About Us

H3O Safety Ltd is the fusion of a broad group of safety specialists and contractors headed-up by 3 Principal Directors, Bob Barker, Hamish Harper and Chris Jackson who have been working and training with each other over numerous years in a variety of arenas.

It struck us that on the vast majority of projects on which we were working that the client was often communicating with anything up to a dozen different contractors as well as their own vast crews and casts, with nobody specifically briefing or directing or coordinating the resources in the direction of what was trying to be achieved.

We were frustrated by having to work for unscrupulous and shoddy contractors who relied on our individual experience and training to get the job done, with no emphasis or regard for individual or team safety and with no original ideas, conceptual planning or investment in specialist equipment.

To add to this, there was no training for any of the outside-the-box projects which we were expected to be rigging or providing safety cover for. What we were often expected to achieve, would need to be a fusion of skills with each team member a master of an individual role, but with a skilled competency in many other areas as well.

After many meetings and wish-lists were created, we examined the initial concept further, finally developing a training schedule that would bring divers, medics, riggers, swift water rescue teams and other skilled specialists into one mindset and one elite unit, all singing from one hymn sheet and all working together as one team.

And thus H3O was born...

Why the name “H3O Safety Ltd” ?

H3O was chosen to represent the 3 safety professionals who started the company, with a reference to water (H2O) and our 3 elemental ties to the aquatic world as divers, rope access and medics (That and H2O Safety had already gone).

For those after the green Trivial Pursuit cheese:

H3O or Hydronium is the cation that forms from water in the presence of hydrogen ions. These hydrons do not exist in a free state: they are extremely reactive and are solvated by water. An acid is generally the source of these hydrons; however, since water can behave as both an acid and a base, hydroniums exist even in pure water. This special case of water reacting with water to produce hydronium (and hydroxide) ions is commonly known as the self-ionization of water.

This struck a note with us as being more than just about water as people know it.

We identified with the behaviour of hydronium (H3O), the existence in water and the concept of water reacting with itself.

This new perspective was what we were looking for to highlight water being taken for granted, the complexity of water as a medium to work with and in, suggesting hidden depths or dangers and to reference the additional elements which we bring to our services.