appointed as Fire Consultant by the Southbank Centre to support Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios as lead architect for the project to refurbish and renew the Queen Elizabeth Hall, Purcell Room and Hayward Gallery complex.
The project will bring the performance spaces and galleries in the complex up to the standard of the recently transformed Royal Festival Hall and will address current urgent problems including poor access to and the upgrading of the stages and galleries; substandard back stage areas; and worn out services.
Wishing all our friends a merry Christmas and a happy New Year. Our office will be closed from Friday the 21st December and reopens on Monday7th of January 2013.
Today was the official press release for the indoor Jacobean Theatre, now to be known as the Sam Wanamaker Theatre.
Interest in the use of candles as the primary light source is high!
see what the Guardian had to say...
The Fire Surgery had a site visit to the Globe Theatre on Monday with Allies and Morrison architects. Demolision of the existing internal structure is well under way with works to the Foyer area also progressing.
Yesterday The Fire Surgery were down at Brighton College and the New East Wing Boarding House. In addition to the site visit, we are also assisting the college on a new site wide fire masterplan and also witnessed the unanounced evacuation of one of the buildings.
Featuring short films, artworks and footballing legend Neymar, the Brazil At Heart exhibition opened on Saturday 28th July at the brand new Brazilian Embassy building on Cockspur Street. Officially opened by Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff , Brazil At Heart runs until 2nd September and will give Londoners and visitors the chance to find out what to expect when Brazil hosts the 2014 FIFA World Cup in 12 cities. In one virtual exhibit, visitors can test their ‘keepy-uppy’ skills against none other than 19-year-old football sensation Neymar, who has already been setting the London 2012 Olympic football tournament alight.
The exhibition was desinged by architectural firm http://naja-deostos.com. The ground floor structure is made of 103 layers of triple walled corrugated cardboard accommodating ten exhibitors spaces and exhibition infrastructure.
The Fire Surgery had the challenege of developing a unique fire strategy for the large amount of cardboard in a heritage listed building using fire protection and fire prevention strategies. http://www.brazil.org.uk/events/index.html
Andy Nicholson is delighted to join FSH/024/0-/03 Revision of PD 7974-5 which is Physiological Assessment of Firefighting, Search and Rescue in the Built Environment and also FSH/025/0-/03 Revision of BS 7346-7 Components for smoke and heat control systems. Code of practice on functional recommendations and calculation methods for smoke and heat control systems for covered car parks.
Andy commented " it is great to be a part of the development of future British Standards in fire safety, it allows us to stay at the leading edge fire safety design".
234 Bath Road is a 5 storey speculative office building forming part of the new Masterplan for Slough Trading Estate. The new buidling designed by BFLS architects will incorporate an impressive atrium throughout and will be a gateway building to the wider masterplan. The Fire Surgery will be developing a fire strategy to BS 9999 with unique escape strategies at ground floor allowing the reception and ground floor to be open and unobstructed.
The Fire Surgery Directors attended the Cube Restaurant yesterday. We successfully completed the design and approval of the fire strategy for the the Cube on top of The Royal Festival Hall and produced the operational fire risk assessment.
Yen graduated from Bath University in 1996 with a BSc in Physics and subsequently joined WS Atkins, one of the largest multi-disciplinary engineering consultancies in the UK. Since then, she obtained a Masters degree in fire safety engineering and has over 16 years of experience in providing fire, safety and risk consultancy services both in the UK and internationally.
Yen has worked for a diverse group of companies including government research and testing organisations, multi-disciplinary engineering companies and a global investment bank, thus providing her with an engineering knowledge and experience that has both breadth and depth.
In her previous role as the Regional Fire Safety and Risk (Asia) Executive at Goldman Sachs, she was responsible for the strategic design, construction, operation and fire safety management of all Goldman Sachs Asia offices.
Yen joins The Fire Surgery as Director and will be responsible for strategic business direction and technical engineering resource.
Brighton College, voted the best independent school in the country in the Sunday Times 2012 listing, has appointed the Fire Surgery as their fire engineer to support on-going development at their historical site.
The Fire Surgery will work with www.alliesandmorrison.com architects and www.thorntonreynolds.com MEP engineers.
Meetings with East Sussex Fire and Rescue Service has begun.
Her Majesty the Queen formerly re-opened the Cutty Sark yesterday following the £50M restoration by Grimshaw Architects. The Cutty Sark is now raised 3m in the dry berth creating a fabulous museum space underneath the hull.
