Ben Walker (firefighter)

Benjamin Walker is a British firefighter, author, and occupational safety professional. Walker specialises in teaching Fire Service Instructors and Commanders worldwide in tactical firefighting and first-response command with co-Author and business partner Shan Raffel. Walker's teachings on using science and engineering to enhance tactical firefighting have been frequently used and also cited in academic papers on Fire Dynamics as being one a small amount of textbooks geared to operational firefighters on scientific and engineering subjects^[1] These books are recommended reading for all those undertaking the Institution of Fire Engineers examinations.^[2] Walker has been described as a 'marmite' figure in the Fire Service, wideley respected for his operational and training prowess, but also viewed as an outspoken figure, particularly on matters regarding Firefighter safety and perceived hypocrisy amongst leadership figures in fire, police and related political bodies.

Firefighter and training

Walker was born in Staffordshire,^[3] West Midlands, and graduated from Newcastle University in 2002 with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and Government with upper honours.^[4] He served in the then known as Tyne and Wear Metropolitan Fire Brigade as an operational Officer with command experience of combined firefighting and live rescue operations, epitomised by the command of a large fire and rescue of multiple persons at an incident in Gateshead in 2010.^[5]

He later worked as a Tactical Firefighting and Live Fire Instructor for the London Fire Brigade and Babcock International Training partnership. In 2014 and 2015 he travelled through South America as a guest Instructor for the International Fire and Rescue Association on missions 51 and 56.^[6][7]

Author, writer and commentator

Walker is a noted writer and commentator in the field of Fire and Rescue and Emergency Preparedness. Walker's books include Fire Dynamics for Firefighters, Reading Fire and Fighting Fire. He has also appeared as a subject matter expert on a Russia Today news broadcast.^[8]

Walker presented at the annual Fire Department Instructors Conference from 2015 to 2018 inclusively.^{[9][10][11][12]} He was a keynote speaker for Honeywell at FDIC 2017.^[11]

In 2018, Walker released a novella memoir called The Fireman.^[13] In 2025 he was reported to be collaborating upon a factual book about the Wayne Brown scandal by Sunday Times Journalist Michael Gillard^[14] provisionally titled Inferno.

Controversies and Grenfell warnings

Controversy arose when it transpired that contents of Walker's 2016 textbook Fire Dynamics for Firefighters contained details of external fire spread of high rise buildings and how to prepare and fight these. London Fire Brigade Commissioner’s Dany Cotton’s statement to the official inquiry that the Grenfell Tower fire in 2017 had no precedent^[15] and could not be prepared were in direct contrast to information contained within Fire Dynamics for Firefighters on external fire spread, which as mentioned and cited within this article, was already recommended reading for Fire Officers studying for Institution of Fire Engineers Examinations. By extension this should have been read by London Fire Brigade personnel studying for these examinations. These two contrasting viewpoints, in textbook form from Walker's 2016 textbook and Cotton's verbally expressed statements in 2018 were noted within the fire industry but this interesting conflict of published opinions and insights was not debated, or explored further by the Grenfell Inquiry which covers the 2017 tragedy^{[16][improper synthesis?]}

Walker had also previously gone on record in 2016 UK national broadsheet newspaper The Guardian warning of cuts to firefighter training and consequential effects ^[17] In an article in the April 2017 issue of Fire Risk Management, Walker wrote about concerns at the lack of knowledge of building and construction and its relation to frontline firefighting tactics with potential for disastrous and total building losses and severe losses of life.^[18] Topics such as cuts to firefighting training and reduction of building and construction methods identified by Walker in both the broadsheet and journal articles were extensively discussed in the firefighting component of the official inquiry into the Grenfell tragedy, with the recommendations made in sections 33.9, 33.10e, 34.5, 34.6 of the Grenfell Inquiry Executive Summary of the Phase One^[19] Report notably tallying with the information, warnings and predictions that Walker had made in 2016 & 2017 as above.

