Lote Notes February 2026 — Lote Consulting

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Lote Notes February 2026

Lote Notes February Edition

LOTE NOTES • FEBRUARY 2026

Lote Notes

Fire • Risk • Security • Cyber

Vol 007 • Issue 01

ANNOUNCEMENT

We’re pleased to announce that Lote has launched its official Instagram page. We’ll be sharing updates, insights, and a closer look at our work and culture.

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CEO'S MESSAGE

Our work as fire safety engineers, risk managers and security consultants is a toil of passion. In a simplified form, we are imagining the worst possible scenarios and then trying to prevent them from happening or minimising the consequential impacts if they do happen. In more technical parlance, our role is to identify all possible hazards or risks and to eliminate these where possible, or alternatively to engineer controls to minimise the likelihood or consequences of the risk, transfer the risk or accept the risk level, with operational provisions to deal with it when it manifests.

Most of the time, these worst-case scenarios never become reality. Fortunately, the efficacy of our risk management strategies has never needed to be fully tested in real-world conditions. But recent tragedies like the Bondi Terrorism attack, the Wang Fuk Court Building Fire and the Crans-Montana ski resort fire in the Swiss Alps sent shockwaves through our teams here at Lote Consulting.

Our mission is to make the world safe and secure. Disasters such as these remind us why we must be diligent, exercise a very high duty of care and always push our disciplinary boundaries to achieve more resilient safety and security outcomes.

Our hearts go out to the victims of these tragedies and their families. In the aftermath, while we unite with our communities in expressing our condolences, we must also comb through the investigative, forensic and inquiry details to work out where things went wrong and how we can help our communities and clients be better prepared against future challenges that may emerge.

We dedicate this newsletter to the victims of these tragedies and present our initial thoughts, and the immediate lessons we can draw. As always, we invite your feedback on this edition of Lote Notes and on our services more broadly; any discussion or dialogue that these articles inspire will only help us improve.

Warm regards,
Dr. Maher Magrabi
Chief Executive Officer
Lote Consulting

READING GUIDE

This edition explores critical shifts in fire engineering, security, and digital resilience following landmark incidents in 2025. Srinath Iyengar reviews the tragic Wang Fuk Court apartment fires, highlighting how disabled alarms and combustible scaffolding netting necessitate stricter oversight in Australian façade remediation. Ferguson Smyth examines the high fuel loads and lack of compartmentation in Class 7b warehouses, advocating for detection systems that exceed minimum code requirements. John Khoury details how the "stack effect" can turn high-rise stairwells and tunnels into dangerous chimneys during fire events, emphasising the need for advanced smoke control modelling.

Turning to security, Maher Magrabi and Lana Vidakovic introduce the "Bondi Protocol" following the 2025 beach attack, proposing a move toward 3D overwatch and the ALICE response framework to secure elevated "Grey Spaces". Jed Hugill analyses the shift toward low-sophistication lone-actor threats in crowded places, stressing the importance of design-led protection and public vigilance. Finally, Farjad Mahmud discusses the UK’s 2026 Cyber Security and Resilience Bill, which mandates board-level accountability and regulates digital supply chains against AI-driven threats.

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The Lote Notes Podcast

FEATURED

The Bondi Protocol

By Maher Magrabi and Lana Vidakovic

The terrorist incident occurring on December 14, 2025, during the “Chanukah by the Sea” event at Archer Park, Bondi, represents a profound shift in the Australian domestic threat landscape. The multi-modal attack that was characterised by the tactical exploitation of elevated urban high ground, resulted in 15 fatalities and over 40 injuries (Doherty et al., 2025).

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FEATURED

The Wang Fuk Court Apartment Fires: Lessons that can be applied in Australia

By Srinath Iyengar

The tragic loss of one hundred and sixty-eight (168) lives during an apartment fire in Hong Kong has brought to light vulnerabilities in building renovation, fire safety systems, regulatory oversight and emergency response protocols, including a comparison of the Australian landscape for high-rise apartments.

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FIRE / RISK

Fire Safety in Class 7b Buildings

By Ferguson Smyth

"A major distinction of Class 7b buildings compared to other classifications are the lack of fire compartments present. Typically, warehouses comprise of one large open space, only separated by fire rated construction between the inside and outside. Since fire compartmentation provides protection to occupants in rooms fire separated from the fire, the lack of compartmentation creates a risk to all occupants inside the building."

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FIRE / RISK

Stack Effect: How we can use it to our advantage

By John Khoury

"Stack effect has been used intentionally throughout human history, often in tandem with other natural phenomena. Some very famous examples are found in modern day Iran, where the areas in the centre of the country are primarily hot desert landscapes.

Specifically, two systems will be discussed here: windcatchers (Badgir) and ice pits (Yakhchal). Both windcatchers and yakhchals rely on the stack effect, evaporative cooling and thermal mass, to function."

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SECURITY / CYBER

Pre-Attack Behaviour and Suspicious Activity in Crowded Places

By Jed Hugill

"The attack planning cycle generally progresses through observable and behaviour-based stages that create important opportunities for early detection and intervention. When these signals are missed, an offender is more likely to advance along the mobilisation pathway without scrutiny, increasing the chance of an attack being carried out with limited or no warning."

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SECURITY / CYBER

The 2026 Resilience Shift: Navigating the UK''s New Cyber Mandates

By Farjad Mahmud

"By shifting the national strategy from passive defence to active resilience, the UK government has fundamentally redefined the legal obligations of the private and public sectors alike (UK Parliament, 2025). This transition is not merely a bureaucratic update; it is a direct response to a global threat landscape that has become increasingly hostile and expensive."

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Lote Consulting • www.loteconsulting.com • +61 1300 761 744

Making the world safe and secure