The Fire Surgery's Director, Andy Nicholson, was on the invitation list following the development of the unique fire strategy for WSP, following the fire in 2007.
The strategy involved protecting the ship from a fire internally using low pressure water mist suppression.
Below the ship in the dry berth, a unique escape strategy allows a flexible space to accomodate higher numbers of people for exhibitions and events.
Andy can be seen along with Greenwich Building Control's Bruce Paige, WSP's Kjetil Pedersen and members of London Fire Brigade.
The choice of smoke detection in the indoor theatre is an important decision. Firstly, to be an authentic Jacobean Theatre, we need to hide the detection system from view, but still be able to detect a fire. Secondly, we need to distinguish between the ambiant condition of a candle lit performance and a real fire incident. We are therefore considering Aspirating Smoke Detection systems. We have been calibrating the sensitivity to work affectively with the candles. This was done with Siemens FSS at their test labaoratory at The Fire Service College.
The Cube is a moveable restaurant that was created by the appliance manufacturer Electrolux and is destined to make its mark all across Europe. You will catch it appearing on a prominant rooftop in London. Creatively designed by Italian architects Park Associati, it offers a huge outdoor walkway with a nicely arranged serving area and an observable view to the centered kitchen.
its new location is being overseen by Allies and Morrison architects www.alliesandmorrison.com and Absolute Blue project management.
The challenge for The Fire Surgery is to integrate the Cube into its host building's fire strategy so they can work together and independently.
The Fire Surgery were introduced to the scheme through Tim Thornton of http://thorntonreynolds.com/index.php.
Isis is a regeneration company formed by British Waterways, Igloo and Muse Developments to unlock and maximise the potential for waterside development. This proposal is in relation to Brentford Lock West.
The brief for The Fire Surgery Ltd is to develop an outline fire safety strategy for development of 3 residential apartment Plots as phase 1 of the development of Isis waterside in Brentford. Plot H is by Karakusevic Carson Architects, plot H is by Duggan Morris Architects and plot J is by Riches Hawley Mikhail Architects.
The Fire Surgery are asisting Sainsbury's with fire safety at their London Head Quarters.
The Extra Care facilitiy, which is based in West London, is the term given to independant living accomodation with support on hand for assisted living. It usually involves older people with a range of disabilities and needs. In fire safety terms, this is somewhere between sheltered housing and care homes. It provides unique challenges in the fire strategy from developing a suitable evacuation strategy based on the risk to residents and an operational strategy based on the available staff resource. The intention is to bring all key stakeholders with a responsibilty under the RRO together to firstly under stand their responsibility and help them deliver this.
The Residential Care home is more straight forward and this projet is to ensure that the base build fire safety provisions meet the funtional requirements of the building regulations.
The Fire Surgery is delighted to have been accepted on the approved list of consultants for SEGRO and have added to this success with the appointment on two commercial office buildings on a site in Berkshire.
Ross Hutichnson, Partner at Unit Architects LLP (www.unitarchitects.co.uk) has brought togther a design team to assist in the development of a new external garden and restaurant area. Naturally, all consultants have waived their fee to provide a comprehensive strategy that will form a new outdoor space for the Hospice. The Fire Surgery are specifically looking at the means of escape strategy from the Chapel to reduce the impact of large external stairs on this valuable area.
Following the opening of the Globe in 1997, the indoor Jacobean theatre was left as a shell, to be divided and partitioned into rooms for education workshops and rehearsals. The current proposals are for the restoration of this indoor theatre to its intended purpose. The indoor theatre will seat around 320 people, with two tiers of galleried seating and an authentic pit seating area, which will provide a uniquely intimate theatre experience.
Authenticity should be at the very centre of the decision making for the Indoor theatre. It is what sets the Globe apart from other theatres and the draw for patrons and players alike. The spirit of authenticity in the Globe Theatre is felt in the way that patrons relate to the actors, the way they receive the play, and the degree to which they forgive standing in the yard, sitting on hard benches, and having timber posts in their field of view.
In addition to the use of green oak as structural timber, Shakespeares Globe have expressed a desire to light certain productions in an authentic manner with candles, while still having concealed infrastructure for contemporary theatre lighting to serve other productions. The Fire Surgery have been appointed to develop a suitable bespoke fire strategy for this unique building.
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Bob Sheil Senior Lecturer and Director of Technology and Computing at the Bartlett has asked Andy to give a back ground to fire safety design and innovative solutions for meeting Building Regulations requirements. Andy will then critique final year projects.