RIFA Committee Members

Executive Committee

Chairman - Peter Haines

 Peter has been involved in Fire Engineering and fire systems since the early ‘70s, firstly with British Gas on detection and deluge systems at Liquefied Natural Gas storage plants, followed by How Engineering on detection and suppression (sprinklers) at new-build office projects and refurbishment projects at Alexandra Palace and the Dorchester Hotel (including all the heartaches with Heritage. Peter finally ended up at London Underground in 1990 with the original “Section 12” installations. With London Underground, he has been involved with the maintenance of detection, suppression, and passive systems. He was the Fire Asset Engineer for the later part of Metronet, and is currently the LU Senior Client Engineer for Fire.

Peter is currently involved in the wider field of Fire Engineering, sitting on the BRE Global Governing Body, on the committee of the Institute of Fire Prevention Officers ( and Liaison member for affiliate companies), the UK Joint Water Mist Group, and chairman of the BAFSA Water Mist Technical Group.

Vice Chairman - Tony Cash

Tony Cash is Lead Fire Safety Engineer for the Capital Programs Directorate of London Underground.  A fire and transport safety professional, with broad experience gained from 25 years working in a wide range of industries including recreational and public transport, aviation, oil, petrochemical, marine and local authority environments, Tony has considerable experience in the development and maintenance of requirements related to product certification and test, fire safety, risk assessments and emergency planning. 

General Secretary - David Rayworth

David is a Fire Safety Engineer for Network Rail where he is responsible for Sussex Route and Western Territory. He is currently involved with major projects where he provides a fire safety engineering interface role with the Shard of Glass, Cannon Place and an ambitious rebuild of London Bridge Station projects which are being constructed whilst keeping the operational railway in full working order.

David is undertaking his B Eng (Hons) Fire Engineering at UCLan.

Previously David was Assistant Station Manager at Liverpool Street Railway Station, Britain’s busiest sub-surface railway station and various other operational roles within the Railway.

Treasurer - Peter Stephenson

Peter is the Principal Fire Safety Engineer at Kingfell Consulting a division of Kingfell Plc. Kingfell provides a range of services to the mass transit, Heritage and commercial sectors including fire strategy development, fire and evacuation modelling, fire system design and fire risk assessment. Kingfell also provide more recently risk and crisis management. Peter has a First Class Honours Degree in Fire Engineering, is a Member of the Institution of Fire Engineers and has previously worked in fire safety teams for Mott MacDonald, Network Rail and the Royal Berkshire Fire & Rescue Service.

Committee Members

Martin Hadaway

Martin is the Fire Safety Manager for Eurostar (UK) Ltd and as such responsible for fire safety issues within premises used by Eurostar employees within the UK, (this excludes rolling stock but involvement and advice to train crews is expected) and he has been with Eurostar since March 2007.

Martin served with Kent Fire and Rescue Service for 35 years prior to joining the company, his experience with the Fire Service was generally as an inspecting/enforcement officer but as a Station Manager was part of the Fire Investigation Team for the County and duties included overseeing a number of Part-time sections as a supervisory officer.

Nicole Hoffman

Nicole is a Principal Fire Engineer for Parsons Brinckerhoff in their Rail, Transit and Aviation group.

She has more than 25 years experience in fire safety engineering, and for more than 15 years has been primarily involved with the development of fire strategies within the railway industry for both stations and tunnels; in the UK and internationally.

She obtained a PhD for her CFD modelling of fire and sprinkler interaction, and has a particular interest in the analysis of smoke movement. As one of the originators of the evacuation modelling package STEPS, she also has a special interest in evacuation behaviour and its modelling.

Nicole is a Chartered Fire Engineer (CEng) and is a Member of the Institute of Fire Engineers (MIFireE).

James Holland

James is the Head of Fire Safety Policy for Network Rail where he is responsible for fire safety compliance across the whole of the Network Rail property portfolio. James is a Chartered Fire Engineer and a Chartered Member of IOSH. He served for 31 years in the London Fire Brigade and was Fire Safety Manager for London Underground Ltd.

Andy James

Andy works for Approved Inspector Services. Approved Inspectors provide Building Control in place of the local Councils when appointed by the Developer. AIS also provide Assurance Services to the Rail industry.

Andy is a Chartered Fire Engineer and has worked for London Underground, BRE and the Loss Prevention Council.

