About

Our business was founded over a coffee, and the reward for our first team goal was an espresso machine. Today we still have that same espresso machine and our team remain goal oriented. We love what we do and believe we can truly help building owners ensure their fire safety systems are reliable and working.

At Firewize we believe that there is a better way to perform fire protection systems maintenance in buildings, that ensures the safety of occupants, aids compliance and helps prolong the life of their building investment for discerning building owners.

  • We achieve this by focusing and delivering fire protection maintenance that is consistent with the intent and purpose of the Australian Standard AS1851 for the routine servicing of fire protection systems and equipment.
  • We focus on principles, standard operating procedures, education and skills to find and develop our team.

Along the way we educate building owners and agents of owners, making complex fire safety issues easier to understand and within reach of good quality, well researched decisions.

History

Established in 2001 Firewize is widely regarded for our extensive knowledge and experience helping discerning building owners keep their buildings safe from fire.  Our systematic approach leverages Australian Standard AS1851 and builds upon it to deliver competent and reliable fire protection maintenance.

With a history in fire protection, our story began in the middle of 2001 where our first order was to replace an occupant warning system in a nursing home.  From there, things grew quickly and by the end of the year, we had been engaged by Victoria's largest healthcare network to take responsibility of their fire protection maintenance.

Over the next 5 years our reputation grew in the health care sector to arguably become Victoria's largest provider of fire protection maintenance in the public healthcare sector.

During our early growth we identified industry problems that needed to be fixed in order for us to be confident that the routine servicing of fire protection systems and equipment was being performed reliably and competently.

The most common issue (which still exists today throughout the fire protection industry) is the poor knowledge of Australian Standard AS1851 and its application in buildings.

To address this, we began by developing a thorough knowledge of the Standard and its requirements. This forced us to redesign the standard industry fire system maintenance logbooks to align our actions with both the activities set out in the Standard and the intent of the Standard.

Since we began our logbook journey our fire detection & alarm system logbook has been through 45 revisions alone, making sure we are constantly at the forefront of changes in the Standard and societies expectations.

Our 1397 customers span the Melbourne and Victoria!

Customer Distribution 1991-2020 CBD

Over the 20 or so years of business, our customers span a range of industries from aviation, hospitals, nursing homes, large (big box) retail, shopping centres, office towers, medical research, manufacturing, logistics, education, petrochemical, marine, distribution & warehousing.

Our customers span the Melbourne metropolitan area and throughout Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania and New South Wales.

Given we are based in Melbourne, our largest concentration of customers is of course Melbourne, as shown on the map on your right.

Internally, we have a comprehensive training facility for the continuing professional development of our team members. This is complimented by our extensive knowledge base that is one of our keys to professionalism and service delivery.

Innovation

We love being at the leading edge of our industry with multiple innovations that have led to lasting change within the fire protection industry in Australia. The list is long, but here are a few highlights;

AS1851 Test Record Checklist
  1. Firewize introduced the maintenance label to fire, smoke and exit door maintenance.  This innovation was then adopted into Australian Standard AS1851:2012.
  2. All of our logbooks are regularly amended, updated and revised hundreds of times since they were first introduced in 2002.  Our logbooks have been so successful, that our lawyers have had to defend our intellectual property from unscrupulous copy-cats.
  3. We introduced QR codes as a form of asset identification in 2008. Today QR codes are a socially understood medium that has a wide range of applications.
  4. We began measuring and recording the impedance and sound pressure levels within emergency warning systems and occupant warning systems. This arose because we found contractors extending these systems and overloading amplifiers.  This innovation was also shared with the industry via our direct contribution to Australian Standard AS1851:2012.
  5. We introduced the Apple iPad to our workforce as a data collection and report writing.  In 2018 we expanded our iPad program and provided all Firewize employees with the opportunity to receive an iPad fully funded by the company. 

We love innovating (it's the shiny object we love to play with). Its also a way for us to differentiate ourselves in the market and demonstrate our love for what we do.

Where to from here...

We have a couple of secret (garage) projects on the go for launch in 2021.  These projects are set to revolutionise the fire protection industry in Australia, and we are really excited to be working on them.  While they are a secret, we can say they complement our existing services and deliver new solutions to old problems.

We are also working hard in the background, lobbing the Fire Protection Association and in turn Standards Australia to start work on a new edition of Australian Standard AS 1851.  On this subject, our research suggests there are a lot of improvements to the technical content and structure of the Standard that deserves to be improved.

While we are on the subject of FPA Australia, our CEO, Russ Porteous is back serving as a Director (and Vice President) of the Association.  In this capacity, Russ is bring his 30+ years of experience to assist our industry from a strategic, governance and technical perspective.  Russ' term began in November 2019 and is for three years.

In summary, we continue to invest in our people, systems and technology to deliver competent and reliable fire protection maintenance to our customers across Melbourne and Victoria.