From Backpacker to Fire Safety Expert
The Story of Christina Knorr
In Far North Queensland, one woman is redefining fire safety, construction compliance, and entrepreneurial grit. Christina Knorr, founder and managing director of CJK Fire & Safety (CJK), is more than a nationally accredited and chartered fire safety engineer and expert witness —she’s also a mother, mentor, public speaker and an innovator, shaping the future of fire safety education.
From Backpacker to Business Owner
Christina’s Australian journey began in 2008, when she arrived as a backpacker from Germany and fell in love with the country. Travelling with her husband to be, they had all their belongings stolen from their campervan. Forced to rethink their plans, Christina turned adversity into opportunity. She pursued a Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering with First Class Honours and began working as an engineer in Sydney.
As fate would have it, she was asked to work on some fire safety engineering projects. She went on to earn a Master of Fire Safety Engineering with Distinction, gaining the experience and expertise that would later allow her to launch her own consultancy in Cairns in 2018. Today, CJK Fire & Safety is the only fire safety engineering consultancy based in Far North Queensland.
Building a Business from the Ground Up
As an engineer-turned-entrepreneur, Christina navigated the complexities of running a business with resilience and resourcefulness – learning everything from accounting to marketing, while building a reputation for practical, cost-effective solutions.
When Christina launched CJK, her services were completely unknown to the local market. In addition to that, local builders, certifiers and architects treated Fire Engineering as something too complicated, expensive and unnecessary. Christina managed to overcome the scepticism of one particular building certifier who claimed it was too expensive and that the local Fire Brigade would not accept the proposed ideas. However, her fee proposal was accepted and the solution was endorsed by the Fire Brigade. This success story opened up a new chapter for CJK and work began flowing in.
For the first time, the industry had a local company that would not cast them off as low priority and someone who actually wanted to work with them and find customised, cost-effective solutions. Designs that were deemed non-compliant could now be implemented, and architects could develop more sophisticated designs while utilising Christina’s expertise to incorporate new ideas and products.
Expanding Horizons: CJK Fire & Safety Education
Around the same time that CJK was gaining traction, the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Before the pandemic, Christina frequently flew interstate to meet with clients. With travel halted, she adapted quickly to find new and innovative ways to continue her business.
This led to the creation of CJK Fire & Safety Education, the educational branch of the businessm, offering fire safety training and resources for professionals in the construction and legal sectors, as well as the general public. To raise awareness of fire safety, Christina speaks and presents at conferences and webinars across the country and beyond, including at DesignBuild, SydneyBuild, QBCC, multiple universities, Fire Australia, Fire New Zealand, and Engineers Australia events.
Her slogan, “We don’t know how much we don’t know,” perfectly captures her mission to empower people through education.
A Relentless Pursuit of Excellence
Christina’s commitment to excellence doesn’t stop at delivering solutions. She stays ahead of regulatory and legislative changes, ensuring her clients receive timely and accurate advice.
From urgent fire engineering reports needed overnight to enable tenancy openings, to complex combustible cladding assessments to heritage redevelopments requiring a customised approach, her expertise has built a loyal client base. The word spread and her reputation grew.
Christina’s experience, coupled with her attention to detail and ability to explain technical matters succinctly and efficiently, led to her also becoming a much sought-after expert witness. She has been retained by developers, builders, body corporates, certifiers, fire safety engineers, product manufacturers, insurance companies, government bodies and facade consultants. The matters involve disputes over life and safety building defects, combustible cladding, post-fire investigations, consultants’ liability, risk analysis and product suitability and performance.
Not stopping there, Christina has also trained as a Mediator and Expert Determiner, expanding her ability to support dispute resolution in technical and legal matters.
The Balancing Act of Motherhood and Entrepreneurship
Juggling a growing business and the demands of motherhood is no small feat—especially without family support nearby. But Christina’s dedication was unwavering. In fact, she was inspecting ceiling spaces while 38 weeks pregnant and writing reports just two days postpartum! Her passion for her work and commitment to her clients truly set her apart.
Driven by Passion and Purpose
Christina’s story is one of discipline, dedication, adaptability and relentless motivation. From a backpacker to business owner, from engineer to entrepreneur to expert, she exemplifies what it means to be driven by purpose. Through CJK Fire & Safety and CJK Fire & Safety Education, she’s not just protecting buildings—she’s building a safer, smarter future for everyone.
Select from Christina’s services below:
Expert Witness
Mediation
Fire Safety Engineering
Fire Safety Training