David Poxon
IT IS with great sadness that we at the Fire Protection Association must report the sudden death of our colleague, David Poxon. David died suddenly on 22 April 2020 after a short battle with cancer, and had worked at the FPA in both technical and management capacities on several occasions. His most recent return was in
2016, when he agreed to become practice principal consultant responsible for assisting FPA clients with complex and varied fire safety projects, as part of the newly formed Professional Practice. In addition to this role, he assumed the roles of FPA’s quality manager, RISCAuthority manager and RISCAuthority passive working group convenor. Highly respected, he sat on
several British Standards Institution committees, was a member of the Institute of Fire Safety Managers, and was listed on the latter’s Nationally Accredited Fire Risk Assessor Register. David began his career at the age of 16 as a cadet fireman in
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the City of Bulawayo, in the then Rhodesia. He was later promoted to sub officer before emigrating to South Africa, where he saw service in the Brakpan and Edenvale fire services.
He then joined the Electricity Supply Commission in its technical fire risk division, before moving on to the Sasol Refinery Fire Service in the position of shift officer (divisional officer in fire and rescue service terms).
In 1983, David was appointed
the technical officer of the Fire Protection Association of Southern Africa (FPASA), which is based in Johannesburg. Then in 1986, he was advised by his doctor to relocate to the coast to improve the health of his then very young son, Bradley – and there he took up the position of assistant chief fire officer in Amanzimtoti, a neighbouring town of Durban.
Returning to the FPASA in
1989, David took up the newly created position of regional representative (Natal). This was essentially an unsupervised position requiring commitment,
JUNE 2020
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integrity and innovative thinking; traits he continued to demonstrate throughout his career. Here he continued as a member of the Natal Fire Prevention Committee, which served as an advisory team to produce recommendations for the National Building Regulations reviews and to assist fire and rescue services from Richards Bay to Port Shepstone in technical fire safety matters. When a restructuring of the association was required in 1991, David was appointed training manager in charge of the FPASA Fire College in Boksburg and national training programmes. In this position, he was responsible for creating widespread recognition of the association’s professionalism in the field of fire training. Following a four year period
as technical manager, in 1995 he was promoted to the position of general manager, and he was also a director of FPA Botswana (Pty) Ltd, a wholly owned company of the FPASA registered in Gaborone, Botswana.
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