Shaking up the industry with knowledge exchange

“We passionately lobby to highlight the industry’s shortfalls and the reasons why many buildings currently, aren’t ‘safe for life‘.”

With over 40 years within the industry, Project Fire has long campaigned for stricter and more up-to-date fire sprinkler regulations in the UK and internationally, helping to make the built environment a safer place for people across the globe.

We passionately lobby to highlight the industry’s shortfalls and the reasons why many buildings currently, aren’t ‘safe for life‘. We believe that it’s up to us and other thought leaders to ensure that the universal right to feel safe from the threat of fire becomes a reality.

And that’s why we decided to create an independent brand called Safe for Life. The industry needs to act as one voice so that we move in the same direction. Safe for Life is about breaking down industry barriers, helping to facilitate knowledge exchange and raising sprinkler awareness.

Our events and resources are set up to encourage building experts from different industries to come together with a collective interest and obligation to push for change and hold their governments to account.

We are also keenly aware that although fire safety is an absolute priority, it forms part of the entire built environment. If we as an industry continue to exchange information solely between fire experts we can’t truly enact change throughout all building industries and organisations.

Safe for Life is about collaboration and not self-interest, it is about proactive engagement and not passive expertise and it’s about a collective will to do the right thing (especially when we have a duty of care). Safe for Life’s goal is for us all to work together so that we make a positive, tangible impact to building safety in our lifetimes.

WHEN DID IT LAUNCH?
Safe for Life launched after the Grenfell tower tragedy in 2017. Like many campaigners, organisations and individuals, we vowed to play an active part in preventing another avoidable fire tragedy.

The Project Fire team set to work and decided to organise a cross-industry, international and independent fire safety event, focusing solely on knowledge exchange, innovation and sprinkler awareness.

We hosted the Safe for Life conference in May 2018 in central London. We chose Spring 2018 because it coincided with the Dame Hackitt review, which shone a spotlight on the Grenfell tower tragedy one year on and brought home what we still must all do to ensure people are kept Safe for Life.

Project Fire successfully gathered over 200 confirmed attendees for Safe for Life 2018, including:

  • 19 international speakers across two days
  • The broadcaster and journalist Nick Ross
  • Our sponsors Rapid Drop and SPP Pumps
  • The media
  • Government officials
  • International cross-industry leaders
  • Fire safety experts

Our aim for the first event was to bring these individuals together to discuss the most crucial fire protection topics for commercial and residential buildings and how we can learn from each other to improve fire safety in the UK and overseas.

Our expert speakers presented animated and engaging presentations, the topics ranged from UK and EU sprinkler regulations to integrated building technologies and sustainable architecture.

WHATS ON THE HORIZON?
Safe for Life’s main objective is to continue to raise fire safety awareness. Our personal wish is to let the brand take on a life of its own so that it naturally becomes a platform for cross-industry experts to work together.

We also didn’t want to create an event where promises don’t become actions. After the success of our 1st Safe for Life event, we worked on elevating the brand – including an online forum, Safe for Life magazine, industry updates and future events and networking opportunities.

So straight after the event, we set up the Safe for Life online forum where attendees are regularly encouraged to swap key insights and communicate with each other. We also launched this very industry magazine, which highlights some of the most vocal fire safety advocates and shares fire safety insights that are relevant across multiple industries.

Project Fire is also working on future events and networking opportunities for the fire and building sector, under the Safe for Life name.

“We believe that real change doesn’t happen overnight, and it doesn’t happen alone, it happens when people work together – and little by little making that change as one.”