Swift Fire Compliance is Celebrating Its First Year of Operation.
A subsidiary of Swiftclean, Swift Fire Compliance was set-up when it became clear to MD, Gary Nicholls, that the majority of the work Swiftclean carries out is more about fire prevention and compliance than cleaning.
“More than 70% of our turnover is in the fire compliance world, so it seemed an obvious next step to create a business arm that represents this,” said Gary. “From kitchen extract cleaning and fire damper inspection and testing, to upskilling the wider sector in these areas through our dedicated training academy and also advising industry bodies in their own standard setting, we want to position ourselves as the fire safety experts.”
The company works closely with BESA, assisting the association in developing best practice. Gary was heavily involved in developing the TR19 Grease and Air, guidance/specification documents for ventilation hygiene and in the case of TR19 Grease specifically, fire prevention.
“For many years, we’ve worked with BESA and our industry colleagues to really set a benchmark for effective maintenance in these areas and to document how it should be done properly,” added Gary.
It was the Grenfell tragedy that sadly alerted Gary to the high standards his business was setting. Now, the Building Safety Act, bought in as a direct result of Grenfell in 2022, demands robust record keeping, including pictorial evidence of fire safety measures, such as dampers. At the time of the fire, however, ‘record keeping’ was commonly just a box ticking exercise, listing when works were carried out, with little proof of efficacy.
Gary was interviewed by the Metropolitan Police, along with other contractors who had worked on the building as part of the Grenfell investigation – Swiftclean had cleaned the common bathroom extraction systems and installed fire safety grilles at every extract inlet point within the ill-fated tower.
“Grenfell was a horrific wake-up call for the whole of the building safety and compliance sector. What we were doing was correct, however. Our approach to documenting our work, which was above and beyond, is now industry best practice”
Supporting Organisations Across the UK
During this past year, Swift Fire Compliance’s approach has further been cemented with updated BESA standard, DW145, which focuses on fire damper installation and testing, calling for the evidence-based, ‘golden thread’ supporting approach that Swiftclean has long been advocates of.
“As experts in our field, we are often called upon as witnesses to assist courts in disputes regarding fires that have occurred in or through kitchen extraction systems. We analyse the evidence presented to clarify whether organisations have or haven’t followed the appropriate maintenance required to prevent fires from spreading through the kitchen extraction system.”
“Our business is about helping customers meet their fire safety obligations – the legal requirements they must comply with in terms of reducing fire risk and ensuring compliance, crucial for safety and compliance with the requirements of insurance policies.”
Investing in Fire Damper Training
Swift Fire Compliance has further cemented this aim by creating a dedicated fire damper training facility in the Swiftclean Training Academy, used to upskill internal staff and also external engineers. The company recently launched a new fire damper testing course which was developed with The BESA in-line with the updated DW145 guidance.
Swift Fire Compliance has also created a number of useful free to access guidance documents, including ‘The Ultimate Guide to Fire and Smoke Control dampers in 2026.
“Since we set up Swift Fire Compliance, we have received hundreds of enquiries from across the commercial and public services sectors – hotels, hospitals, schools, councils, leisure facilities and of FM providers; our biggest customer-base. We are often called upon as fire compliance specialist for major FM companies throughout the UK.”
Looking Ahead for Swift Fire Compliance
“The future of Swift Fire Compliance looks promising; it’s our biggest growth area and although this arm of the business has only been a separate entity for the past year, our expertise has been honed over many decades.”
“Ultimately, compliance is everything – it prevents incident and if, sadly, the unavoidable happens, it safeguards individual businesses against insurance claims. There was clearly a lot wrong at Grenfell, but we could be sure that our part of the building at least, had been installed and maintained correctly, with no question and we had the evidence to support this. We want to spread this message and help other businesses meet the standards set in the Building Safety Act. A tragedy such as Grenfell must never happen again and we hope that we can be part of the solution.”
About the Author: Abbey Maxwell
