Firecrest Services Ltd have just completed a round of fire safety seminars for Interserve / PriDE & Defence Estates on the South East Regional Prime Contract. The seminars were offered to raise awareness of fire safety, understand the requirements of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety)Order 2005, and to focus on the requirement for fire risk assessments.

The seminars have been attended by over 100 people, all with an involvement in the maintenance of the South East Regional Prime Contract, which covers 52 MoD sites, with over 1,300 Fire detection and alarm systems. Within this area, there are 22,000 bed spaces providing sleeping accommodation to Military Personnel.

The vast range of fire protection systems across this portfolio include everything from offices and warehouses to aircraft hangars, nuclear bunkers, museums, military hospitals, schools etc, and the seminars have helped to raise awareness of the many types of fire protection measures for the different risks being protected.

If you feel you could benefit from a Fire Safety seminar, please get in touch.

Park Plaza County Hall

This London design hotel is a recent addition to our maintenance portfolio. This prestigious hotel is located on the south side of the River Thames near Waterloo Station and next to London's County Hall, home to several attractions, including the London Sea Life Aquarium.

The contract includes the maintenance and technical support of the site-wide fire alarm system: an Advanced Electronics networked configuration with interfacing video smoke detection and beam detection within the atrium. The system is based on sophisticated computer analysis of the video image seen by a CCTV camera. Using advanced image-processing technology and extensive detection algorithms, the system can automatically identify the distinct characteristics of smoke patterns. The system can adopt an existing CCTV installation and protect large, difficult open areas cost effectively.

Emerson Management Services

Emerson Management Services provide all aspects of building and estate management for a substantial mixed UK portfolio. The range of properties extends to major office developments; mixed business centre's incorporating light industrial units; retail and leisure parks, residential developments and district shopping centre’s. We have recently been privileged to add a number of serviced offices to our maintenance portfolio which are located within West London and Surrey.

We have recently carried out the replacement of a closed protocol fire alarm system with a fully open protocol system for a major blue chip client in Basingstoke and Bristol. The site in Bristol had in excess of 1,800 field devices which were connected to a system network of five control panels.

Blyth Workcats

Due to the introduction of new requirements we have continued our relationship with Blyth Workcats who are an aquatic vessel manufacturers based in Essex who we supply and commission Marine Approved fire alarm systems.

Rutherford Appleton Laboratory

This is a site based in Oxfordshire which is overseen by The Science and Technology Facilities Council, for whom we have recently carried out an installation of a new fire alarm system within their Logistics Centre.

Chase Farm Hospital NHS Trust

Firecrest Services Ltd are pleased to announce that we have just secured the maintenance contract for the above NHS hospital trust based in north London, across two main hospital sites, providing general and specialist care to patients. Every year they treat thousands of families offering high quality, specialist hospital treatments and therapies to over half a million patients from Barnet, Enfield, Haringey, East Harrow, South Hertfordshire, South Essex and Waltham Forest.

Firecrest have been awarded the maintenance contract for the fire detection and alarm systems through Lorne Stewart, the Facilities Maintenance Contractor for the site. The site comprises approximately 50 buildings ranging in use from Accident and Emergency, Secure mental wards, maternity, Oncology, Physiotherapy and Rheumatology wards.

Carnival Village

Home of the famous Notting Hill carnival, Carnival Village is London’s unique multi-venue arts and entertainment destination. Based in the locality of Europe’s biggest carnival, they host arts schools and workshops, an affordable stylish restaurant and two bars. Underpinning an accent on local African Caribbean culture, they maintain perennial activities in carnival arts. We have been successful in the provision of both fire detection and security systems within the new premises.

The National Portrait Gallery

We have been appointed to carry out the maintenance of the Dry Risers at the National Portrait Gallery. The Gallery was founded in 1856 to collect portraits of famous British men and women. Explore over 160,000 portraits from the 16th Century to the present day.

The Gallery holds the most extensive collection of portraits in the world. The Collection is displayed in London and in a number of locations around the United Kingdom, including several houses managed by the National Trust. Visitor numbers in 2008 rose to an all time high of 1.8 million!

AAC Middle Wallop is the home of the Army Air Corps. One of the most potent weapons in their arsenal is the Apache Longbow helicopter manufactured by Boeing and Westland. The MOD spent £3.1 billion on 67 aircraft.

