RISK MATRIX

FIRE SAFETY CONSULTANT

Fire Risk Assessor and Fire Safety Training Specialist

Stan Cowie GIFireE

Retired 2001 in rank of Senior Divisional Officer after

30 years service with Grampian Fire Brigade.

Served as:

Divisional Commander

Senior Fire Investigator

Head of Health and Safety

Head of Training

Head of Fire Safety

Head of G F B Video Unit

Principal Officer

Brigade Management Team Member

 

OPERATIONS

During Stan’s 30-year service with Grampian Fire Brigade he attended many large and serious incidents as Officer in Charge.  The incidents included: fires in buildings, ships, aircraft, road and rail transport.  He has also attended many road traffic accidents, special and humanitarian services.  Stan has also attended various incidents as a cliff and quarry rescue specialist and an offshore response team member. 

FIRE INVESTIGATION

Home Office Principal Forensic Scientific Officer Mr Roy A Cooke LL.B., M.I.Fire E, trained Stan in the subject of Fire Investigation at the Fire Service College.  Stan has also worked in partnership with Mr Cooke at complex fire investigations such as Cullen House, Cullen.  

Stan was responsible for establishing the Grampian Fire Brigade / Grampian Police Fire Investigation Joint Team in 1987 and has worked alongside Senior Police officers and the Head of Forensic Science at various incidents in order to establish the cause of fire.  Stan has also on several occasions presented evidence in criminal courts as an expert witness.

Stan’s experience as a fire investigator has given him an immense insight into the cause of fire, which is essential when providing evidence as an expert witness in court.  His expertise is also invaluable when providing professional advice on how to prevent fires in clients’ premises.

HEALTH AND SAFETY

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During 1998, Stan worked with Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Fire Services and the Chief and Assistant Chief Fire Officers Association District 7 Health and Safety Committee to produce various manuals on Health and Safety.

One booklet he was personally responsible for writing and producing was entitled ‘Dynamic Management of Risk at Operational Incidents’. 

The Ministers responsible for Fire Service matters at the Scottish Office, the Home Office and the Northern Ireland Office endorsed the booklet and all operational firefighters and officers in the United Kingdom (70,000) have since been issued with a personal copy. 

The booklet is currently on sale around the world and is available at Her Majesty’s Stationery Office.

TRAINING

In an effort to ensure that the Grampian Fire Brigade could meet its responsibilities under Section 2 of the Health and Safety at Work Act, 1974 of providing a safe place of work (on the incident ground) for firefighters, Stan advanced the concept of Positive Pressure Ventilation in attack mode by developing and constructing a range of multi level custom built facilities at the Grampian Fire Brigade Training Centre, Portlethen, Aberdeen. 

The facilities, which are the first of its kind in the country, allowed the Brigade to train its firefighters in various techniques including; natural and forced ventilation; post and attack fire modes. 

Using these techniques, operational firefighters are now able to deal with a flashover or backdraught incidents in comparative safety, whilst at the same time presenting any member of the public trapped in a fire the earliest possible rescue time and access to fresh air.

FIRE SAFETY

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Stan was trained and worked as a Fire Safety Inspecting Officer with Grampian Fire Brigade.  He also held the posts of Deputy Head of Fire Safety and the Head of Fire Safety (a total of ten years).

During that time, he was responsible for the supervision of staff and co-ordination of Fire Safety Legislative and Educational activities. 

Other areas of personal involvement were the revamping of the 1971 Fire Precautions Act certification documents and guides; the production of the Grampian Fire Brigade Fire Prevention Handbook which received warm praise from the Public Protection Committee; the compilation of reports to the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA) and the Chief and Assistant Chief Fire Officers Association (CACFOA) organisations etc; the fire certification of numerous premises such as the Aberdeen Bon Accord Centre; and the overseeing of new major complexes such as the Thainstone Mart, Inverurie, the first and largest of its kind in Scotland. 

Stan’s responsibilities also included the organisation of high profile media ventures such as the Grampian Historic Buildings Seminar; the Aberdeen Tenement Live in Safety Campaign; the Regional Bonfire Night Safety Television Campaigns; and the Domestic Smoke Detector Campaign which was the first of its kind in Scotland (2 December, 1987) which, involved the burning of a residential house in the Garthdee area of Aberdeen to destruction.

During the late eighties and early nineties Stan worked with the Evening Express to promote the highly successful Fire Watch campaign to promote domestic smoke alarms.  The work encouraged all of Grampian Region’s five District Councils to install detectors into all of their domestic properties, including multi-storey blocks.  The campaign also involved working in partnership with several local fire protection companies, and over the years from 1987 to 1990, Stan managed with their help (and that of the Evening Express) to reduce the price of a smoke alarm locally from £25 to as little as £5.

The success of the above campaign ultimately help persuade the Building Standards Advisory Committee to amend the Building Standards (Scotland) Regulations to include the provision of mains powered smoke detectors for domestic property.  Stan also takes satisfaction from the knowledge that the campaign also assisted the Firemaster of the day (Mr Neil Morrison) and CACFOA, to nationally highlight the fire dangers of polyurethane foam furniture. The high profile campaign ultimately induced the Government in 1988 to change the regulations and work towards the safer standards we enjoy today i.e. the Furniture and Furnishing (Fire Safety) Regulations.

During his time as the Head of Fire Safety, Stan also contributed to community fire safety by writing articles for various magazines and newspaper organisations on many aspects of fire prevention.  For example: the ‘Which Magazine - Safer Furniture’, the ‘New Home Buyer Guide - Smoke Alarms Save Lives’, ‘the Forres Gazette - Car Fires’.

Stan also served for three years as a member on five separate District Accident Prevention Committees, which promoted fire safety messages throughout the Grampian Region.

Head of Grampian Fire Brigade Video Unit

Stan was trained at Aberdeen University and Aberdeen Cable Television as a video cameraman and VT editor and held the responsibility for producing Grampian Fire Brigade’s training, public relations and corporate videos.

Many of the videos he has produced have won awards and commendation of excellence at the FUEGO international film competitions e.g. Fire Spectacular 1987, Helicopter Training and Grampian Fire Brigade the Rescue Service’.

Stan was also responsible for filming and editing Grampian Regional Council’s corporate video flagship ‘Grampian Regional Council At Your Service’.

Stan’s video and graphical skills are utilised to great advantage today in designing fire safety training seminars and fire tabletop training exercises for various clients as part of the RISK MATRIX partnership.

QUALIFICATIONS

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