A Surrey-based independent fire safety consultancy that is specialising solely in the field of fire safety and fire protection has been celebrating.

CSTA, a practice comprises a team of 14 consultants, plus associated secretarial and support staff, is registered with Constructionline, and was selected as a finalist in the Better Regulation category of the National Business Awards 2009.

"The practice was shortlisted for this prestigious award as a result of work done promoting and assisting the business community in compliance with legislation," said a company spokesman, who also explained that, within the consultancy team, five consultants are chartered engineers with long specialist experience in fire protection, while nine are experienced fire safety professionals with backgrounds in local authority fire brigades.

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"The practice is a registered firm under BS EN ISO 9001 and is certified under the BAFE SP203 Scheme for designing and verifying fire alarm systems," he continued, noting that turnover is over £1.2 million per annum.

The work of the practice includes fire surveys, audits and fire risk assessments; fire safety training; review of fire protection installations and general advice to clients on fire safety matters.

Design and specification of fire protection installations and specialist input to system installation projects (including tender review and assistance with project management) is also undertaken as well as providing expert witness services for criminal and civil legal cases.

"Fire risk assessment is an area in which the practice is regarded as having specialist expertise.

"We were involved in the preparation of PAS 79 Fire Risk Assessment – Guidance and a Recommended Methodology, published by the British Standards Institution.

"We led the team drafting the guidance on fire risk assessment in PAS 79," he continued.

CSTA's 3.5-day examinable, IFE-approved course on fire risk assessment has mainly been delivered to fire and rescue services, including all eight fire and rescue services in Scotland.

"In Scotland, we are contracted by the Scottish government to deliver all fire risk assessment training at the Scottish Fire Services College.

"We estimate that representatives of around 60% of fire and rescue services in the UK have now attended in-house courses we deliver to fire and rescue services," he concluded.

(BMcC/KMcA)