Chris Dennis

In 2003, after completing his Masters Degree in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Birmingham, Chris began work as a Design and Project Engineer at a small start-up engineering company. During this time he helped develop a revolutionary form of liquid disinfection equipment that utilised microwave-powered ultraviolet lamps. Due to the small size of the company, Chris was heavily involved in virtually all aspects of the projects, including liaising closely with suppliers and customers that were based both in the UK and overseas. In May 2007, the company was acquired by Severn Trent Services, allowing Chris to gain valuable experience working in a large multi-national engineering company. During this period, Chris continued to work on the ongoing development and testing of the different variants of the core technology. The work involved regular travel abroad, including helping to plan and run large scale field trials in the USA. After almost 7 years working on the same overall project, Chris decided he needed a new challenge, and so in 2010 he joined Hawkins as a Fire and Explosion Investigator. Since then, he has investigated several hundred incidents, ranging in scale from minor domestic fires, to multi-million pound losses involving industrial premises, commercial […]

Tom Dale

Since graduating in 2013 with a first-class bachelor’s degree in physics from the University of Warwick, Tom has pursued a career in fire safety and risk management. His first position was as a Safety Engineer at DNV, completing quantitative risk assessments, estimating the likelihood and consequence of potential fire and explosion events within onshore, offshore and floating assets in the Oil & Gas industry. Results from these assessments allowed clients to evaluate the fire and explosion risk arising from their sites, to support design decisions ensuring compliance with legislative requirements. Whilst at DNV, Tom also acted as an environmental auditor for the Safety Health and Environmental (SHE) audit team. Tom completed several site investigation, land remediation and gasholder demolition projects in the UK to support managing onsite hazards. This also provided Tom with experience in conducting health and safety investigations of lost time injury incidents, which can occur at construction sites. Tom began a part-time Masters in Fire and Explosion Engineering at the University of Leeds, balancing work and studies for three years, before graduating with a Distinction in 2017. His dissertation involved research into ‘boiling liquid expanding vapour explosions’ (BLEVE), specifically involving liquified propane gas (LPG) aiming to further […]

Darren Cook

Darren was sponsored through his MEng degree at Strathclyde University by NACCO Materials Handling Group, designer and manufacturer of Hyster and Yale forklift trucks, where he spent four summer placements working in Special Products Design, Test and Development, Manufacturing Engineering, and Production. After completing his degree, Darren worked for BAE Systems Surface Ships, based in Glasgow. He worked there for four years, most recently as a Lead Research and Technology Engineer, leading a wide range of novel research projects within the Naval Ship industry. Projects have included a Concept Capability Demonstrator Programme of an Unmanned Surface Vehicle and sea trials onboard HMS Bulwark aimed at improving the operability of UK Amphibious Warships. He also has experience of test and commissioning of Type 45 Destroyers and spent four months on secondment to Babcock Integrated Technology in Rosyth. Darren joined Hawkins in 2011 as a fire and explosion investigator. He has since investigated over 650 fires and explosions, ranging from small domestic incidents to large multi-million pound losses involving plant, machinery, agriculture, retail premises, industrial premises and buildings of international historical significance. Darren is also an A2 Certificate of Competence (A2CofC) certified drone pilot and can assist clients with aerial surveys on […]

James Clarke

James is a fire investigator specialising in fire engineering design, fire safety management and fire risk assessment. Since graduating from The University of Huddersfield in 2017 with a first-class honours degree in Mechanical Engineering, James has worked in a number of industry sectors across project management, mechanical engineering, and fire safety engineering. James’ degree covered a range of topics, including Mechanical Design, Manufacturing, Computational Fluid Dynamics, Finite Element Analysis, and Business Management. When given the option to specialise, James focused on a live industrial dissertation subject covering asset utilisation and six sigma manufacturing techniques, coupled with technical assessment on the design and analysis of helicopter landing gear and the optimal design of trailer aerodynamic devices. During his time at university, James also held a project engineering position with a Yorkshire based pharmaceutical company where he assisted with the development and introduction of new production and packaging facilities. James quickly developed the ability to assess both products and components involved with flammable and explosive environments, advising the internal engineering and Health & Safety teams. As part of a summer internship, James continued in operations development with a national telecommunications company, to help increase efficiency in maintenance processes and data analysis. During […]

