Shining the light on electrical safety

Meet Toby Lancaster, NZI’s new electrical inspector, who’s come on board with a clear and important mission: to help protect businesses against some of the leading causes of commercial electrical fires.

Dealing

with anything electrical can be frightening for some people, and for good reason. Toby Lancaster, on the other hand, discovered his passion at a young age after following in his father's footsteps into the trade.

2006 was Toby’s official start in the electrical industry. Seventeen years and one extensive hands-on career later, Toby has joined NZI to play a key role in identifying customers’ electrical hazards which are proven to be key contributors to commercial fires.

Toby is one of NZI’s new electrical experts, who are part of the wider risk consulting team. While Toby will be travelling the length of the South Island to provide electrical insurance assessments and hazard prevention information to customers, Zak Dean will look after the North Island.

“Commercial fires affect hundreds of businesses every year, and NZI has seen this first hand, with a notable increase of large loss fires within its commercial customers. Half of these are due to electrical faults, but some of these hazards can be mitigated by simply choosing a proactive approach. And that’s where I come in.”

A

role with strong purpose

If you asked Toby years ago if he ever thought about working at an insurance company, he might have wondered how his trade would even fit. This has taken a 180-degree turn.

“When I first saw the role advertised, I was fascinated at the idea of using my skills and electrical knowledge to make positive change in the world.

“I was also ready to shift the direction of my career to make a difference in electrical safety, and it’s the best decision I’ve ever made. There’s so much that can be done to help identify some of the electrical hazards that lead to fire.”

Toby and Zak's goal is to provide key insights to NZI customers, protect them from asset and property loss, and, most importantly, save lives.

“This will be an exciting year for my colleague Zak and I, as we will be out and about visiting customer’s sites, identifying their electrical fire hazards, and providing recommendations to help prevent these from happening in the first place.”

Set and forget? Think twice

Until now, Toby and Zak have been busy analysing NZI’s historic claims data, and have been able to identify some of the common electrical fire hazards by industry, as well as ways