Fire Safety

Following the Grenfell tragedy, various building regulation updates and Government initiatives attempted to resolve the flammable cladding issue by outlawing combustible materials and mandating its replacement in existing buildings with non-combustible alternatives.

The External Wall Fire Review/EWS1 process was developed as a solution to this issue via a cross-industry working group consisting of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), the Building Societies Association (BSA), and UK Finance. Launched in December 2019, this process was intended to provide a framework by which mortgage lenders could be assured that the risk on their loans was suitably mitigated, unblocking the logjam and allowing homeowners to sell their properties.

Smoking remains one of the leading causes of fires, with hundreds of fires around the country caused by discarded cigarettes each year. In November 2019, The Cube in Bolton was devastated by a fire [2] now concluded to have been started by a discarded cigarette on a combustible balcony. This is, sadly, a staggeringly common occurrence with a litany of balcony fires caused by smoking materials the length and breadth of the country.

Titon has introduced the new FireSafe™ Air Brick – a non-combustible compact inlet/outlet grille suitable for new and refurbished houses and apartments. Designed with architects, mechanical engineers, contractors and local authorities in mind, the product is an upgrade of Titon’s (plastic) Q Plus High Flow Brick and can easily be built into external walls during construction.

On the 2nd April, Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick MP announced ambitious steps, initiated by the aftermath of the Grenfell Tower fire, to further reform the building safety system, with the aim of ensuring that residents are safe in their homes.
Firstly, MHCLG have published their response to the Building a Safer Future Consultation which sets out plans to reform building safety. This includes creating a new, more stringent, national Building Safety Regulator, currently being devised by the Health and Safety Executive, who will be responsible for implementing, enforcing and overseeing safety in all multi-occupied residential buildings over 18m (or 6 storeys). Importantly, the Building Safety Bill will also provide for the ability to amend the scope in the future, if deemed justified.

Testing and Maintenance of Life Safety Installations in buildings is mandatory under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order. Following the Prime Minister’s announcement at 8.30pm on 23 March 2020, it remains imperative that people living and working in the built environment are kept safe regardless of the current Covid-19 lockdown conditions. Fires still happen, emergencies do not respect crisis management.

With the age of residents at Hanover Lodge, access was becoming problematic due to the heavy self-closing fire doors. Fireco products were recommended and Freedor SmartSound was found to be the best-suited product. 

We are pleased to announce that we have been working with fire door manufacturers in order to gain Primary Test Certification on a range of Fireco products.

Fire safety has been at the forefront of discussion in social housing circles, with much of the focus being on the compartmentation of a building.