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I studied industrial chemistry at university and then joined the fire service. At the time I think I was one of very few firemen with a degree. I hoped that my technical background could be of assistance but the fire service wasn't set up to make the most of my expertise so I moved into consultancy.

I served as a station officer in Belfast for a couple of years. It was just after the Anglo-Irish agreement so there was quite a lot of trouble, but the fire brigade had a certain acceptance from everyone that they were there to help, so we weren't seen as targets. We had special security procedures to follow in situations that involved bombs or suspect devices where the police or army would take over and we would wait until it was safe to go in, but in a normal fire you did your job as usual. Like any big city there were a lot of fires - most of the people welcomed us and some didn't, but that's the case everywhere. As far as living and working in Northern Ireland was concerned it was a fantastic experience. It was an interesting time to be there and to experience Irish culture.

I spent 10 years at Ove Arup and worked on some fantastic projects. I was safety manager on the Channel Tunnel Rail Link and at that time there wasn't much guidance so we had to start from first principals to work out the engineering. It was challenging but hugely rewarding. Long transport tunnels and major transport interchanges like Kings Cross are the most difficult to apply our expertise to.

Tall buildings have also given us food for thought in terms of how we think about a building's structure and how we can stop fire spreading from floor to floor. The added dimension of major security incidents makes fire engineering very important. We have to think of things that previously we hadn't considered.

My fire brigade experience brings home the way humans interact with a building, which is probably the most important thing in fire engineering. You can have as many systems in place as you like, but if the people are not properly trained, then a fire can become very serious, which has been one of the lessons we have learned in this country after disasters like Piper Alpha.

I also saw the human side of the fire brigade and to expect them to be experts in everything because they fight fire is unrealistic. They have to be assisted and have the courage to listen and to understand the professional fire engineering aspect of what they do.