Fire engineering is a relatively new science that combines a scientific knowledge of how fires start, spread, are contained and extinguished with a behavioural knowledge of how people react to them. The result is an engineering discipline that exists to protect people, property and the environment from fire.

Fire engineering can start with either the codes or with the design. With a codes-driven approach one should expect to compromise elements of the architectural vision in making the design code compliant.

With a design approach, which is our approach, fire engineers give themselves the far more difficult task of protecting the vision by creating a bespoke strategy through fire engineering. It is a scientific approach that uses the statistics of real fires, calculation tools and studies of human behaviour. This preserves the architectural design and provides value by reducing over-specification caused by conservative codes and allows the fire protection to be deployed where the risk is.

Taking this approach means we have to shoulder more of the risk. We believe it is a price worth paying. With every project being a prototype, we push the boundaries and, by doing so, are able to recruit from the brightest people in the industry. This not only equips us to handle the extra risk, but has been central to us being able to continually improve what we offer: better value and safer buildings.

In the ten years that our (SAFE) fire team has been in business, we are now acknowledged as one of the foremost fire engineering consultants in the UK and Middle East, and have a fast-growing wider international presence.