Nick Swailes

Senior Associate

Nick joined Design Fire Consultants in January 2017. He has a BEng and MSc in Fire and Explosions Engineering and over a decade of experience in fire safety engineering working in a wide range of sectors in the UK and Europe, including, Commercial, Residential, Education, Sports and Entertainment, Stadia, Transit, and Healthcare. He has experience with all types of fire engineering services including design through all of the RIBA Stages, construction stage advise, handover and operation; in addition to due diligence, risk assessment, peer review and expert witness. His past projects include VITA Living North and East at Circle Square, VITA Student Warwick Road, Coventry and Three New Bailey Square.

His key interests are in problem solving, especially in issues surrounding fire safety law (regulation, legislation, expert witness) and evacuation dynamics (crowd movement, the evacuation of disabled people). He has undertaken and overseen numerous evacuation modelling projects and co-authored papers on the subject for international conferences.

Nick also has a growing interest in non-engineering aspects of DFC such as employee rights and benefits, employee development and graduate recruitment.

Qualifications: BEng, MSc, CEng, MIFireE

Experience: 14 years

Specialist Expertise: Fire Testing and Assessment, Evacuation Modelling, Stadia and Arena, High-rise Residential, Expert Witness