One of the hangers at Middle Wallop used to store the Apache helicopters is protected by a foam discharge system which uses 10 fixed monitors to discharge foam to either half of the hanger when required. The system is activated when two or more flame detectors located around the hanger are themselves activated.
The foam used is 3% AFFF and is contained in a 3200ltr bag tank. The water is pumped into the system by either an electric or diesel pump. The water pressure squeezes the bag tank which in turn ports the foam into the system at the correct ratio.

The system has been installed for over 10 years and the client requested that a functional test of the system be carried out to prove the functionality.

We were unable to discharge (all of) the monitors directly onto the hanger floor as it had to be kept functional for the helicopters; also the discharged foam had to be disposed of in an environmentally friendly manner, and not allowed to enter the drainage system.

It was therefore decided to isolate all but one of the fixed monitors. A hose was connected to the remaining monitor and run to a 1000 litre IBC which would be used to collect the discharged foam.

The system was initiated by activating two flame detectors. The hose was held by members of the Middle Wallop Fire Service and once foam started to be produced the hose was directed (with some difficulty!) into the IBCs. Once sufficient foam had been produced it was isolated and the system flushed through with water.

Carrying out this procedure enabled us to prove that the system is fully functional and would discharge foam from the monitors in the event of a fire. What we were not able to confirm is the foam/water ratio as the flow rate produced by one monitor is different to that of five.

You can view more still photographs from the day in our online gallery and watch the video here.

Firecrest Services were contacted by Simon Salkeld of Blyth Workcats about supplying a fire alarm system to be installed on boats they manufacture.

Blyth Workcats manufacture commercial catamaran workboats in the construction, passenger, survey and dive sectors. They are in use all over the world. They range in size from 10 to 14 meters in length. Recently they have taken orders for boats which are used to carry passengers and these are required to have fire alarm detection in the engine compartments.

Their requirements were to provide fire detection in the engine compartments when the boats are in use and electronic sounders in the wheelhouse.

We investigated products for use in the marine sector as this is an area new to us. We were keen to maintain our companies’ policy of using open protocol systems and therefore decided to use the following products:

• Precept, marine, conventional 2 zone panel. This panel is available in both 240v and 24v variants; which is useful as the boats electrical systems vary.
• Apollo Marine conventional heat detectors.

The latest system we supplied was for a vessel to be used in Gibraltar. This boat had a 12v DC electrical system. We therefore used a 24volt control panel with a 12v – 24v converter. The fire alarm system is only required when the boat is in use and when the boat is not in use its electrical system is isolated. This required us to remove the battery backup as they would constantly drain down leading to constant faults. The system was installed by Blyth Workcats and commissioned by ourselves.

Following our collaboration with Blyth Workcats they are now able to offer fire detection as an option on all their boats.

Back in April a series of four roadshow events was held around the country for Morley-IAS customers. The events were aimed at helping to build the businesses of customers of Morley-IAS in two main ways. Firstly from a commercial perspective, a focus was put upon winning new and incremental business using PA/VA and Visualeyez Graphics management products. This was followed by sessions exploring the capabilities of Morley-IAS DX and ZX panels from a technical point of view, including an "Ask the Expert" session.

Each event culminated in a short quiz on the content covered during the day with the chance of winning a Morley-IAS DX2e panel. Eddie Forsyth from Firecrest Services Ltd came out top of his event! As a winner, Eddie was recently presented with his prize, a Morley-IAS DX2e intelligent multi protocol fire alarm panel.

Established in 1973, Haes Systems is a leading manufacturer of fire detection control panels and distributor of major brands of detectors, sounders, call points, emergency lighting, cabling, batteries - anything required to complete a professional installation and maintain a system.

In becoming an approved Partner, Firecrest have demonstrated a detailed knowledge of fire detection and alarm products and services, and have proved that our staff are qualified to carry out system installation and maintenance

The 2009 National Championships have reached their conclusion!

We are very proud to report that Jon Morton finished top of the Super Gas standings, and second in the Super Comp standings. Well done to Jon and all the Mortsport team.

A great finish considering it was almost game over at the FIA European Finals. Click here to find out what happened. Scroll down to "It Turned Out Nice Again!", 19th September.

Final Standings:

Super Gas
Super Comp

To watch an amazing movie of Jon "taking-off" in super slow motion, just click on one of the links below.

