Moshe Shmueli, founder and CEO of Netanya-based Fire Center, agrees that the company’s name does not do justice to the wide variety of safety services and products it provides to offices, organizations, firms, and private homes in Israel. Since its founding in 1999, the family-owned Fire Center has become Israel’s one-stop shop for signage, emergency equipment, and safety equipment.
Shmueli explains that the company’s original orientation reflected his decades of professional experience in fire safety. Shmueli trained in firefighting techniques, headed the fire station at the Dimona nuclear reactor for many years, and provided fire prevention consulting services and equipment to companies in Israel’s south.
Today, Fire Center is known as one of Israel’s leading manufacturers and suppliers of signs of all types, including warning signs, directive signs, emergency exits, hazardous materials signs, accessibility signs, traffic signs, and security signs. Fire Center also produces glow-in-the-dark signage, and stickers for placement on windows and glass doors. The company creates its signs from a variety of materials, including plastic, metal, Kappa board, polypropylene, alucobond, and other materials. Fire Center prints hundreds of thousands of signs a year using modern digital printers, CNC milling machines, laser printers, and sublimation devices. The company’s sign design department provides professional services, advising customers in creating the proper wording to best convey the message to their audience.
Fire Center also manufactures evacuation diagrams and maps for hospitals, hi-tech companies, manufacturing plants, and hotels. “We have produced many evacuation maps for American companies that are based in Israel,” says Shmueli. “These companies have strict safety standards and require these types of maps. They are very important.”
In addition to producing signs and evacuation diagrams, Fire Center offers a complete line of safety and emergency equipment, including first aid kits, fire extinguishers, smoke detectors, fire hoses, masks, protective suits against chemicals and dangerous substances, traffic cones, panoramic mirrors, road speed bumps, roadblocks, illuminated safety vests, emergency water tanks for shelters, chemical toilets, panoramic masks for industrial protection that also protect against the effects of atomic, biological and chemical weapons, and much more.
Shmueli explains that the multiple solutions that Fire Center offers businesses and organizations – signage, safety equipment, and emergency equipment – distinguish it from the competition. “Most companies want to make things simple and prefer to obtain all of their solutions in one place,” he says. “All of the large organizations in Israel, such as the Defense Ministry and the Prime Minister’s Office, work with us, because it is easy to get everything from one place.”
The company employs a professional and reliable staff that serves 4,500 different customers throughout the country, including major companies, hospitals, hotels, kibbutzim, government offices, high-tech installations, and more. Fire Center is known for its courteous and speedy service, and most orders arrive overnight via Israeli post.
Moshe Shmueli was born in Baghdad in 1939 and came to Israel at age 11 with his family. He grew up in Kibbutz Hama’apil near Hadera and joined the IDF paratrooper unit in 1957. After completing his military service, he was recruited by the Defense Ministry and headed the fire station at the Dimona Nuclear Reactor. In 1970, Shmueli served among the military guards that protected David Ben Gurion in his home in Sdeh Boker. In 1971, Shmueli founded Yaron Plast, the first company in the world that manufactured children’s playground facilities made of fiberglass. His brother, Yitzchak Shmueli, the painter and sculptor from Ein Hod, planned and designed the playground facilities.
Shmueli remains the active and energetic head of Fire Center, accompanied by an outstanding team of employees. Visit firecenter.co.il for a complete listing of its available products.
For more information: Fire Center
This article was written in cooperation with Fire Center