What is a Fire Expert? Candidate or Recruiter – Don’t get caught out!

Many years ago a Police colleague I was working alongside told me the Police definition of an expert “.. it’s the person who knows one more thing about something than anybody else in the Force”. I thought it was an excellent definition – and very apt, so I stole it and adapted it for the FRS, often used it as a bit of humour but also there was a more important underlying reason to get a message across. It bears relevance to the saying “A little knowledge can be a dangerous thing”.

During my time as head of Protection (Legislative Fire Safety) for Merseyside I became concerned by the number of firefighters/fire officers who retired and despite spending little or no time in Protection they took employment in legislative fire safety roles. Their new employers had clearly fallen for the flawed expert definition and often both the candidate and their employer were blind to the risks and potential consequences.

Sadly this had and continues to have some serious consequences from inappropriate fire safety measures being put in place.  A sliding scale from costly over provision of fire safety interventions to the other end where inadequacies exposed through fire incidents led to significant loss of property and/or harm to occupiers. In the more serious cases across the UK this led to prosecutions and even custodial sentences for both the employer and employee who took on the fire safety work.

I remember a conversation with one ex-colleague who had done just this, take on a Fire Risk Assessors role without any time at all in Protection, I vividly recall watching the colour drain from his face when I told him about the risks he would face personally were things to go wrong.

This is why in my current role I am determined that Emex will not make the same mistake, we will not assume expertise and we will do our due diligence in the interests of protecting both our clients and our candidates – our job is to get the right people with the right skills/qualifications/experience into the right job opportunities.

Am I right – or am I wrong?

Feel free to share and let me have your thoughts and your similar stories. With the exception of those (hopefully) very few who like to fly by the seat of their pants taking risks without any moral compass, this education benefits everyone!

#firesafety #fireandrescuejobs #fireandrescuerecruitment #retirement #fireengineer #fireriskassessor #fireriskassessment

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