Avene Furness selected as ‘Woman of the Year’ finalist in the Women in Housing Awards

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Avene Furness, entrepreneur and founder of Chute Fire Certification UK is a finalist in the prestigious Women in Housing Awards. The awards recognise women that are the leaders, innovators and changemakers across the sector, shining a light on the incredible work carried out by teams and individuals in the past 12 months. Avene is a finalist in the ‘Woman of the Year: Leadership’ category, in recognition for her tireless commitment and passion for quality, safety and professionalism in this sector. Avene has significantly grown her business during the COVID-19 pandemic, at a time when many SMEs have struggled to survive. She is an experienced manager who recognises the importance of continual professional and personal development of herself and her employees. Avene set up her business and initiated an industry game-changer – only Certified Fire Technicians specialising in Refuse Chute Fire Compliance could inspect, maintain, and certify chutes in multi-story buildings. Because the industry is so competitive, other chute inspection companies have also upskilled their teams, forcing the whole industry to improve standards. The awards take place in Manchester on 7th September 2021, where Avene will join other finalists from organisations across the UK, including Peabody, several borough councils and housing trusts.

Chute Safe Protection System approved to provide a fire resistance performance of 240 minutes

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Quality and safety are top priorities at Chute Fire Certification UK, along with exemplary customer service. We also pride ourselves on innovative new products, manufactured here in the UK. We understand that customers need to have full confidence in new innovations, which is why we did not hesitate to instruct one of the leading independent senior fire engineers in the country to define the field of application for our Chute Safe Protection System. We asked them to assess that our refuse and laundry chutes provide a fire resistance performance when adjudged against BS476: Part 22: 1987. This assessment has been produced using the principles outlined in the Passive Fire Protection Forum (PFPF): ‘Guide to undertaking technical assessments of the fire performance of construction products based on fire test evidence, 2019, Industry Standard Procedure’. We are delighted to report that our Chute Safe Protection System has been successfully approved to provide a fire resistance performance of 240 minutes, based upon the test evidence and the subsequent analysis of the manufacturing and installation.  We are delighted to provide full confidence to our customers in the systems that we fit and maintain.