Gracie Larson, Summer Placement in Edinburgh, 2026

“My summer placement at Trigon as a fire safety engineer in the Edinburgh office was an engaging and rewarding experience. My ten weeks at Trigon gave me a better understanding of the day-to-day work of an engineering consultancy and showed me the enjoyment that comes from working in a supportive, fun, and productive environment.

The placement allowed me to develop a range of technical and professional skills, including travel distance assessments, compartmentation mark-ups, external fire spread calculations, and report writing. I became more confident in presenting my work and contributing to meetings, while also improving my approach to quality assurance, time management, and knowing when to seek guidance and when to investigate a problem further myself.

I had the opportunity to work across a range of project types, including residential, office, and assembly buildings. A key part of my placement was producing a RIBA Stage 2 fire strategy for an amenity building. I enjoyed contributing to the building at an early design stage and identifying potential points of improvement from a fire safety design perspective that contributed to the wider project.

I had the opportunity to research mass timber with the support of two engineers. I produced a draft article presenting the current state of fire engineering in relation to mass timber construction. The article examines the principal challenges and opportunities with the material adoption and provides a review of the existing regulatory and guidance documents. The intended outcome of the article was to identify priorities for future developments within the UK building sector to support mass timber adoption.

One of the projects I am most proud of was developing a Python implementation of the Improved Travelling Fires Method. The method was first developed by Jamie Stern-Gottfried and Guillermo Rein and later improved by Egle Rackauskaite. Stern-Gottfried identified that a fire with uniform burning within a large enclosure would generate elevated temperatures away from the fire as well as flame temperatures directly above the fire. A travelling fire can result in elevated temperatures for longer durations than standard modelling approaches and may introduce stresses due to differential temperatures within structural members.

The people at Trigon were a significant part of my experience. The Edinburgh team were welcoming, supportive, and generous with their time, creating an environment where I felt comfortable asking questions while still being trusted with meaningful work.

I am grateful to everyone at Trigon for their patience, support, and investment in my learning. The placement has given me a much clearer understanding of fire engineering in practice and has strengthened my interest in pursuing a career in fire engineering.”