The Fire Industry Association has just published its Annual Report for 2018.  The document contains useful information about the organisation ranging from training to its marketing initiatives. As a Wirral Fire Industry company we had a look through and have summarised some of the main points below.

Ian More, Chief Executive Officer at the organisation, dedicates the opening of his forward to commentary on The Grenfell tragedy.  He goes on to describe how hundreds of hours of meetings have been focused on ensuring this type of disaster is behind the nation.

During 2018 the association has had a big focus on competence and training. Wirral Fire Protection is now one of more than 800 members, this growth ensures that the FIA remains a powerful lobbying tool for the industry.

Here’s some facts and figures from the report:

October 2017 saw the highest ever number of subscriptions to the FIA in a single month

In May and June 2018 the number of new members joining broke all previous records

Since 2015 the FIA technical team has resolved more than 2,000 technical calls

More than 1146 exams have been sat by industry professionals seeking endorsements from the FIA Awarding Organisation

Full statistics can be found in the report here.

We’re pleased to see that the report acknowledges “competency” as a buzzword in the industry. We’re all for boosting ability and trustworthiness in fire safety, Wirral Fire Protection has always supported this alongside our BAFE accreditations. We have developed our own programme of training to help skill up those responsible for fire safety in the workplace.

Turning to the FIA councils, the amount of work they have completed in 2018 is immense.  The various councils conduct research projects, publish papers and develop training and certification schemes. In particular the Fire Risk Assessment Council has established a new working group to focus on the skills for fire risk assessors. This should be widely welcomed by the fire industry and businesses across the country.

They also talk about preparing for Brexit.  The FIA is involved in Euralarm. For those who have not heard of the organisation it was founded in 1970 and represents more than 5,000 fire safety and security companies from across Europe. They provide leadership and expertise to fire safety operators, governments and other industry bodies.

Ian Moore signs off his statement by saying: “I sincerely thank those that have given up their time for no financial reward to support the FIA in its endeavours. These and the unheralded back-room staff have worked hard this year to deliver on a number of fronts and move the FIA forward once more.”