FIRE SAFETY
Toasters left on too long, or in faulty condition, are a common cause of ‘false fire alarms’ in hospitals.
standards. These standards will be implemented by mandating third-party assessment for individuals and companies involved in the construction of buildings covered by the Building Safety Act, which includes hospitals and care homes while they are being designed and built. The report positions the new
competence frameworks being implemented for higher-risk buildings as a ‘starter for ten’ for the whole of the built environment, and foresees a ‘trickle-down effect’ which would see an improvement in safety standards across the whole sector, and a concomitant change of industry culture. This may or may not be a realistic aspiration, as changing the culture of an organisation is one of the most difficult organisational changes to achieve. Charles Handy’s framework of organisational culture types8
describes
four organisational types – power, role, task, and person-centred. The construction industry is an amalgam of all of these organisational types, as Table 1 shows. The ultimate goal of this new set of
standards is to ensure that all those people whose work on higher-risk buildings is likely to materially affect safety outcomes, or who work unsupervised on these types of buildings, should have the skills, knowledge, experience, and behaviours set out in these competence frameworks. In the first instance this requires the co-operation and engagement of fire engineering professionals, and all the industries and individuals involved in fire risk management, which includes Authorising Engineers for Fire Safety.
‘‘
A Dorgard sound-activated door close device.
Firecode Suite HTM 05-01, HTM 05-02, and HTM 05-039 The guidance provided in the Health Technical Memorandum 05 series of standards is known as the Firecode suite. HTM 05-01 was first published in 2006, and last updated in 2013. It deals with managing fire safety in healthcare settings. British Standard 9999 (BS9999)10
is also used as
a standard for Fire Safety, and BS9997 as a standard for Fire Risk Assessment.11
HTM 05-01 – Managing healthcare fire safety The guidance included in HTM 05-01 is being reviewed and revised. It is expected that the section on fire training will be updated, and include an emergency plan and evacuation exercise for staff, which may be a document in its own right.12
This
section gives guidance on fire training, and it will in future include a section on eLearning. Management of training, fire risk assessment, maintenance, and projects, will rest with the appointed Fire Safety manager. Regular Fire Safety Committee Meetings will be proposed, with the membership of this committee to include the director responsible for fire safety otherwise known as the Designated Person (DP), Estates and Facilities staff, and any relevant Project managers, and a representative from the appropriate Fire and Rescue Service. It is also envisaged that the revised document will provide guidance that underpins the fire safety policy, and includes maintenance as a risk-assessed system which takes into account the
False alarms from remotely monitored fire alarms are a problem. They use fire and rescue resources unnecessarily, and, in addition to this, result in the fire service not being available for genuine emergencies, and put the public at risk from fire appliance road movements
108 Health Estate Journal October 2022
particular environment in a healthcare setting. Example protocols which will be included in the updated document and may be supported by the HTM 05-03 Part B include: n Fire doors – annual inspection is recommended.
n Fire dampers – annual inspection is recommended.
n Fire/smoke dampers – annual inspection is recommended.
n Fire compartmentation. n Emergency lighting. n Facilities for firefighters. n Fire Alarms – including ‘cause and effect’ strategy.
Experiences of an expert One of those with particular fire safety expertise, especially around fire-stopping, whose company works closely with DRLC, is Maggie A Treacy-Hales, MD of F7 Fire Safety. She said of her experience of managing the installation of fire safety systems in the NHS: “I have worked in numerous healthcare settings over many years, inspecting the live installation work of fire door and passive firestopping contractors. I’ve also inspected such works after completion, where unfortunately defect liability has expired, and the client is left to pay for expensive remedial works. Post-Grenfell one might have expected that contractors – including third-party accredited contractors – would be extra thorough in ensuring that they are installing compliant works. “However, it is my experience that many
fire door and passive fire-stopping works are still being installed non-compliantly. The best way to ensure that expensive works are being installed right first time is to engage with a specialist Clerk of Works experienced in this field, such as our company, F7 Fire Safety.”
HTM 05-02 – Fire safety in the design of healthcare premises HTM 05-02 was first published in 2007, and last updated in 2015. This
Image courtesy of Doorguard
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