Walker is a Managing Director of Ignis Global Ltd,^[20] a UK based fire, safety and security consultancy.^[17]

Walker, Brown and the 'Wild West' Midlands Fire Service scandal

In October 2021, Walker forwarded concerns to the Fire Authority Chair Greg Brackenridge raised to him by West Midlands Fire Service and London Fire Brigade staff regarding the credentials, conduct and competence of then Deputy Chief Fire Officer Wayne Brown. Following the retirement of Chief Fire Officer Philip Loach, Walker emailed Greg Brackenridge on January 31st 2023 asking if any due diligence had been done prior to the impending appointment of Wayne Brown to the post of West Midlands' Chief Fire Officer. An audit carried out by Grant Thornton in 2024 confirmed nil due diligence had been carried out prior to Browns appointments as Deputy and Chief Fire Officer.^[21]

Brown made a police complaint that Walker's complaint amounted to harassment and subsequently had Walker arrested in April 2023 by West Midlands Police.^[22] Brown's complaint centred that he had been receiving a series of abusive anonymous emails which he incorrectly attributed to Walker with forensic analysis of IT equipment and seized items proving this in December 2023. The case against Walker was formally disposed of due to the Crown Prosecution Service being unable to form a coherent prosecution case and offering no evidence following a number of failures to comply with judge's directions at previous case management hearings. Walker stated that there was no evidence and intended to pursue all parties for malicious prosecution and tortious interference.^[23]

Walker's Way

Source:^[24]

During the failed prosecution of Walker, dissatisfied at the performance of West Midlands Police and failure of investigation, assembled a private investigation team consisting of former Police Officers, Special Branch detectives and intelligence agency operatives to formulate a comprehensive defence rebuttal to Brown's accusations. Deputy Chief Joanne Bowcock falsely claiming to have a law degree from Liverpool University^[25] obtained a covert recording of a Fire Authority meeting including the endorsement of dishonesty by Vice Chair Councillor Catherine Miks.^[26] and uncovered that Brown himself had falsely claimed to have a Level 7 Diploma in Leadership and Management and to have been Assistant Commissioner for Operations and Policy in the London Fire Brigade on various platforms such as the Black Talent Talks podcast in addition to a falsely claimed professional football career with Charlton Athletic.^[27] Several newspapers cited the UK Supreme Court case of R v Andrewes^[28] speculating Brown could have been facing prosecution and a lengthy custodial sentence.

Following Brown's suicide in January 2024, Walker was issued with an "Osman Notice"^[29] due to credible threats made to his life intercepted by West Midlands Police. The Coroner's Inquest into the death of Wayne Brown atrributed no blame to Walker, but did issue West Midlands Fire Service with a "prevention of further deaths notice"^[30] which was highly critical of the lack of support provided by the West Midlands Fire Service and the unprofessional nature of the internal investigations into Mr Brown both pre and post-mortem.

Walker has publicly called for transparency into the wider circumstances of Wayne Brown's death,^[31] particularly the claims made by former Chief Executive Colonel Oliver Lee on Linkedin^[32] that two female staff in West Midlands Fire Service had reported sexual misconduct by Wayne Brown, with one reported as being referred to West Midlands Police who confirmed to press a complaint had been made posthumously and could not be effectively investigated.

Walker is reported to have formulated a £7.2 million pounds damages claim against involved parties^[33] claiming that his business has been adversely affected, right to a private and family life encroached on, unlawful charging, malicious prosecution and conspiracy to pervert justice.

Accolades

In 2014, Walker received the Godiva Award for outstanding achievement in Institution of Fire Engineers examinations^[34][35]

Walker was shortlisted for Fire magazine's Excellence in Fire and Emergency Awards in 2017 for Training Provider of the Year, the only individual to be rather than any organisation, and with Shan Raffel and Michael Benge for "International Best Practise".^[36]

Walker is regarded as an innovative and effective teacher of Firefighters with noted ability to explain complex concepts in simple terms. At present his books have been translated into Arabic, Chinese, Farsi, French, Korean, Spanish.

It is rumoured, though unsupported, that Walker was nominated for and declined a Queen's Fire Service Medal.^[37] He is not believed to have made any public comment on the matter.

Walker is a Team GB Veterans Judo international^[38] in the middleweight categories of under 81 and under 90 kilogrammes, a British Judo Association competitive 2nd Dan fighting out of Wolverhampton.^[39]

Books

Compartment Firefighting Series by Ben Walker with Shan Raffel

• Fire Dynamics for Firefighters (Pavilion Media, 2016), ISBN 9781911028321
• Reading Fire (Pavilion Media, 2017), ISBN 9781911028734
• Fighting Fire (Pavilion Media, 2017) ISBN 9781911028741

Other books

• The Fireman (Ignis Global, 2018), ISBN 9781912419227