Jacqueline McDonagh-Desmond

Jacqueline works for Approved Inspector Services as a Fire Engineer for just over 4 years. Approved Inspectors provide Building Control in place of the local Councils when appointed by the Developer. AIS also provide Assurance Services to the Rail industry. Jacqueline is currently acting as the Lead Fire Engineer for Power, Communications & Cooling Upgrades at London Underground.

Previously to this Jacqueline worked as a Senior Fire Engineer for nearly 3 years after her MSc with JGA Fire Consultants and subsequent to this she spent nearly a year working as a Building Control Officer for Wandsworth Council.

Jacqueline has a BSc in Fire Technology and an MSc in Fire Engineering; she holds full Membership with the Institute of Fire Engineers (MIFireE) and is currently working towards becoming a Chartered Engineer (CEng).

Brian Maclean

Brian served his apprenticeship with British Rail as an electrician and later worked as an elevator engineer in South Africa. He joined the Fire & Rescue service and served as a Sub-Officer before joining the British Rail Fire organisation shortly after the Kings Cross tragedy.

Brian is currently the professional Head of Fire safety for First Scotrail and covers the length and breadth of Scotland, dealing with all matters relating to Fire safety.   

Phil Mather

I am now semi retired after working 21 years with London Underground.  I have now formed my own company "TUBEFIRE LTD" and taking on reduced but regular assignments working mainly for various departments of LU via third party companies

During my time with LU, I reached the position of Lead Fire Engineer working directly for the Principle Fire Engineer following 7 years with "Metronet Rail" rising to the position of Chief Engineer (FIRE) where I was engaged in receiving assurance from Station Delivery Projects and monitoring and ensuring that projects are successfully handed over to LU in accordance with all LU & Metronet Rail Standards and responsible for assisting with the preparation and submission of “Approval Submissions” and liaising with the LFEPA Railway Projects Group.

Previous to joining LU, I spent 24 years in local authority Fire Service culminating with a three year secondment to the Fire Service College as a Course Director and instructor with the Fire Prevention faculty, followed by 21 years experience with London Underground and "Metronet Rail" as a Fire Safety Engineer prior to my recent retirement in May 2011.

Jon Pagan

Jon is currently General Manager of the consultancy division of Exova Warringtonfire in the UK and is a very experienced Chartered Fire Engineer.

He has been working in the industry for over 16 years and Jon’s experience covers a wide range of types of building, including airports, shopping centres, railway stations, office buildings, residential, schools and hospitals.

Peter Scott

Peter has over 25 years experience within the Fire industry, rising through the ranks to the post of Fire Safety Manager for a district which involved in organizing and running Fire Safety departments.

He has gained many Technical and Fire Safety qualifications from Morton in Marsh Fire College and West Yorkshire Fire Brigade courses and is a Graduate of the Institute of Fire Engineers.

Peter currently works for Interfire consultancy looking after the rail industry customers/contracts which cover several different disciplines within the field of fire, such as fire risk assessments, training, fire extinguisher service and alarms.

Previously he worked for Railtrack as a Fire Safety Manager ECML,

Jason Seward

As the principal member of the Fire Engineering team, Jason assumes a discipline Director role in many of the projects requiring fire engineering analysis and support. Jason specialises in the formulation of Fire and Evacuation Strategies to suit specific project and ultimately client requirements, and has an in depth knowledge of the fire safety requirements for Network Rail Managed Stations.

Jason has a First Class Honours Degree in Fire Engineering, is a Member of the Institution of Fire Engineers, a member of the Rail Industry Fire Association and has eighteen years experience within fire safety and fire engineering. His previous employers include Network Rail Infrastructure Ltd and Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue Service in both operational and fire safety capacities.

Ross Thornton

Ross is currently the Fire Safety & Emergency Planning Manager for Southern Railway/ Gatwick Express (formerly South Central) which operates train services on the London, Sussex and South Coast routes, possibly the UK’s busiest commuter network.

Ross has served as an operational fire fighter, Station Officer/ Duty Fire Protection Manager with the British Airways Fire Service at Heathrow & Gatwick Airports for 19 years, and has held positions with various transport related industries and accumulated some 30 years of experience in the field of Fire Safety management.

Since joining Southern in June 2004 Ross has developed strong working relationships with the Network Rail Fire Engineering department and worked in partnership with them in a continuous improvement strategy on fire safety standards on Southern’s network.

Ross’s work with Fire Authorities and Industry security forces has reduced acts of Arson, on the Southern network, both in stations and on trains to almost negligible levels recording only one minor incident in the last 18 months.