Fire investigations UK

Mike is a Fellow of the Institution of Fire Engineers and a Member of the International Association of Arson Investigators. He holds a Master of Science, with distinction, in Fire Investigation and won the Gardiner Award for his dissertation on the ignition characteristics and heat release rate of tea light candles. Mike also holds a Master of Arts degree in Professional Development in Management; his dissertation investigated using Six Sigma management techniques to help reduce casualties and fatalities in dwelling fires. He was one of the first people outside DCLG to be granted access to the fire statistics database for every FRS in the UK. Mike served as a fire officer for over thirty years specialising in fire investigation, fire safety law, technical standards and policy. He has investigated many fatal fires, including multiple fatalities, domestic, industrial and agricultural fires of both accidental and deliberate origin. Mike has presented expert evidence to Crown Court, HM Coroner’s Court and Court Martial. Mike has sat on several national working groups including the Chief Fire Officers’ Association Timber Frame & Structural Timber, and Fire Engineering and Technical Standards groups. He has met and presented evidence to the Fire and Housing Ministers and the Chief Fire and Rescue Advisor, spoken to the All Party Fire Safety and Rescue Group at the House of Lords, and provided briefing papers to all MPs on the provision of smoke alarms in rented accommodation. In September 2015 he presented a research paper at the 6th International Symposium on Human Behaviour in Fire. Mike continues to be active in fire science research and has a special interest in computational fluid dynamics and evacuation modelling. Mike’s first degree was in environmental science when he specialised in the migration and availability of heavy metals in soils. He was selected to represent Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service and had lunch with Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth during her Jubilee year.