OUR HISTORY
From a small Lund office to one of Sweden’s largest fire and risk consultancy companies
Sweden’s first private fire consulting company was founded by Dr. Yngve Anderberg in Lund in 1977. In the early years, FSD’s main focus was on research and structural fire protection.
The first four employees were hired in 1985. Over time, the business expanded to include fire damage investigations, smoke calculations and in-house development of computer programs for fire engineering calculations. The first version of the finite element program TEMPCALC was launched and grew to become one of the few reference programs for fire-related thermal management of structures and is now licensed to users in universities and consulting companies in several countries.
In 1988, the sister company FSD UK was founded by Professor Gabriel Khoury of Imperial College London.
During the financial crisis in Sweden in the early 1990s, FSD focused more on international assignments, especially large-scale gas and oil platforms in the North Sea and Canada. In this context, we also developed methods to derive material models and design instructions for various US manufacturers of epoxy-based specialty products for fire protection in harsh environments (such as PPG and Textron Specialty Materials).
With changes to building regulations at home with BBR 1995, we were well prepared for the new fire safety documentation requirements for new buildings. Headquartered in Lund, FSD was strategically located to capture new graduates from LTH’s new fire engineering programme. The company could expand and soon fire engineering design became our main activity. In structural fire protection, the development of global structural analysis programmes continued, including the research project Multi-Storey Structures in Fire.
In the early 2000s, the corporate structure was reorganised and we acquired more owners. In 2001, Richard Nilsson became CEO and at the same time the company moved to new larger premises in Malmö. International activities were redirected towards research and development of fire protection in tunnels, which became relevant following a number of accidents around Europe, and we were soon taking a leading role in a number of EU projects (such as UPTUN, SAFET-T and NewCon).
In 2004, the new Civil Protection Act required property owners and users to be responsible for their own systematic fire protection work (SBA). This soon became a complementary activity for FSD and the start of our own development of SYBRA, which is a digital tool for easier management of systematic fire protection work.
Sweden’s first private fire consulting company was founded by Dr. Yngve Anderberg in Lund in 1977. In the early years, FSD’s main focus was on research and structural fire protection.
The first four employees were hired in 1985. Over time, the business expanded to include fire damage investigations, smoke calculations and in-house development of computer programs for fire engineering calculations. The first version of the finite element program TEMPCALC was launched and grew to become one of the few reference programs for fire-related thermal management of structures and is now licensed to users in universities and consulting companies in several countries.
In 1988, the sister company FSD UK was founded by Professor Gabriel Khoury of Imperial College London.
During the financial crisis in Sweden in the early 1990s, FSD focused more on international assignments, especially large-scale gas and oil platforms in the North Sea and Canada. In this context, we also developed methods to derive material models and design instructions for various US manufacturers of epoxy-based specialty products for fire protection in harsh environments (such as PPG and Textron Specialty Materials).
With changes to building regulations at home with BBR 1995, we were well prepared for the new fire safety documentation requirements for new buildings. Headquartered in Lund, FSD was strategically located to capture new graduates from LTH’s new fire engineering programme. The company could expand and soon fire engineering design became our main activity. In structural fire protection, the development of global structural analysis programmes continued, including the research project Multi-Storey Structures in Fire.
In the early 2000s, the corporate structure was reorganised and we acquired more owners. In 2001, Richard Nilsson became CEO and at the same time the company moved to new larger premises in Malmö. International activities were redirected towards research and development of fire protection in tunnels, which became relevant following a number of accidents around Europe, and we were soon taking a leading role in a number of EU projects (such as UPTUN, SAFET-T and NewCon).
In 2004, the new Civil Protection Act required property owners and users to be responsible for their own systematic fire protection work (SBA). This soon became a complementary activity for FSD and the start of our own development of SYBRA, which is a digital tool for easier management of systematic fire protection work.
FSD expanded considerably in 2007, opening offices in Helsingborg, Karlskrona and Stockholm. Shortly thereafter, FSD Gothenburg (in cooperation with Andersson & Hultmark) and FSD Stockholm were established as two subsidiaries in the new group.
In the coming years, we will also establish ourselves in China in cooperation with Dr. Yan Liu. This led to exciting challenges and major projects, such as project management in the construction process of the Volvo factory in Chengdu, evacuation simulations for the underground railway station in Badaling at the Great Wall of China and design of smoke ventilation for the Shanghai World Expo Exhibition and Convention Centre.
FSD also expanded further in Sweden and opened a new office in Halmstad in 2014. During the remainder of the 2010s, all of the company’s units will grew into a group with around 60 employees.
In 2018, Alf Johansson retired after almost 9 years as CEO of the parent company Fire Safety Design AB and was succeeded by Johan Ohlsson as the new CEO.
In 2018, the company FSD Resiliens AB was also established, with the aim of taking up more issues related to risk and safety.
The subsidiary FSD Mitt (in cooperation with Byggstatik AB) was established in 2019 with offices in Örebro.
The company’s development in 2020-2021 then continued at a steady pace with additional offices in Varberg, Lund and Växjö.
