[ Spotlight: Ener[ Update: Fire safety
gy efficiency ]
the standard for anyone undertaking fire risk assessment for properties. However, it comes with legal guidelines and responsibilities, in light of the fact that the industry has too often faced prosecutions for poorly undertaken assessments.
Effectiveness At the Lakanal House inquest, the evidence focused on active and passive fire safety equipment and the fire service assumption of their effectiveness that triggered the fatal ‘stay-put’ principle. Jurors found that the six deaths could have been
avoided if those trapped had left their flats in good time. Instead, fire brigade operators instructed them to ‘stay-put’, under the clear belief that firefighters were on their way to rescue them and that the ‘passive’ fire safety of the building would protect them. This advice was based on the assumption that
BURNING ISSUES
Following the inquest into tragic fire deaths at Lakanal House in London in 2009, ELECSA’s WILLLLOYD examines the new BAFE SP205 scheme and how it might have prevented such a tragedy
T
he BAFE SP205 fire risk assessment scheme, launched in May 2012, came too late to save the lives of six people who died at Lakanal House in Camberwell, London, as a consequence,
in part, of a lack of fire risk communication. Following the recent inquest into the tragedy –
England’s worst high-rise residential fire – letters to the government from the coroner supported the work of the Fire Risk Assessment Competency Council and its introduction of Competency Criteria for Fire Risk Assessors and A guide to choosing a Competent Fire Risk Assessor. BAFE SP205 has both of these documents at its
core, enabling those carrying out fire risk assessments to prove their competence. The scheme ensures that both passive and active fire safety equipment is installed correctly, is signed off by an approved third party and represents the new badge of competence for the fire industry. The fire risk assessment market is currently valued at more than £1bn and SP205 will rapidly become
In theory, a fire could be tackled without a resident having to leave a nearby flat
About the author
Will Lloyd is ELECSA’s fire safety technical manager.
those measures designed to slow the spread of a fire had been checked by the local authority after renovation work. If SP205 procedures had been in place at the time, there would have been adequate monitoring of the fire risk, ratified by a third-party certification body. The coroner has written to the Communities and
Local Government Secretary, Eric Pickles, asking his department to publish consolidated national guidance on the ‘stay-put’ principle, and specifically its relation to the ‘get-out-and-stay-out’ policy. The coroner has asked that guidance be
disseminated, citing ‘insufficient clarity’ about advice given to residents of high-rise buildings in the event of a fire.
Assessments The stay-put principle relies on the idea that a flat should have sufficient passive fire protection measures to contain a fire for at least 60 minutes. People are sometimes encouraged to stay in their flats so as not to impede firefighters tackling the fire. In theory, a fire could be tackled without a resident having to leave a nearby flat, but failures in the ‘compartmentalisation’ of the flat where the fire broke out led to the fire spreading more rapidly than expected.
BAFE SP205 is a way of making sure that those
asking for fire risk assessments for their property receive one that is suitable and sufficient. It also requires passive and active fire safety equipment to be accountable, and that regular checks and a robust paper trail are in place to support the safety of those living and working in multi-occupancy properties.
For more information
n To find out more about the BAFE SP205 scheme run by ELECSA, visit its website at
www.elecsa.co.uk
June 2013 ECA Today 27
GETTY / AFP
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