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If you don't already have QuickTime you can install it here for free

On March 22nd 2009 Wallingford Under 13s took to the field to play in the final of the Oxfordshire cup at Gosford All Blacks ground in Kidlington Oxford. A fantastic run in this competition saw them get through to the final after another stunning display saw them beat a strong Grove side by 36 points to nil.

The team were to face a very strong Henley side in the final, and unfortunately, Henley were too strong on the day. Despite a solid second half performance, particularly by Wallingford’s forwards which resulted in a period of domination in the scrum and lineout.

An excellent crowd of supporters turned out to cheer the Wallingford team on, but Henley’s strength saw them through to a comfortable victory, so Wallingford had to settle for runners up. Second best in the County is no mean feat, so congratulations, and we look forward to next season.

On Wednesday 12th November Firecrest Services Ltd hosted a Fire Safety seminar for Integral UK, covering:

• The main requirements of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005
• Who is / are responsible for compliance
• How to identify and control common causes of fire in the workplace
• The main elements of a fire risk assessment
• The importance of good management of fire safety installations

The seminar proved a huge success with the Integral UK team who provided some excellent feedback:

"A very informative seminar providing clarity on the RRO 2005" – Clive Wiggins Commercial Manager

"An excellent and well facilitated session" – Phil Blomberg, Health and Safety Manager.

Since the current legislation came into effect there has been an element of uncertainty around who is responsible for compliance. The perception of building owners may differ from that of the occupiers. The seminar clearly sets out the individual and shared responsibilities of both parties, to ensure a clear understanding of what is required under the current legislation.

If you feel your company could benefit from such a seminar please get in touch.

On the 13th September 2008, Firecrest turned out to support their very own aspiring Lewis Hamilton – Steve Carter. On a packed day of racing, the main event was the Drayton Manor Park MG Metro Cup, into which Steve entered his Rover 100 (left).

The car is a standard, un-modified road car (if you don’t count ripping out everything but the driver’s seat!), and proudly sports the Firecrest Services logo. Well done to Steve who drove a great race and came in 5th in his class!

Firecrest Services Ltd. recently received further recognition of their commitment to working to the highest standards when they achieved their Fire Gold approval from the National Security Inspectorate.

The gold medal was officially presented to Eddie and Sue by the National Security Inspectorate’s (NSI) Chief Executive, Andrew White, at NSI headquarters in Maidenhead on 27 August.

By meeting Fire Gold requirements, Firecrest Services Ltd can provide assurance to their customers that they deliver the highest standard of service.

Download the full Press Release to read more.

Firecrest and a number of clients attended the Charity Golf Event event which was held on Tuesday 8th July at Whittlebury Park near Towcester Northants.

A team Stableford competition took place, with prizes for the winning team, and bonus prizes for nearest the pin and longest drive. This was followed by an 18 hole putting competition.

The evening was rounded off with a fabulous dinner and then auction and raffles to raise money for Cancer Race For Life, Buckingham Hospital and the PACE school in Aylesbury.

On the 1st March 2008 the Firecrest Team enjoyed a fun day out at the Newbury Gold Cup. A full card of seven races was enjoyed from the Berkshire Stand, and a tipster to bring in some professional insight and hopefully secure a couple of big wins. No such luck!

There were a few winners though with Mark, Sarah and Roger all winning on the inter-company sweep stake. The highlight of the day was the “human race” where a number of inebriated contestants attempted to negotiate the course in order to try and be the first past the post. The results were hilarious!

In the evening the team went on to Newbury Manor hotel for an evening of fine wine and dining, and a good time was had by all.

Firecrest Services Ltd is one of the latest successful companies to join the leading edge SAFEContractor Scheme, designed to help industry improve its safety record.

The South East-based firm has received accreditation from SAFEcontractor, a programme which recognises very high standards of health and safety practise amongst UK contractors.

Eddie Forsyth, Managing Director of Firecrest Services said, “At Firecrest Services we recognize our statutory duties under Health and Safety legislation. This accreditation allows us to demonstrate our commitment to comply with these responsibilities to our client base.”

Download the Press Release to read more

Firecrest Services Ltd was privileged to be selected as one of three finalists in the prestigious Henley Business Awards 2007 in the category of Growing Business of the Year. The competition is open to large companies, small business and entrepreneurs in South Oxfordshire.

Companies were required to demonstrate profitable growth, an understanding of the markets it operates in, a five year business plan with funding mechanism and investment plans for the future in place.

The black tie dinner and presentation took place at the Henley Management College on 25th October, 2007.