About Halt Fire

Halt Fire is a fire engineering consultancy based in regional Victoria, working with clients across Victoria and nationally. Bill co-founded Halt Fire on one principle: clients deserve direct access to the engineer doing the work, at whatever stage their project needs it.

Every engagement is handled personally by Bill. No handoffs, no waiting for someone else to get back to you.


About Bill Gleeson
Fire Safety Engineer
PE, AIFireE, BSc, GradDipFSE

A fire engineering decision made at the wrong time, or with the wrong advice, can stall a project for months. Budget overruns, reputational damage with your own client, and months of regulatory back-and-forth are often the result. Bill has seen this from every angle and will give you a straight answer.

Bill spent 12 years as a Firefighter with the Northern Territory Fire and Rescue Service. He has responded to burning homes and vehicles, and rescued people from fire. He has seen firsthand what fire costs to buildings and to the people inside them. Very few fire engineers carry that experience into their work. It makes him uniquely risk aware, not risk averse, but precise about where risk is real and where it isn't.

Bill has also worked with the CFA and lives on rural land outside Bendigo. He understands bushfire risk the way regional clients do — not as a regulatory exercise, but as a lived reality.

Formerly the Fire Engineer for the Northern Territory Government, Bill has worked both sides of the process, reviewing performance solutions as an authority before delivering them as a registered senior fire engineer across Australia.

Bill knows firsthand how much is at stake when fire compliance becomes a prolonged problem. He has worked closely with building owners and managers over months, sometimes years, navigating expensive and drawn-out regulatory processes towards resolution. He has taken calls from clients in genuine distress, facing costs they didn't anticipate and obligations they struggled to understand, with their livelihoods on the line.

That experience shapes how Halt Fire operates. Clear advice, consistent communication, and practical guidance through every layer of the process. Not just the technical answer, but the support to understand it, act on it, and move forward.

Qualifications & registration

  • Bachelor of Science (Computer Science)

  • Graduate Diploma in Fire Safety

  • Registered Fire Safety Engineer — Victoria and New South Wales

  • Associate Member - Institute of Fire Engineers (IFE)

Recognition

  • AFAC Knowledge and Innovation Award, 2015

  • Fire Fighter of the Year, 2015

  • Best All-Round Recruit (peer and trainer voted), 2007

Experience across

  • Warehousing

  • Defence

  • Education

  • Health and hospitals

  • Commercial

  • Residential Aged Care Facilities

  • BESS (Battery Energy Storage Systems)

  • ESMs (Essential Safety Measures)

Specialist areas

  • Performance solutions and peer review

  • Owners’ corporation and cladding fire safety

  • Heritage-listed buildings

  • EV’s and lithium battery fire safety

  • Building fire safety remediation

  • Bushfire planning and preparedness

  • Expert witness services