FIRE SAFETY
fire damper testing and maintenance, and a good contractor will be able to navigate it all with you. A useful summary is given in IHEEM’s own Technical Guidance No 3: Maintenance, fire/smoke dampers3
issued
by the Fire Safety Technical Platform. It broadly summarises the guidance on maintenance and testing provided in the HTM series, but does assume that access to the fire dampers is available, which is all too often not the case. There are three basic types of
fire damper: fusible link, electrically operated, and intumescent. Intumescent fire dampers are rarely seen in NHS estates, and are not covered by the IHEEM Technical Guide (the latest BESA document, VH001, updated in May 2022, does call for their inspection, and, if necessary, cleaning or replacement). Fusible link, spring-operated dampers
operate when a fusible link is heated to its operating temperature (usually 72 °C), allowing a spring (or in some cases gravity) to close the fire damper. They provide a barrier to fire, but will have limited control over smoke spread. Good maintenance and testing require that they are visually seen to close, and are then manually reset, with system pressure rebalanced as necessary.
Electrically operated dampers Electrically operated dampers are generally held open by an electrical actuator, and shut when triggered by the fire alarm and/or an in-duct smoke/heat detector. They usually provide a barrier to both fire and smoke. They can usually be operated remotely, and end switches (limit switches) can provide information on whether a damper is closed or open, but not if it is clogged with dirt or failing to close completely. It is not sufficient to check that a light goes on and off at the panel. Nor is it acceptable to test a ‘representative sample’ of these fire dampers. Legislation and standards require
that every fire damper must be seen to operate, and seen to be clean and clear of obstruction. The only way to achieve this is
With fire dampers, ‘out of sight’ should definitely not be ‘out of mind’.
is now another guiding principle for healthcare ventilation. It is logical that precisely located and easily accessed fire dampers will be far less labour-intensive to check and clean than ones lurking in miles of inaccessible ducting. Similarly, after the first inspection, which may result in remedial work, regular annual inspections should become routine. At the same time, the new access doors double as points of access for general duct cleaning and inspection. Additionally, providing access will also
through a survey and comprehensive asset register, to determine what equipment is in place and where, and a commitment to installing adequate access hatches once and for all. Back in 2017, when Sir Robert Naylor’s
review of NHS property and estates brought the colossal NHS estates maintenance backlog into the public eye, 18% of NHS properties pre-dated the formation of the NHS, and 43% were already over 30 years’ old. In addition, most builds or refurbishments were commissioned before the implementation of the revised HTM 03-01 Part A, and its strong advice on designing in ease of maintenance. This fire damper access issue isn’t just going to ‘work its way through the system’ through rolling maintenance and refurbishment programmes. It’s a nettle that needs to be grasped. In older premises, and, disappointingly, some not so old where designers might have known better, the only safe and compliant option is expenditure on capital improvement to ventilation equipment to provide the access needed to mitigate known risk. The 2017 Naylor Report also commented that ‘There is no traditional business case to justify investment in backlog maintenance’. We beg to differ. Good maintenance is not only a prerequisite for meeting the core NHS principle of providing a safe environment for care, but can also extend equipment life and boost energy efficiency, which
make HTM 03 compliance more cost- effective across the board – by providing easy and quick access for contractors. An investment in getting the infrastructure right should be able to pay for itself over the medium to long term. All these arguments aside, the simple
bottom line, as the 2014 Estates and Facilities Alert said, is that failing to facilitate compliance by providing access hatches results in the organisation responsible for the building potentially being in contravention of Article 17 of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, thereby putting patients, visitors, and staff, at risk in the event of a fire. The catch is that installing access hatches carries a capital cost. The challenge for Trusts is to break down the budget barriers between capital and operational expenditure so they can meet their operational responsibilities for fire damper inspection and testing of essential safety equipment.
Taking a risk-based approach Given budgetary constraints, it is not surprising that Trusts may take a risk- based approach to allocating precious financial resources. However, once the risk assessment has identified an issue, then we, as external ventilation system compliance specialists, have a duty of care to report that back to the client and record it. The ball is then in the Trust’s court, but we cannot stress too much that just adding something to the risk register is an interim acknowledgement of a real problem, not a solution. There needs to
The Automatic Healthcare Choice
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November 2022 Health Estate Journal 65
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