Meet the Team
Fire Consultants
Mike Ablitt F.I.Fire.E FellowIFSM P-Grad CMS Dip RSA Dip-FSS MIFPO
Mike served as the head of Fire Safety for Shropshire Fire & Rescue Service until his retirement in 2010.
He has an extensive field of experience including; Operational Command, Training, Fire Investigation, Hazardous Substances, Project Management, Fire Safety and Strategic Management.
Mike Chaired the West Midlands Fire Safety Group of the Chief Fire Officers Association.
Mike holds Fellowships with the Institution of Fire Engineers and the Institute of Fire Safety Managers, he is a Member of the Institute of Fire Prevention Officers and holds Higher National Diplomas in Management Studies and Fire Safety Engineering. Mike is an accredited ‘Fire Risk Assessor’ with the IFE. He has considerable health & Safety experience and is NEBOSH qualified.
Upon his retirement, Mike formed Unicorn Fire & Safety Solutions Ltd. He provides Fire Risk Assessments and Training.
Dave Bartlett. FellowIFSM M.I.Fire.E.
Dave served with Shropshire Fire & Rescue Service for 30 years gaining extensive Operational Command and Fire Safety Experience.
He graduated at the Fire Service College as a ‘Fire Safety Officer’ after which he managed Shropshire’s Fire Safety Inspection Team.
Dave has been awarded Fellowship status of the Institute of Fire Safety Managers and serves on the IFSM Council. He also holds Membership of the Institution of Fire Engineers. Dave is an Accredited Fire Risk Assessor and a Senior Consultant with Unicorn Fire & Safety Solutions ltd and something of an expert in large complex commercial buildings, Care homes, Hotels and Guest houses and places of worship.
John Griffiths. G.I.Fire.E
John served with Shropshire Fire & Rescue Service for 27 years gaining extensive Fire Safety, Operational Command, Fire Investigation, and Management experience.
He graduated at the Fire Service College as a Fire Safety Officer and served with the Brigades Inspection team going on to become one of the Brigades senior Inspecting Officers and the Brigades Fire Safety Performance Manager. John led the Brigades efforts to become the only UK Brigade to achieve ISO 9001 status for its Fire Safety Inspection Department.
John is a qualified Fire Risk Assessor and a Graduate of the Institute of Fire Engineers (IFE).
John has extensive experience in Fire Safety for Care and Nursing Homes. As well as fire consultancy services, John is also ne of our highly experienced training instructors.
Tony Derricutt. G.I.Fire.E
Tony served with Shropshire Fire & Rescue Service for 30 years gaining extensive Operational Command, Fire Investigation, Training, Fire Safety and Management experience.
He graduated at the Fire Service College as a Fire Safety Officer after which he served with Shropshire’s Fire Safety Inspection team as the Brigades Principal Consultant with the Planning and Building Control Departments for Shropshire and Telford & Wrekin’s Councils.
Tony has been awarded Graduate status of the Institute of Fire Engineers and is our Historic Buildings expert.
Extinguisher Engineers
Lindsay Fox
Lindsay is one of Unicorns Fire Extinguisher team. She is one of a handful of female extinguisher engineers working in the UK. Lindsay spent many years as a manager in retail and uses her skills to ensure clients get first-class customer service.
She is BAFE qualified in the inspection, servicing and maintenance of all portable fire extinguishers.
Mac Harris
Mac is our other Fire Extinguisher Engineer. Formerly an Operational Firefighter and Watch Manager with Shropshire Fire & Rescue Service, Mac has a vast experience in Incident Command, Fire Investigation and in particular, flood defence Mac is one of the country’s leading experts advising and assisting many parts of the UK during periods of flooding.
He also lectures at the Fire Service College and as well as maintaining our clients firefighting equipment, he provides extinguisher training to their staff.
Training Team
Jon Ostrowski FdSc FdSc PHUEC Di[HE - Head of Medical & First Aid Serivces
Jon heads Unicorn Medical which provides First Aid and Medical training and event medical cover.
His career started as an Accident & Emergency Nurse. Jon became a first responder and then a Paramedic. He is now a Clinical Team Mentor training Ambulance staff and Paramedics. For the last two years running, Jon has won the Ambulance Service ‘Outstanding Mentor Award’
Jon heads our First Aid Training Team
Adrian Price - GIFE
Adrian is one of our most senior Instructors. As well as Fire Safety, Adrian delivers First Aid and Health & Safety training.
He served as an operational firefighter and as a Fire Safety Officer with the Fire Service for 30 years. Since then, he has pursued his passion for First Aid working with the Red Cross and he regularly trains operational Fire Fighters in emergency first aid, defibrillators and emergency response.
As well as First Aid training, Aidrian is one of our Fire Safety Instructors.
His background and experience enables Adrian to make the training realistic rather than ‘out of the book’.
Nicola Ablitt - BMedSc & RCN Child Branch
Nicola is our children and paediatrics expert.
She is a specialist Nurse with the Princess Royal Hospitals Special Care Baby Unit where she has built up many years of experience taking care of neonates who need intensive therapy during their early days.
Nick regularly mentors new nurses as they develop their medical skills and keeps our Instructors abreast of the latest developments in child and baby trauma care.
As with all the team, Nick is a qualified First Aider and undoubtedly one of the most patient trainers you will ever meet!
Michelle Ostrowski - BSc hons SCPHN Hv RNDipHE adult
Michelle is a qualified Adult Nurse and has many years’ experience with Shrewsbury and Telford Hospitals.
As well as being one of our trainers, she acts as a Community Nurse providing new mums and dads with advice and guidance in ensuring the medical wellbeing of their babies and children,
Michelle is a fully qualified First Aider and leads on our First Aid for Children courses.
Support Team
Jennifer Ablitt. - Administration Team Manager
Jennifer retired from her role with the National Health Service and now manages the companies back office.
She has many years’ experience in commerce, retail and the Hospital environment and is qualified in Food Hygiene.
As well as the many task involved in the day to day running of the company’s administrative base, Jenny overseas Unicorns Quality Control procedures.
Hayley Pryce. - Finance Manager
Hayley has been with Unicorn since its beginning and now manages the company’s finances.
She has a solid background in education and in particular, the problems caused by conditions such as colour blindness, Meares-Irlen syndrome and dyslexia.
Hayley played a pivotal role in restructuring our reports and training activities such that they are Reading Stress friendly.
Zak
Zak joined us in 2015 with the intention of joining our Fire Investigation service as a sniffer dog (accelerant detection). Unfortunately, Zac had other ideas and prefers the good life!
Don’t worry, we didn’t sack him, we made him ‘Head of Security’……….. Turns out he’s not very good at that either!!
