A tribute to John McCann

John Mccann

1956 - 2022

It was with great sadness that BAFSA learned of the sudden passing of their Chairman John McCann on August 23rd, 2022, in Ballycastle, Northern Ireland.

John is survived by his sister Mary and brother-in-law Mickey. John’s funeral took place in St Patrick’s and St Brigid’s Church in Ballycastle on 1st September 2022 and was attended by many friends and colleagues from the sprinkler industry in both the UK and Northern Ireland where John started his sprinkler career at the age of sixteen.

John had retired from Vipond Fire Protection Ltd only weeks before his passing and sadly never fully realised his dream of retiring fully to Ballycastle in Northeran Ireland and completing the circle of going back to where he started in the 1970’s. After working in Northern Ireland, John had moved to Canada and started with Vipond International where he remained for a few years, before moving to Scotland in 1998 to lead the purchase of A&A Fire, this was followed by the purchase of another sprinkler company in Ireland and in 2000 the businesses were renamed Vipond Fire Protection.

At that time the business employed just over fifty full time staff and had a turnover of a few million pounds. John took the turnover to over twenty million pounds and employing one hundred and twenty staff and indirectly another forty.

It was the training of new employees and providing work in the local area that gave John the most pleasure in the industry. He was also able to spot emerging talent in the industry and assisted many people to further their careers in sprinklers. John became the Chairman of BAFSA in 2015, and from the very start he had two main aims, to ensure it remained financially secure and to deliver more training to its Members. I was delighted that John gave me the opportunity to take this forward and we now have a successful training programme, and the Association is on a firm financial footing.

In my last conversation with John, he was telling me how much he had enjoyed touring the Highlands of Scotland with his sister and brother-in-law and now he was settling into living in Ballycastle, however he said he would have to buy a dog as everyone he met seemed to be walking their dogs and he felt a bit out of it. Sadly, John never got his dog, Rest in Peace John McCann.

Keith MacGillivray, Chief Executive BAFSA