About
Fire Guidance UK LLP was formed by Pete Muir in 2012 after a lengthy career in the Fire Consultancy world.
Having started working as a weapons tech. apprentice after leaving school, opportunities presented themselves that led to a natural progression into the field of fire safety.
Fast forward over 30 years and having been involved in just about every aspect of fire safety, Fire Guidance UK LLP is the culmination of a long career in the industry.
2012 – Present: Founding Partner, Fire Guidance UK LLP.
Fire Guidance UK LLP was founded to provide independent fire safety consultancy services to a wide range of clients, large and small alike, without the burden of being held under a large corporate umbrella.
Since forming Fire Guidance UK Pete has provided fire strategy reports, fire risk assessments, site inspections and local authority liaison, much as their previous employment. Clients worked with include Balfour Beatty, Bam Construction, Shepherd Construction, Hull City Council, NPS (Leeds and Humber) and an array of smaller clients (including both contractors and architects).
Recent notable completed projects include ICEPS, Leeds – full fire strategy; NAIC, University of Warwick – full fire strategy and on-site inspections; Whitby Hospital regeneration – full fire strategy; Hull CC – site façade sampling and reporting and ad-hoc fire safety advice; TNQ Colindale – Block E full fire strategy, mediation with Client appointed fire engineers (as client’s expert), on-site inspection and monitoring (facades and internal fire safety provisions), designing and witnessing of live fire testing, Redcar Cinema – full fire strategy, School Lane Hotel Liverpool, plus fire strategies for numerous multi-storey residential schemes including Banstead Road, Russel Hill Road, 1 King’s Dock Liverpool, 122 Minories London.
2002 – 2012: Fire Engineering Director (Northern region), Ramboll Manchester (initially an Associate with SAFE Consulting Ltd, acquired by Ramboll in 2008).
The acquisition of Bellevue Consultants by Safe Consulting (and subsequently Ramboll) provided opportunities to become engaged in the development of both high level and detailed fire strategies for projects which enabled Pete to take advantage of their previous practical and first-hand experiences. Over the course of their tenure with Ramboll Pete progressed from Associate level to Director of Fire Engineering for the Northern region, overseeing the fire engineering discipline in their Manchester, Leeds and Glasgow offices.
It was during this time that Pete wrote a book on behalf of RICS (reference below), detailing the requirements and recommendations of the new Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order.
Activities whilst with Ramboll included fire risk assessment, fire strategy report generation, local authority liaison and CFD fire/smoke modelling.
1991 – 2002: Senior Engineer (fire safety systems), Bellevue Consultants (International) Ltd.
Pete joined Bellevue Consultants as a fire detection and risk systems designer, progressing to Senior Engineer, specialising in fire detection and fire risk analysis/mitigation. Pete provided first-hand site fire safety services for a variety of projects (largely fossil fuelled power generation plants) both within the UK and abroad, including South Africa, Indonesia, Qatar and Türkiye.
Pete’s employment included fire detection systems specification and design, on-site fire safety inspections (during and post-construction), systems commissioning supervision, hazardous area identification and classification, and fire risk assessment.
1983 – 1991: Freelance electrical/electronic Design Engineer (fire safety systems).
During Pete’s contracting (freelance) period they became more involved with electrical and electronic systems, working for the likes of Williams Fairey, Simon Container machinery, Wormald (formerly Mather & Platt special projects division, now Tyco) and General Monitors on a range of projects from nuclear waste automation, packaging machinery, offshore fire detection and alarm systems, gas and flame detection systems and hazardous area classification and mitigation.
1979 – 1983: Apprentice/trainee mechanical/electrical engineering (weapons).
Ferranti.
Principal specialisms:
Fire strategy report generation, Planning Fire Statements/strateigies, local authority liaison, site installation reporting, fire safety provision specification.
Publications:
Author: The New Fire Safety Legislation 2006: A Practical Guide (Published 2007, RICS, ISBN-10:9781842193099)