Fire Prevention

Hi all I'm looking for advice and or information to evidence on any stipulations on timeframes that a fire alarm call point can be activated and the delay between that activation and the full system activation especially with monitored systems. Is there any UK guidance on acceptable delay timeframes such as this? Scenario is a special school where the students are activating call points multiple times a day in the worst cases. School has tried covers\screamers etc but that actually made the situation worse. I know some of our Care homes \ Day centres have key operated call points, but this school is quite big with over 80 staff and I think their worry is the amo…

My work is mostly related to compliance issues within the hospitality industry. I note the increasing number of venues, especially private member’s clubs, that are are installing lifts to assist those with limited mobility to access facilities on upper floors. That has to be a good thing but it cannot be done without careful consideration of how these folk can be safely evacuated in the event of fire. I have one such example where the new lift serves two floors above ground in a relatively large social club. The lift is a standard slow moving contraption within a protected shaft with no stairs and simply discharges into the room space via a lobby. The protected stair…

Hi I live in a 2 bedroomed flat, and I have decided to buy at least 1 fire extinguisher, possibly 2, though I do not know what types are most suitable i.e. foam, liquid etc. My kitchen has a gas boiler and gas hob in it, apart from that there are no other heat appliances elsewhere in the flat, except radiators. Can anyone advise what will be most suitable type(s) of fire extinguisher to buy for my flat? Thanks in advance. Michael

In the RRO quite a few of the regulations are prefixed with the words Where Necessary. (as my subject) But not sure how this is implemented, as the first one states 14.—(1) Where necessary in order to safeguard the safety of relevant persons, the responsible person must ensure that routes to emergency exits from premises and the exits themselves are kept clear at all times. But does the prefix go along with all following regulations, as this wouldn't make sense, so (d) emergency doors must open in the direction of escape; this shouldn't be "where necessary" surely this is a must i would think, and similar applies to others in the category. Like the below. g…

Hi, Im interested in getting into fire door installation and maintenance and was wondering about suitable training that is widely recognised by future customers. I was looking at BmTrada courses and the fdis diploma (which I am aware isn’t installation based). Would I be on the right track with these two avenues? Any advice greatly appreciated.

A landlord has been advised by their chartered surveyors to instal Internal fire doors into 1 bed high rise flats, as the travel distance to front door is 10.4m. Personally, I believe it not reasonably practicable to bring the block up to current benchmark standards, and a needless expense to leaseholders. Account should be taken of the addition of smoke detection and good standard of compartmentation. But that’s just me. Views please My question about the doors. Are newly fitted internal fire doors to be included in the ‘best endeavour’ annual checks like all flat front doors, under the new regs (Fire door regulation 10). Is it not necessary, or has thi…

Hi All, A local pottery uses a domestic building to fire the kilns to make pottery. no one lives in the building ,the kilns are contained in a separate area and has natural venting only. these are left on at night as the process takes 8-12 hours depending on what’s being produced. there is a store area upstairs and the owner can be above the area where kilns operate. there is no fire door separation to upstairs or no linked detection. The only risk is during the day when the owner can be upstairs whilst kilns are on downstairs and wouldn’t have any early detection of a fire downstairs. This is a business with 1 person operating in an emp…

Apologies if this has been raised before... I am specifying scatter cushions for a commercial interior (hotels and care homes) and I need to make sure they comply with the latest regulations. Reading an overview (on this site) of the Furniture and Furnishings (Fire Safety) Regulations 1988/1989, 1993 and 2010), it states: Summary. Item 5: A display label must be fitted to every item of new furniture at the point of sale (with the exception of mattresses, bed-bases, pillows, scatter cushions, seat pads, loose covers sold separately from the furniture and stretch covers). Product ranges covered by the Regulations. Products covered by …

Hi My client has just bought this property. The previous landlord didn't appear to be doing weekly testing of the fire alarm. I am struggling to convince my landlord client that we will need to do this. He has claimed that he has been told this isn't necessary. Unfortunately the fire risk assessor did not reference the lack of testing/ onsite docs by the seller. As a second query - I have been advised that the fire alarm is linked between shop and flat stairwell but the two flats have a separate link between fire and smoke alarms. Is this sufficient? I am conscious if a fire starts in the shop/ stairwell, the flats may not hear the alarm. Thanks

Thank you for taking the time to read this, I have a customer that has a Apartment entrance with a glazed section next to the door, I am changing the door to a Fire door FD30. My question is if I re-glaze the side section with fire glass and gaskets, how legitimate is that? is it worth doing? Thanks again Jacob

I am a Landlord of a multi-occupied period property with a mix of tenants, bars, fast food, retail. My insurance company will not insure the building unless all kitchens have a suppression system installed and unfortunately because of the age of the building, this is the only company who will offer insurance. Some of my tenants will not be able to offered a suppression system. Is there a legal requirement for this and if not, why is the insurance company refusing to insure the building if not? It seems like they are not giving us any choice on the matter.

