Fire Researcher
George Hare researches how new building materials and methods are altering fire risks.
George Hare is a Fire Researcher whose background in defence testing, mechatronics, and applied engineering gives him a systems perspective on fire safety. Buildings are complex: change the design, the materials, or the performance requirements, and the fire risk changes too. George's work is about understanding how.
George joined BRANZ's Fire Testing Team in 2016, undertaking commercially focused fire resistance testing. In 2019, he moved to the Better Buildings Research Team, where he now conducts research across fire safety topics and their impact on the New Zealand Building Code. His work spans multiple disciplines, including structural engineering, material durability, and building performance, reflecting his view that fire safety must be considered holistically, not in isolation.
His current research focuses on two areas of growing importance: lithium-ion battery fire safety and the unintended fire safety consequences of high-performance construction. As the industry pushes towards more energy-efficient and airtight buildings, fire behaviour changes – and George's work examines what those changes mean in practice.
In 2025, George completed a year-long secondment to Fire and Rescue NSW in Sydney, where he was the testing technical lead for the Safety of Alternative and Renewable Energy Technologies (SARET) project. Based at the FRNSW Londonderry Research Facility, the team tested lithium-ion batteries to destruction, from single cells to cargo-style e-bike battery packs, testing why they fail and what it takes to extinguish them. The trans-Tasman collaboration is expected to continue, as the SARET team scales up testing to include battery energy storage systems and electric vehicles.
"Change the design, the materials, or the way a building performs, and the fire risk changes too. My job is to understand how."
George Hare
Fire Researcher
Qualifications
- BSc (Hons) (Electronics & Information Technology), Sheffield Hallam University, UK
- MEng (Mechatronics, Robotics, and Automation Engineering, Additive Manufacturing), Massey University, NZ
