Women in Fire Safety

When approached by Duncan J. White, MDM’s Group Editor, to write to the IFP Comment for the December issue I reflected on how I could use my voice to inspire and support others. As soon as Duncan informed me that I would be the first woman to do so, I immediately thought that there is no other topic I would wish to write about other than the outstanding achievements of other exceptional women within the fire safety community. 

Circling back to the beginning of the year, Kate Blake and I proceeded on an extraordinary journey to launch the Women in Fire Safety Awards. The reasoning is that we wanted to recognise women in all areas of our industry whose examples serve to inspire the next generation, deserve recognition for their daily excellence and to celebrate all who champion diversity. At the time, Kate and I did not know how this would be embraced, but we have truly been overwhelmed and humbled by the reaction. Therefore, I would like to take this opportunity to also thank all the amazing panellists, partners, nominees and those within our support network because without you, none of this would be possible.

In November, we held the first inaugural award ceremony in London and without further ado, please find below the inspirational winners of the first Women in Fire Safety Awards 2021.

Woman of the Year: Janine Osbourne

Janine has seven years’ experience working as a Fire Engineer. She is a Chartered Engineer based in the London Office at OFR Consultants. Janine has worked on a wide variety of projects in London and the wider UK including shopping centres, large mixed-use residential developments and office buildings. She is well known for using fire engineering approaches on complex projects to ensure that fire safety provisions do not restrict the building form.

Inspirational Award: Irene de Lezcano-Mujica Gonzalez

Irene joined Hoare Lea in 2016 as a graduate fire engineer, having completed an MEng in Structural and Fire Safety Engineering as well as a placement in a fire safety consultancy prior to this. She was nominated by her previous colleague, Karl Wallasch, to give recognition for her excellent standard in work and the behaviours she sets on a daily basis for herself and others.

Rising Star Award: Sam Bryant

Sam studied at the University of Edinburgh and graduated in 2020 with a 2:1 in Structural and Fire Safety Engineering. During her time studying, she worked as a trainee site engineer, and completed her master’s thesis on Fire Safety During Construction. Sam started working for OFR Consultants in September 2020 as a graduate fire engineer and has worked on a range of residential and non-residential buildings, as well as working alongside the research and development team. She was also recently awarded with SFPE UK’s Up and Coming Fire Engineer for 2021.

Business Manager of the Year: Naomi Davies

Naomi joined C.S. Todd & Associates in 2009 as Personal Assistant to the Managing Director. Over a period of time, she took on additional responsibilities in terms of project management for key clients, allocation of work to consultants and undertook significant client-facing activities. She was promoted to the Board of the company as Director of Administration in 2018, properly reflecting the role into which she had developed since joining the company. Naomi is responsible to the Managing Director for the smooth running of the company. 

Training Provider Of the Year: Jessica Mann and Vicki Cutler

Vicki is the founder and Director of Housing H&S Compliance UK Ltd, a specialist training and consultancy company providing UK-wide safety and fire-safety support to organisations operating within the social-housing sector. She is a proud Chartered Fellow of the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH), Member of the International Institute of Risk and Safety Management (IIRSM) and Member of the Institute of Fire Safety Managers (IFSM). 

Jess, Marketing & PR Executive at Apollo Fire Detectors, was nominated for her outstanding contributions in enhancing the competency of Apollo customers by developing a new training programme during the pandemic. This resulted in thousands of fire-safety professionals, in unprecedented circumstances, benefitting worldwide by receiving the knowledge they needed. 

Fire Safety Manager of the Year: Laura Jones 

Laura has worked for Network Homes for 16 years, fulfilling an array of roles, and has been the Fire Safety Contracts Manager for the last seven years following the team’s creation. She has extensive experience procuring and managing specialist contractors, and she has delivered fire-safety training to a wide audience across the organisation to ensure colleagues are aware of obligations and best practices. 

Recruiter of the Year: Katey Ferguson 

Katey was nominated by Alice Clark from Acivico Group for her outstanding contributions in promoting careers, diversity and encouraging amazing candidates into all areas of the industry. Since, she has recently launched Ferguson Resource Group who specialise in all areas of FM recruitment including sales and business development.

Fire Safety Contractor: Future Group 

The nomination for Future Group was received by Gemma Harding who stated: ‘Future Group have supported me with industry training and have always encouraged my personal development. I was new to the industry and have had incredible mentors along the way who have taken time out of their busy schedules to ensure I get the training I want and need to further my career. When I saw the nomination category for contractor of the year, which celebrates diversity and opportunity within the workplace, I personally made the nomination as it entirely represents Future Group as a business.’ 

For more information, go to www.womeninfiresafety.com