Opinion Fire Prevention
Light approach
While fi re suppression systems look certain to be used more widely in warehouses of all sizes, UKWA’s chief executive offi cer Roger Williams contends that the mandatory introduction of sprinklers at all storage buildings is not practical
I recently attended the House of Commons launch of a campaign that
“Any talk of ‘retrospective fi tting of sprinklers in warehouses’ is guaranteed to raise a warehouse operator’s blood pressure!”
22 March 2014
is being masterminded by an organisation called the Business Sprinkler Alliance (a collection of trade bodies and other groups) that has at its heart a call for the current law on sprinklers within warehouses to be reviewed. At present, only warehouses over 20,000 sq m in size legally need to have sprinklers fi tted, but there have long been demands for the mandatory installation of these devices within all new warehouses and, in some cases, for warehouse operators to be compelled to add them to existing facilities. Among the third party warehousing and logistics industry which UKWA
represents, the words ‘sprinklers in warehouses’ usually raise eyebrows and any talk of ‘retrospective fi tting of sprinklers in warehouses’ is guaranteed to
raise a warehouse operator’s blood pressure!
WATER DAMAGE
In truth, much of the historical concern expressed by our industry regarding the potentially negative effects of sprinklers is founded in myth. For example, reports of water damage from fi res in buildings with sprinklers are often exaggerated and, in the event of a fi re, it is usually only the sprinklers directly over the blaze that open while all the others stay shut. I am also told that incidents of sprinklers opening by accident are almost unheard of nowadays.
Given the Fire Service’s policy to allow warehouse fi res to extinguish naturally if the blaze does not present a threat to human life, it seems reasonable to expect more emphasis to be placed on preventing the escalation of a fi re at the design stage of all new warehouse
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developments, and suppression systems look certain to be used more widely.
That said, there are a number of practical problems that prevent the use of sprinklers in some types of warehouse and in some localities, so while UKWA welcomes any steps that seek to add protection to property and people, we will be doing our best to engage with the Business Sprinkler Alliance and other interested parties to ensure that any changes to existing regulations are sensible, practical and applied with a light hand.
www.ukwa.org.uk
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