Park Brow Primary School, Knowsley, Merseyside

Having previously worked on a wide range of educational buildings, Omega Fire was recently employed to review the design of this landmark new build school in Knowsley, Merseyside. The school is to be provided over two floors with a large central void area that is to be utilised as a breakout spaces and performance area.  In accordance with design guidance Building Bulletin 100, the school would need to be constructed as two fire compartments separated by 60 minute vertical compartmentation or provided with a full life safety sprinkler system. Given the large expanse of internal glazing any compartmentation measures were not feasible and due to the restrictive nature of the site a ‘life safety’ sprinkler tank could not be accommodated. By understanding the operational policy for the school, Omega Fire developed a hybrid sprinkler system that incorporated a property protection system with a number of key enhancements to the system in order to justify compartment sizes that were significantly above the recommend limits of BB100.

Constructionline, UK Wide

Omega Fire have been certified with Constructionline as an Approved Consultant.  Constructionline is a public private partnership between the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions (DETR) and Capita, and is the UK’s largest register of qualified construction contractors and consultants.  The purpose of Constructionline is to reduce the cost and burden of pre-qualification for clients as it can demonstrate that Omega have successfully satisfied the financial, managerial and technical criteria developed by DETR.

Omega Fire has recently been appointed as a Client Design Advisor for Fire Engineering aspects for all schools in the BSF Birmingham programme. The Birmingham BSF has a total contract value of £2.4 billion and will look to develop or rebuild 89 schools within the city and is the biggest school transformation programme under the Government’s BSF initiative.  As part of the review process  Omega fire will not only highlight any potential design risk in terms of Building Regulations approval, but also identify where further cost savings or improved efficiencies could be attained. Director Dane Owen said “This appointment highlights the high regard for the technical expertise and capabilities that Omega Fire have demonstrated, relating to the fire engineering design aspects of schools.  This is a great project to be involved with and we look forward to adding real value to the process”. 

Omega Fire Director Mark Egan has been appointed to Vice Chairman of the Lancashire Group of the Institution of Fire Engineers.  After working on the Lancashire IFE committee for over 10 years, Mark was appointed to Vice chairman at this year’s Annual General Meeting.  Mark said “I am extremely honoured to be voted into this role and see my focus to assist the group to grow the membership of the IFE within the region through the provision of first class presentations and CPD events on current fire related subjects.  The great thing about the IFE is that it offers so much to professionals practicing in the fire industry irrespective of your level of experience or the particular area of the fire industry in which you work.  It is a fantastic conduit for sharing experiences and a perfect platform for discussion of prevalent issues”.   If you would like further information on the Institution of Fire Engineers please browse their website www.ife.org.uk alternatively Mark can be contacted on This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it for any IFE related queries.