DFC Celebrates 15 Years of Fire Safety Excellence

Fifteen years ago, DFC started with a simple idea: fire safety should be clear, practical and built on real engineering expertise. Today, that idea has grown into a consultancy trusted by clients across the UK. November 2025 marks our 15-year anniversary, a milestone we’re proud and humbled to share with the people who made it […]

Posted by Design Fire Consultant
On 25th November 2025

Power to the People

By: Neal Butterworth, Director Two weeks ago, we attended our annual continuing professional development (CPD) event at the University of Edinburgh. As always, it was immensely educational, insightful and enjoyable. This year’s theme was very loosely based on the concept of “regulation by disaster”. The concept combined a fantastic mix of politics, incentives and theory […]

Posted by Design Fire Consultant
On 20th September 2024

DFC Contributed to the Recent RICS Built Environment Journal: FRAEW

Neal Butterworth, Director and one of the original authors of PAS 9980, has recently collaborated on two insightful articles for the RICS Built Environment Journal. In the second article, Neal and his co-authors delve into the topic of “Identifying common problems with FRAEW reports”. Here, they discuss a range of issues that arise in fire […]

Posted by Design Fire Consultant
On 26th October 2023

Eight Years On and Still No-One Seems to be Listening (well, maybe some are)

By: Roy Little, Senior Associate and Francesca Ravenhill, Senior Engineer and Analyst. In early 2014 a series of articles written by Mostyn Bullock and Adam Monaghan were published in the International Fire Professional Journal [1] focussing on competency in fire engineering (see copy of the articles below). Re-reading these articles now, you get the feeling that we […]

Posted by Design Fire Consultant
On 1st August 2023

What is Sustainability?

By: Roy Little, Senior Associate and Francesca Ravenhill, Senior Engineer and Analyst. In reviewing several Professional Review Reports, as part of the Chartership application process, the sustainability section appears a difficult competence to address. As such we want to share some thoughts on the principles of sustainable development and how we as fire engineers apply them in […]

Posted by Design Fire Consultant
On 20th July 2023

Adam joins Health and Safety Executive (HSE) Webinar on Planning Gateway One

DFC Director, Adam Monaghan joins Health and Safety Executive’s Mark Wilson, Operational Lead for Policy and Planning Gateway One, in the webinar’s Q&A session to discuss Planning Gateway One. What is planning gateway one (PGO)? PGO was the first step in transforming the regulatory framework for building safety in England following the Grenfell Tower tragedy. […]

Posted by Design Fire Consultant
On 6th June 2023