Coffman Engineers, Inc. has acquired Honolulu-based fire protection engineering firm S.S. Dannaway Associates, Inc.

SSDA is the Pacific Rim’s leading fire protection engineering firm. They bring to Coffman 14 staff members and more than 30 years of experience through offices in Honolulu and Guam. Coffman has more than 360 employees with eight office locations serving clients across the U.S. and overseas. The two firms share core markets, clients, and values in providing technical excellence and service in a positive work environment. The combined capabilities allow Coffman to provide clients with significantly bolstered fire protection capabilities as part of their diverse multidiscipline engineering services.

“I am particularly excited about the fire protection engineering growth at Coffman with the addition of Sam Dannaway and his staff,” said Dave Coffman, the founder of Coffman Engineers. “We have a great deal of respect for the successful business Sam has built, their technical capabilities, and their dominance in the Pacific Rim fire protection market. We are privileged to provide SSDA employees a great place to work, commitment to their career growth, and support for SSDA clients with the excellence in services they have come to expect.”

“All of us at S.S. Dannaway Associates are thrilled to join the Coffman team,” added Dannaway, founder and president of SSDA. “We are very excited that our fire protection group will play a key role in fulfilling the Coffman commitment to providing quality fire protection engineering throughout the United States and important International markets.”

The 14 members of SSDA became Coffman employees on May 1 and will remain in their current office location at 501 Sumner Street. SSDA founder and President Samuel Dannaway, PE, FSFPE will become vice president, fire protection technology at Coffman. He will continue to support his project commitments and the strategic companywide fire protection effort including mentoring other engineers. Other SSDA partners Robert T. Bigtas, PE and Jay T. Higashi, PE will become principals at Coffman and lead the Pacific Region fire protection group. All SSDA employees will continue to support their clients and contractual commitments with the same staff and additional multidiscipline capabilities offered by Coffman.

The addition of the SSDA staff brings Coffman’s Honolulu presence to more than 40 multidiscipline engineers and support staff and also grows the companywide fire protection engineering group to 40 professionals located across the country.