H2M Architects + Engineers Commitment to Life Safety

Melville, NY (March 27, 2017) – H2M architects + engineers announces the expansion of their Life Safety and Fire Protection Engineering group. In response to the firm’s growing need for in-house expertise Kelly Finzel will lead the group which is based in H2M’s Headquarters in Long Island.

The tragic events of September 11, 2001 influenced Kelly to pursue a career in fire protection engineering and motivated her to transform a destructive event into a lifelong. She first learned of the fire protection and life safety engineering career path through her college professors that were involved in post-9/11 investigations and decided to dedicate her career to help prevent the loss of life in fire tragedies.

“Fire protection plays a crucial role in building design. Having a Fire Protection Engineer involved in the incipient project stages and critical decision making process through building design and construction offers a holistic life safety approach that is woven into a building’s fabric,” Kelly explains.

Kelly’s driving force is life safety. She urges clients and colleagues alike to evaluate building life safety from a comprehensive perspective. This approach includes not only building systems, such as sprinklers and fire alarms, but also building code design, means of egress and risk analysis. Understanding the breadth and depth of the life safety needs of a project brings enormous value to H2M’s projects and benefits our clients.

Kelly explains, “Understanding the dynamics and chemistry of fires, how they grow and different types of fires based on the hazard helps inform on the specific approach needed for a project or client.”

While Kelly’s passion about her profession is clear, her favorite part about her career is being in a team environment. She enjoys interacting with her colleagues and working toward a common goal. “Working in a team means we’re able to collaborate with everyone from seasoned company principals to new graduates. The broad range of our staff’s professional experience and project perspective is truly remarkable,” added Kelly.

Kelly is a licensed Professional Engineer with a Masters’ of Science in Fire Protection Engineering. With 10 years of experience her background has extensive background in design and consulting for various building types, ranging from government installations to historic preservation projects to higher education STEM buildings. Kelly is passionate about the importance of life safety and is dedicated to showing the world that there is much more to fire protection engineering then water-based suppression and sprinkler systems.

Kelly is at an exciting point in her career where she can lend her expertise to build H2M’s fire protection and life safety engineering practice. She enjoys sharing her knowledge in this field and embraces being a key initial component in the design process for H2M projects. Kelly’s love for the field and hard work has everyone excited about the future of fire protection and life safety engineering at H2M.

Outside of work, Kelly is focused on family and friends. Kelly, her husband, and her son are avid soccer fans and season ticketholders for NYC Football Club. They also enjoy tackling home renovation projects. Originally from upstate New York, Kelly is grateful for the friendly H2M culture, where many coworkers have become friends.