I am currently working on a scheme of 200+ oak vaneer fire doors in an apartment block. The doors are 7 years old and I need some advice on the 20 or so communal double doors. The doors have been installed with no lead-in on the doors, the slave doors are square edged with 2 x 10x4 smoke intumescent strips on the leading edge. On the active master door at present on one side the gaps are around 3-4mm but on the other side the are 5-7mm. Making the gaps 4mm max on both sides won’t work because the doors simply won’t shut. Do you think it would be acceptable to fix a timber stop on the slave door to make it rebated? This would get rid of the excessive gaps. …

Does anyone know what the difference is between BS7177:1996 and BS7177:2008 when it comes to safety of beds and mattresses please? Thanks

Hello, I have a question about bonding and grounding of nonconductive containers. At my job we have a poly drum that we use for bulking flammable lab solvents. The solvent mix contains a small amount of strong acids so we've had to switch from metal to poly drums, and I am not sure what is considered adequate bonding (per OSHA, but also in practical terms). I have read an OSHA interpretation letter from 1999 that says that static charge needs to be equalized/eliminated between any two containers (including nonconductive containers such as poly drums). In this letter, they "permit" two methods: 1)metallic suction pump and draw tube 2)metallic, self-closing f…

At my work place an approved contractor (for fire wall penetrations) has installed a digi lock in to a fire door. Am I right in saying that as there has been modifications to the fire door I will need a certificate for the integrity of this door now it has has holes drilled in it.

Hi, I’m hoping someone can help. I was under the impression that in buildings taller than two stories high, service riser cupboards should have fire stopping between levels as to enable compartmentation. I’ve just just been carrying out some work in a hotel which is four stories tall and the service risers do not have any between level stopping in place. You can see all the way down the riser shaft from top to bottom. Is this not an issue? This was not picked up in previous fire risk assessments. The riser shaft is situated in a communal area of the hotel e.g. a shared corridor leading to the hotel rooms. The doors leading to the riser shaft are fd30 doors but I was …

Our buyer's lender's surveyor asked us to remove the rigid foam insulation from loft (applied by previous owners 12+ years ago) as the lender won't lend due to fire risk. The foam is directly on top of the roof tiles (with no membrane/material underneath). Been a nightmare as it took weeks for contractors to remove the residue from the loft (from cutting and scraping it off). Upon re-inspection the surveyor is still not satisfied with the removal as there is residue of the foam left (stuck to roof tiles). Can this residue still be considered fire-risk? Is the surveyor being unreasonable? Any advise please on how best to remove it if possible? Looked into dry ice blasting …

Could you please check pic and advise if the rigid foam insulation applied in year 2016 to roof is flammable? or could it be fire-rated? Its orange in colour now and buyer's surveyor has considered it a fire risk despite it being a residential house

I find a lot of labeling on fire and gas detectors, does anyone knows the acronym of it (ASH, YSH, USH, OSH)?

I live on the ground floor of a block of 6 flats which are on 2 levels. My flat opens from the front door directly onto the outside. Next to my front door on the outside is a cupboard that I use to store various bits and it also houses my meters for electric and gas. This cupboard has an old wooden door which was installed when the flats were built in 1998 and now the Housing Association which manage the block (I own my flat) have put a notice on my cupboard door saying 'Fire Door Keep Locked'. My question is: 'is this door really regarded a fire door and am I obliged to keep it locked as over the years I use it for delivery of parcels etc and never keep it locked. …

Hi, I recently saw a firestrategy drawing which had a note which said something like 'fire umbrella to be in accordance with Approved Doc B, does anyone know what a fire umbrella is in a building?

I have in the past recommended lifts in mid rise block of student accommodation with a L2 alarm system to be interfaced with the alarm so it returns to the ground floor on fire alarm activativation. It there anywhere in the guidance documents or regs back up this or it is just best practice I have picked up from somewhere?

Good morning, I would be grateful for some advice. I am in the process of replacing 9 existing doors with FD 30 Fire Doors 762mm x 1981mm and new 30mm linings but my problem is that the width of the existing 9 doors varies from 752mm to 760mm, which is only a small amount but is giving me a headache. Therefore, I need to consider trimming between 5mm-10mm off either side to accommodate the existing shortfall and 30mm lining. 1) The suppliers are stating that once you trim more than 4mm of either side then their warranty becomes invalid. Each side has a solid 35mm thick trim down each side. The other option is to increase the aperture to accommodate the…

Hi Can someone please give me advise on the picture attached. This is the construction of a flat wall in a small purpose built block of flats. This is like straw construction with a skim over the top. The flats are on a stay put policy and I’m pretty sure there needs to be 60 minutes compartmentation for a stay put in flats. Will these wall last for 60mins, or are they dangerous? Any information welcome

Hello I am working for an organisation which provides support to places of worship - such as Mosques, Gurdwaras, Temples etc. We want to arrange online train the trainer training so that our consultants (trainers) can then train people who work as staff or volunteers in places of worship to be fire marshals. Does anybody know a good body which has experience of fire safety in these types of organisation and who could provide such an online course? Many thanks Nick