Blue News June 2022
Industry News
Petition to the Federal Government about affordable standards (from the FPAA)
Like the rest of the building and construction industry, the fire protection sector relies upon Australian Standards to deliver the technical rules underpinning the design, installation, maintenance, assessment, and performance of fire systems.
These standards are compulsory when called up as part of the National Construction Code and are expensive to purchase, particularly where multiple standards are used, or when updated versions must be bought, which can be onerous for small businesses.
In response to concerns about the cost of these standards on industry, the Australian Construction Industry Forum (ACIF) has been discussing strategies to make them more affordable, and FPA Australia has been actively participating in these conversations.
The FPAA has reached out to Standards Australia in an attempt to find a solution.
Victorian Building Authority (VBA) Introduces New Fire Protection Licenses
The VBA has recently introduced changes that classify routine testing of some fire services as “plumbing” work. This change has meant that fire technicians that have traditionally tested fire hose reels and hydrants now need to hold the relevant restricted plumbing license to continue to perform these works.
This change impacted over 4000 fire technicians in Victoria, with only a small proportion of these becoming licensed to continue to perform these works.
Whilst supporting the need for more training, fire industry experts have expressed great concern over the industry’s ability to scale up the necessary training to accommodate these changes. This has led to fears that building owners may be unable to find a licensed plumber that is available, qualified, and prepared to perform these simple yet critical maintenance tasks.
Blue has been proactive in this space and currently has five technicians who have become licensed to perform this work. This ensures Blue is able to continue to maintain our customer’s assets in compliance with current regulations.
Blue News
New Airport Staff
With the welcomed return of increased passenger numbers at Melbourne Airport, Blue Fire has been hard at work recruiting and training some excellent new staff. The new team members are:
Tolga Tumay: Tolga comes to Blue from the Melbourne Airport airside safety team. With an extremely varied CV, Tolga has taken to the servicing of Melbourne Airports assets.
Ibrahim Khodr: Ibrahim (Ibi) also has a background at Melbourne Airport, with the Qantas baggage team. Like Tolga, Ibi has quickly picked up the testing requirements and used his site knowledge very well.
Catriona Stockman: Cat joins Blue after a long period of working in the oral health space. Her diligence and attention to detail are serving her very well as she assists the team with processing of impairment requests and all manner of tasks associated with our operations at Melbourne Airport.
We are very excited to welcome Tolga, Ibi and Cat to the team and look forward to assisting them to become fully conversant with all things Blue, so that we can continue to provide the excellent service our valued customers know us for.
Fire Protection Industry Awards
We were once again nominated for an award at this year’s Fire Australia Industry Awards night. Whilst we didn’t come away with the win (as we did last year), it was fantastic recognition of the work our team do for our valued customers.
This year Blue was nominated by an anonymous customer, who wanted to highlight the significant technical and service expertise Blue has provided them with for many years. This nomination was gratefully received, and a great night was had by a number of the Blue team who attended the awards gala dinner.
Training News
Blue has undertaken a significant program of upskilling new technicians as well as realigning experienced technicians with the testing of our valued clients’ installations, consistently in the “Blue” way. All of these sessions were led by one (or more) of our fantastic technicians, ably assisted by the management team. The peer-to-peer learning model is producing terrific results and generates important discussions on the topics covered. These have been highly attended events, with nearly 40 attending each session and an unprecedented commitment of over 500 hours in the previous 3 months alone. Utilising our extensive dedicated training room, the sessions are run late in the afternoon, followed by a meal, a couple of drinks and a chance to catch up with colleagues.
As part of a larger training program the following courses have been run in recent weeks:
Routine Inspection and Testing – Portable Fire Equipment
Routine Inspection and Testing – Fire Detection
Faults & Repairs – Introduction to Fire Detection & EWIS Faults
Do you have any topics you would like to be covered in Blue News? Or any further questions about any elements of fire systems, your friendly Blue team member will be happy to assist.
Remember we are here for you when you need it most. Always.