Hastings, Gary

Gary started his fire safety journey with Essex Fire & Rescue Service in 1992 as a recruit operational firefighter and served on many different station grounds working his way through the ranks to Station Officer with a stint at Station manager level. Working at the busiest fire station in the south east for 17 years as an incident commander and Guvnor to two watches whilst attending many differing and sometimes hostile environments he quickly became competent at managing personnel under his command with a level head and a quick and decisive skillset to generate a favourable outcome for the victims of fire and road traffic collisions.Human behaviour in fire and in particular the behaviour of fire within a property, including fire investigation skills, learnt from years of managing and attending fire incidents has been an invaluable asset whilst carrying out the role of the Fire Safety Consultant & Manager. This experience translates into valuable information for clients when explaining why recommendations have been generated being able to give real accounts to explain the recommendations in laymans terms.Gary is a Member of the Institute of Fire Safety Managers, Institute of Fire Engineers and is an accredited NSI validator. Gary has attained the IFE accredited Level 5 Fire Engineering & Design Diploma foundation degree with continued CPD towards the goal of attaining the BEng (Hons) Fire Engineering Degree.Gary retired from the fire service as a station officer in 2019 and joined The Oakleaf Group that same year as a Senior Fire Safety Consultant managing client building portfolios such as The London School of Economics ensuring their fire strategies, fire risk assessment reports and fire safety management procedures were up to date & fit for purpose. Gary has been employed by further companies since to broaden his knowledge & skillset and is currently employed by Countryside Partnerships PLC as their National Building (Fire) Safety Compliance Manager with responsibility for the quality assurance inspections of cladding legacy works & new build pre-construction projects to ensure alignment with the latest fire safety legislative requirements. Interrogating fire strategies, fire statements, inspection reports, PAS9980 & EWS1 reports and generating technical reports. Checking compliance with the 3 gateway hold points & RIBA stages and ensuring that all construction work is duly evidenced with photographs & commentary for the golden thread of information that accompanies the building for its lifecycle. Liaising with Managing Agents and advising all duty holders of their responsibilities with regard to the new legislative requirements, approved guidance and roles such as the Principal Accountable person.Additional role as fire safety advisor for the Countryside Group to advise and interpret the latest approved guidance & legislative compliance to the special projects team, duty holders and stakeholders.