Congratulations to our
Fire Protection Industry Award Winners for 2024!
Congratulations to our
Fire Protection Industry Award Winners for 2024!
The Fire Protection Industry Awards recognise and award businesses and individuals who lead the professional standard of commitment, excellence, innovation and leadership in the fire protection industry.
Congratulations to our Fire Protection Industry Awards Winners for 2024:
Ivan Steed
Ivan is currently serving as a Grosvenor Engineering Essential Services Team Leader, he provides technical support and advice to the essential services team and building owners.
With the introduction of FPAS in NSW, he became involved with the FPAA’s Industry Reference Group (IRG) and later the Assessor Reference Group (ARG), which provided compliance feedback to the FPAA on FSD, FSA, and the forthcoming FSC roles. He is the current chair of the revised ARG.
He is also a member of the FPAA NSW committee and the newly formed TAC-M (Mechanical) committee.
He is a member of the Standards Australia sub-committee ME-062-01 responsible for revisions to AS/NZS 1668.1-1998 and represents AIRAH on the AS1851 FP-001 committee.
He is passionate about all things associated with smoke control and the importance of providing effective and relevant training to the industry. He is also a firm believer in networking and mentoring, as his mentors were before him. He will be seen frequently posting on LinkedIn and Facebook Tech pages, challenging the industry on methodologies and issues of compliance making a great contribution to the increased competency in the industry.
Ray Mergard
Ray started in the Fire Protection industry with May Oatway in 1974 as an apprentice electrical fitter mechanic. He moved through the industry in electrical servicing and then portable fire equipment sales. Upon joining Wormald, he served 18 years as the State Manager Portable Fire Equipment.
In 1989 Ray commenced with Amerex Fire Australia. Amerex Fire Australia is a manufacturer and importer of fire protection equipment in portable fire equipment & fire suppression. Throughout his career in the fire protection industry, Ray has been an active member of Fire Protection Association Australia and its predecessor organisation.
Whilst a member of FPA Australia, Ray has been an active participant in a wide range of committees. He has been a member of the Technical Advisory committee (TAC3) since 2010 and is the current Chair. He has recently resigned as a member of TAC11/12 following a membership that commenced in 2010.
Ray has been an active participant in a wide range of FPA Australia events including a number of Fire Australia conferences as a presenter.
Trevor Voedovin
Trevor has been a member of FPA Australia for nearly three decades and during that time has been an active participant in a range of areas. Most notably, Trevor was a member of the FPA Australia Board for 12 years commencing in 2007 and serving as President on multiple occasions including between 2011 and 2016.
Trevor has been involved in the fire protection industry since 1980. His fire protection industry roles included State and Divisional Manager for large industry participants and in 1994 he founded Fire Service Professionals, a company that provides fire protection solutions for its customers.
This recognition award is being presented to Trevor to acknowledge his service and is a small token of FPA Australia’s appreciation of his contribution.
Sponsored by Wormald Australia
Jason D’Silva, Transport for NSW
The standards address TfNSW’s specific context, which required unique financial, planning and governance requirements. Use of these standards has resulted in a more holistic approach to fire engineering, risk management, systems engineering and strategic planning for agencies such as Sydney Trains and Sydney Metro.
In developing the standards, Jason had to navigate the different interests of a wide range of stakeholders, including, operators and maintainers, equipment suppliers, Fire and Rescue NSW, jurisdictional counterparts like Victoria Department of Transport and Planning and Queensland Rail, as well and support functions, such as, finance and investment.
For his work in developing and implementing these standards, Jason is a worthy recipient of the Barry Lee Technical Excellence Award.
Catherine Ryland, CR Bushfire
Awarded for Catherine’s outstanding contribution to bushfire protection through her input regulatory policy and processes. She volunteers her time to a number of industry bodies including FPA Australia, Planning Institute of Australia and Bushfire Protection Association.
Her knowledge and skills have been put to good use by her participation in:
Catherine has also authored articles published in industry magazines and presented at numerous conferences and seminars.
Honeywell
Honeywell’s “Li-ion Tamer” is a state-of-the-art technology that detects electrolyte vapours released in the initial stages of battery failure. Li-ion Tamer GEN 3 has been proven to deliver a much faster response time than other technologies with independent testing showing that Li-ion Tamer gives an average of six minutes warning before a thermal runaway event.
For their contribution to protecting these increasingly important battery storage systems, Honeywell and their Li-ion Tamer products have been selected to receive this award.
Endfire Engineering
Awarded for for the Caymus project which involved the design, supply and installation of a complete suite of special hazards fire protection systems at the Caymus Bulk Fuel Storage Facility at East Arm in Darwin.
With a total of 11 new fuel storage tanks and a capacity of 300 million litres of JP-5 turbine fuel A-1 Jet fuel, the facility is the largest fuel storage project in both the Northern Territory and Australia to support both the U.S and Australian Military.
William Laycock, Contact Group
William is in the second year of a Fire Protection Apprenticeship and demonstrates a high level of enthusiasm, motivation, and ability.
William recently worked on the installation of a fire safety systems at a large recycling plant employing people with various disabilities. He found this project particularly rewarding as the systems safeguard the plants vulnerable employees.
He recognises the gravity of fire safety and has a true passion and dedication to the industry. He studies hard to achieve good marks, and consistently puts his knowledge into practice in the field.
William is a truly deserving recipient of the Young Achiever of the Year Award.
Walker Fire Protection
Walker Fire Protection provides high quality, independent technical services to deliver and maintain the best fire and life safety solutions to protect people and assets.
Walker’s have implemented a range of employee learning and development programs to assist in the personal development of employees critical to the business’ success.
At the heart of Walker’s business is a passion for keeping people safe and protecting assets. Walker’s achieve this goal by adopting latest leading-edge technologies and techniques and actively participating and contributing to the development of industry standards.
Walkers have a strong reputation for delivery quality services to their customers and as such are deserving winners of the Harry Marryatt Fire Protection Company of the Year award.
PlanRadar
FIREFLY
Honeywell
Chubb Fire & Security
Wormald Australia
Johnson Controls
FlameStop Australia
Uptick
Kidde Australia
FPA Australia would like to thank this year’s independent judging panel for their time and support of the awards process:
Patrick Conway, Conway Consultants
Chris Orr, Principal Engineer, Orr Partners
Brett Staines, Special Hazards Fire Protection Consultant
Glenn Talbot, Managing Director, Verified
Sincere thanks go out to all the participating companies and people who sent in their nominations this year, for without these the awards would not have been possible.
And of course, congratulations to all the winners and finalists for their outstanding contributions to the industry.
