Leading fire engineering consultancy OFR has appointed four new colleagues across its London and Manchester offices. The new appointments come on the back of a period of rapid growth for the company which now boasts a national wide headcount of 129.

It’s a privilege to be able to contribute to the political discourse around the creation of safe and sustainable built environment, so it was great this week to see our colleague Kate Swinburne in The Scottish Parliament, attending the committee meeting for Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee.

OFR Consultants was recognised in the Employer of the Year category at the SME National Business Awards in London this weekend. We received the Silver award for Employer of the Year, underscoring the company’s dedicated efforts in people development and fostering an open, inclusive working culture.

Huge congratulations to our colleague Carmen Gorska who is fresh back from her trip to Tsukuba, Japan where she received the coveted silver Thomas Philip Medal of Excellence award for her scientific paper titled ‘Fire dynamics in Mass Timber compartments’ at the 14th IAFSS conference.

We’ve announced the appointment of four colleagues to its board, news which comes amidst a spate of colleague announcements.
Stewart Dabin, Dr Danny Hopkin, Jack Wilshaw and Richard Rankin each join the board as directors.

This year, the RIBA launched its very first RIBA Stirling Prize award for Reinvention. The inaugural winner was Houlton School in Rugby – a scheme on which OFR is part of the design team

Our OFR colleagues have been out and about touring universities across the UK this month, telling graduates about our intake programme for 2024. Here, our colleague Karen Hugh tells us more

UK government has confirmed that it will adopt an 18-metre height threshold for second staircases in all new residential buildings. In response, we’ve released updated plans of our second staircase concept – something which will support the viable development of safe, tall buildings in an increasingly difficult construction market. Here, Rich tells us more.

OFR Consultants colleague and Fire Engineer Sam Bryant has won a coveted award from the Society of Fire Protection Engineers (SFPE). The annual awards programme celebrates individuals who have made significant contributions to the advancement of the profession.

Our OFR colleagues in Bath recently took time out of their days to support the Bristol Avon Rivers Trust (BART), an organisation dedicated to putting healthy rivers at the heart of community life. The team joined the scheme as part of our Better Days programme, an OFR initiative which enables all of our colleagues to support causes that are important to them – by providing an allocated day of paid leave each year. In this article our colleague Rhys Williams tells us more