FIRE SAFETY & DISASTER RECOVERY
SAFETY CUSHION
‘Over-engineering’ to ensure comfortable levels of safety are built into the fire doors we use every day in buildings and offices might just save lives. Nigel Sill, Chairman of Enfield Speciality Doors, tells us more.
As the inquiry into the Grenfell Tower fire continues, and more harrowing stories are heard, it’s difficult to take on board the catalogue of failures that led to the tragedy in 2017.
The need to make our buildings – not just high-rise tower blocks but offices, hotels and more - safe in the wake of this disaster and others has led to a number of significant changes designed to prevent a similar tragedy. Facilities managers working on offices and mixed-use properties, in the public or commercial sector, need to ensure the highest levels of safety, and maintain it with regular inspections and repairs.
The Building Safety Bill came into force this year in reaction to the Grenfell tragedy. With a focus on high-rise buildings, it strengthens existing regulations to make sure products are safe and creates a clear framework for the design, construction and management of buildings going forward. The Code for Construction Product Information (CCPI) has also been developed to address the need for radical change for testing, information and marketing building products.
These are all fantastic strides in making our buildings safer and ensuring that we never see a repeat of what happened four years ago because being just good enough, or just safe enough, simply isn’t good enough.
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This is where over-engineering comes in. The buildings we live and work in have to have a comfortable level of fire safety, and for some, that’s just not the case.
The ongoing debate of value-engineering versus over- engineering is no more important than for offices, mixed-use buildings or commercial fit outs. In an ideal world, in the unlikely event of a fire, when everything runs smoothly, we can rely on a short window of time to
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