Chris Beckman CFPS SFPE ARM

Profile

Join date: Aug 5, 2019

About

Chris has a long history in fire protection and insurance. He served his community for 20 years as a firefighter, Emergency Medical Technician, Hazardous Materials Technician . Chris held every rank available in the fire service with the last 11 years being a chief or assistant fire chief. He was a master fire service trainer and lead a multi agency training organization for several year.

In the insurance world Chris has been an HPR consultant, led technical teams at major insurance carriers and was the leader of operations and back office duties at two carriers. He has worked in the broker environment and has produced seven figure accounts for his agency. He is a licensed property and casualty insurance agent. He has earned the ARM designation for risk management expertise.

With the insurance and public agency background Chris was certified ny the NFPA as a Certified Fire Protection Specialist.

With his HPR and fire service experience Chris has a unique outlook on fire protection. Chris wanted to be a lawyer, but the Beverly Hill Supper Club fire made him switch his college studies to include fire science and law enforcement. His professional work outside of insurance includes being a paid fire marshal, handling security at a regional mall and providing security and life safety for multiple high rise buildings. In the high rise world Chris handled fire sprinkler testing, fire alarm testing, fire pump testing and upgrading and maintaining fire alarm system.

A portfolio of project work was submitted and approved for Chris to be awarded Professional Member status in the Society of Fire Protection Engineers.

Posts (12)

Apr 19, 2026 ∙ 4 min

Builders' Risk Fires - Need for different controls

The surge in large loss fires in frame construction projects is not a new event. I began discussing this type of loss in 2000 following a large fire in Ybor City. I did not learn about this from insurance sources, but from my work as a training officer in the fire department. The topic was “Conflagrations” and how they were outside the experience of most fire departments. Twenty years later this remains the case and despite paying the monetary losses, the insurance industry is also grasping...

Apr 16, 2026 ∙ 5 min

Big Box Fire Protection

The release of the report on the Plainfield, IN Wal Mart warehouse fire has brought renewed focus to the issue of how the fire service can manage extremely large buildings with high fuel loads. I spent two days with a group of firefighters at a Blue Card Big Box seminar. The focus was to understand the new strategic and risk management approach to managing these events. As a former fire chief with 40 years of experience in fire protection consulting for property insurance, I thought I would...

Jan 4, 2026 ∙ 4 min

It's Time for Residential Sprinklers

Post Flashover Residential Fire My career in fire protection began in the late 1970’s when I entered the public fire service. I went on to work in building management as a life safety director for high-rise office buildings in the 1980’s and eventually moved into the insurance industry in the mid1980’s. Fire protection has been a core part of my life for the last 50 years, and I was proud to serve my community for 20 years in the fire department. In the early 1980’s, I went door to door...