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Presentation of the Farmers Branch Fire Department's 2015 Fire and Life Safety Excellence Award.
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BACKGROUND:
In February 2014, the Farmers Branch Fire and Life Safety Excellence Award was created to recognize a Farmers Branch building engineer who exemplifies the highest commitment to the protection of life and property by ensuring a safe work environment for citizens and emergency responders.
The building engineer is often the key liaison to the fire department in the event of building evacuations, annual fire prevention inspections, medical emergencies, and more importantly, during building construction and remodel projects.
An award nomination committee was selected, comprised of chief officers, to review an engineer's past performance. Nominees for this award were submitted to the awards nomination committee. Each nomination was well deserving of this award, as they exemplified the skills and outstanding collaborative cohesiveness with city officials and fire prevention personnel.
The Farmers Branch Fire Department is very proud to announce Mr. Ab Badre as the recipient for the 2015 "Fire and Life Safety Excellence Award".
Ab Badre is the Chief Building Engineer for Occidental Tower, located at 5005 LBJ. Mr. Badre has been in the industry for over 30 years, and participates in the Building Owners Management Association. Mr. Badre has a Bachelor degree in mechanical engineering. He currently spends about 80% of his time maintaining a Class A 24-story, 5-story parking garage, high rise building within the City of Farmers Branch. The other 20% of his time is spent mentoring building engineers outside of the building. Ab is the key to building capital improvements and the successful implementations to extend the useful life of the Building Systems. Ab oversees all building repairs and preventative maintenance to ensure minimal disruption or downtime.
The Occidental Tower building safety requirements go above and beyond any typical commercial asset safety program. Internally, all personnel working within the building must receive annual training. Ab provides oversight to ensure all contractors working in the building obtain training first. To ensure properly qualified vendors, a pre-qualification screening is completed. This requires that all vendors have agreed to the building's safety, security and health rules, building's safety rules and regulations. Ab works very closely with the Farmers Branch Fire Department, Police Department and Community Services. Ab has always gone the extra mile for the ownership in preparing highly detailed and scripted work scopes. Occidental Tower is an OSHA Certified building. Ab was heavily involved in this process.
Occidental Tower has been an Energy Star rated building since 2008. Ab has been the key to getting this rating every year. The last rating was a 94, which indicates it is better than 94% of all building s in the category. The electricity rates paid and subsequently charged to the tenants are the lowest or one of the lowest in the region. Ab's dedication to managing the Energy Management Systems, materials used, maintenance completed and attention to detail all contribute to this achievement.
Mr. Badre has promoted life safety of going above and beyond for the ownership, tenants and visitors. He coordinates annual fire and life safety training and stays in constant communication with the City of Farmers Branch Fire Department.
Ab is known throughout Occidental Tower as very accommodating with a pleasant attitude. His knowledge, experience and dedication to the owners, tenants and visitors are well received.
The Farmers Branch Fire Department recognizes Ab Badre for his diligence and commitment to the protection of life and property at Occidental Tower in the City of Farmers Branch.