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Russ Porteous - CEO, Firewize

Russ is the CEO of Firewize with over 30 years of broad industry experience Russ is sought after for his technical abilities, on subjects including fire safety, reducing false alarms and the built environment.

Contact
Title: CEO, Firewize
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Professional Summary
Scan the QR Code for the Business Card for Russ Porteous

Russ Porteous is the founder and CEO of Firewize an innovative fire safety design, installation and maintenance consultancy located in Melbourne, Australia.

With over 30 years of broad industry experience and an avid geek Russ has successfully blended the two to grow and leverage his business investments to cover trade and building services, property investment, e-commerce, online learning and software development.

Capitalizing on his knowledge and understanding of technology, Russ has developed a customer lead generating pipeline that operates without him, generating hundreds of qualified leads per (mostly based on work he did over 9 years ago).

Russ works with his wife of 25+ years and high-school sweetheart alongside his highly capable son who both help oversee their family business interests. In his spare time, Russ is found working with guys in his local community to help them find purpose and connection.

Experience & Recognition

In 2019, Russ was recognised for his 30+ years of industry experience by his peers within the fire protection industry, receiving the prestigious “Meritorious Service Award”.

FPA Australia, Meritorious Service Award 2018 - Russ Porteous
  • 2023- Elected Director, Fire Protection Association Australia (3rd term)
  • 2019-2022 Elected Director, Fire Protection Association Australia (2nd term)
  • 2018+ Member of Standards Australia Committee LG007, Emergency Escape Lighting in Buildings
  • 2017 - FPA Australia, Finalist - Fire Protection Project of the Year
  • 2009-2012 - Member of Standards Australia Committee FP001, Routine Servicing of Fire Protection Systems & Equipment
  • 2009-2012 Elected Director, Fire Protection Association Australia (1st term)
  • 2006+ Founder of the Special Interest Group (SIG) for the maintenance of fire protection systems and equipment within Fire Protection Association Australia. This group later became the Technical Advisory Committee (TAC-001) for the maintenance of fire protection systems and equipment.
  • 2012 - Presenter at Fire Australia - Environmental Cost of Maintenance
  • 2010 - Presenter at the Real Estate Institute of Victoria - Legislative Requirements of Maintenance
  • 2010 - Presenter at the Aged Care Association - Essential Safety Measures Compliance in Healthcare Facilities
Latest Articles
  1. Healthcare & Hospitals
    We help healthcare professionals in the public and private sectors inspect, test, and maintain essential fire safety systems and equipment that keep people, property, and equipment safe from fire. We work in hospitals, day-care clinics, mental health facilities, emergency departments, intensive care units, high-dependency units, aged care, assisted living, and GP clinics across Victoria.
  2. Bushfire Water Spray Maintenance
    Firewize helps commercial building owners and managers to inspect and test bushfire water spray systems. Australian Standard AS 5414 provides a framework for the design, component selection and installation of bushfire water spray fire protection systems to help protect property from ember attack and low level radiant heat flux for certain building classifications. The Standard along with AS 1851 provides some guidance in respect to periodic inspections and maintenance to ensure these systems are working properly.
  3. Fixing beam detectors
    Beam detectors sense smoke by measuring signal loss in a projected light beam. They protect large open spaces but fault often, usually from poor mounting, excessive path length, misalignment, obstructions, contaminated optics or the wrong detector type. Firewize assesses, diagnoses, rectifies, verifies and documents every fix.
  4. Silo spark detection and fire protection
    Bulk processing of grains, legumes, flour, and sugar creates combustible dust and fire hazards. Understanding these risks and associated controls (including housekeeping and maintenance) is the first step in reducing the likelihood or risk from fire or explosion.
  5. Smoke Detection for Ski Lodges
    A mountain or ski resort lodge that provides sleeping accommodation for a number of unrelated people requires the building to be fitted with fire detectors that help safeguard occupants from illness or injury by warning them of a fire so that they may safely evacuate during a fire. There are two types of fire detectors, and choosing the wrong one could be costly.