Nick Carey

Nick joined Hawkins in June 2012 after a 27 year career with the London Fire Brigade. During the last 16 years of his fire service career he was a full-time Fire Investigation Officer. In 2009 Nick was awarded a PhD with the University of Strathclyde for his research into the interaction of fire and electrical circuits and the metallic damage to electrical conductors located within fire scenes titled “Developing a reliable systematic analysis for arc fault mapping”. He has undertaken a number of electrical examinations within the UK. This has included multi-agency teams investigating several firefighter fatality incidents and the investigation into the cause of the Cutty Sark fire in Greenwich. Nick has investigated a number of electric shock & electrocution incidents and electrical product failures. He has investigated shipping fire and explosions on behalf of P&I Clubs and cargo interests. He has also investigated a number of fires involving yachts and superyachts overseas. Nick has provided firefighting advice for shipping incidents on a number of occasions. He has given evidence as an expert witness at arbitrations, Coroners’, Crown and Civil courts. He has delivered electrical training to Fire Brigades, Police Forces and Forensic Laboratories and presented at training conferences […]

Carl Butler

After his PhD, Carl became a post-doctoral research associate in the Chemical Engineering Department at the University of Cambridge. He studied the chemistry involved with the production of high purity silica and also completed research work for industrial clients using fluidised bed reactors. In 1997, Carl moved to the Process Safety Section of the Health and Safety Laboratory (HSL), an agency of the Health and Safety Executive. His work there, initially as a Higher Scientific Officer, involved the assessments of hazards associated with industrial chemical reaction processes, including runaway chemical reactions, BLEVEs and LPG vapour cloud fires, for which he was a partner in a European Joint Industry Project. Later, as Senior Scientific Officer, he led a research team investigating hazards associated with a wide range of processes, including high pressure water-jetting, fire-engulfment valves, LPG-storage and pool fires. Carl was also involved in large-scale testing to assess the hazards presented by the use of hydrogen as a fuel. His work at HSL also included the investigation of a number of incidents and he was an incident officer for the Process Safety Section. He also produced industry guidance on prevention of over-pressurisation of storage silos. Carl joined Hawkins in 2004 and […]

Stephen Brough

Stephen is a forensic engineer and fire investigator, based in our Leeds office.

Lisa Beck

From South Africa, Lisa obtained a diploma in mechanical engineering and worked for a large wine co-operative in the Stellenbosch wine region. Thereafter, she studied further at the University of Cape Town and obtained a science degree in mechanical engineering. In southern and central Africa, Lisa worked in the steel recycling and water tube boiler industries, gaining experience of heavy engineering plant and equipment. Lisa immigrated to the UK and joined Hawkins in 2007 as an Associate fire and engineering investigator in the Reigate office. She investigates fires ranging from domestic to large industrial incidents, and engineering losses ranging from personal injuries to large engineering equipment failures. She has also investigated various bicycle related incidents, drawing on a personal passion for the sport. LANGUAGES Lisa is also proficient in Afrikaans.

Richard Baker

Richard joined Hawkins in 2017 as a Chartered Mechanical Engineer. He graduated from the University of Nottingham in 2009 with a First Class Masters degree in Mechanical Engineering. Richard has previously occupied the roles of Engineer, Senior Engineer and Principal Engineer. He now specialises in the forensic investigation of road traffic accidents/collisions, vehicle and mechanical failures, and image analysis typically of video recordings from CCTV systems and ‘dash-cams’. Richard has extensive experience in engineering design and analysis. As well as taking on more traditional mechanical engineering cases, such as those involving failures of mechanical joints and fasteners, Richard uses his experience in engineering data analysis and interrogation in cases involving video analysis. Richard applies scientific analysis methods to video recordings to facilitate interpretation of events in the context of space (position), time, speed, and the fundamental scientific and engineering principles that bound the problem. This work includes video clarification and enhancement, relating to single and multiple vehicle accidents, and collisions involving pedestrians and cyclists. This area of Richard’s work often strongly overlaps with his expertise in collision investigation and Richard is regularly instructed to deal with both Video Analysis Expert and Collision Reconstruction Expert aspects of a case. Richard has […]

Nick Ashby

Nick Ashby is a Principal Associate at Hawkins with extensive expertise in power generation, operations, and energy projects across the UK and international markets.