FIRE SAFETY
What Airmec dubs ‘an extreme but real example of hidden fuel for fire spread’.
regulator, the Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS), part of the Department for Business and Trade. OPSS says it has contacted some manufacturers, importers, or distributors of smoke control dampers asking for documentation which includes, but is not limited to, declarations of performance. BESA is updating its own guidance, which will presumably spell out chapter and verse on how fire dampers should be fitted. The new guidance is expected later this year, but BESA has already issued an interim technical bulletin (VH001) on fire damper maintenance to stress the importance of using the correct fixings for dampers. Be under no illusion: incorrectly installed fire dampers may well not perform their function of reducing the spread of smoke in a building during a fire. You need to act, starting, at least, with a survey of how all your dampers are fixed if you do not already have that information on record.
The guidance There are multiple statutes for fire dampers. At the top of the regulatory tree is The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety Order), which requires that the person responsible for the building – be that the owner or the occupying employer – take necessary precautions for fire safety in a building. BS 9999, meanwhile, is the recognised Code of Practice for fire safety as regards the design, management, and use of buildings, and it requires that fire and smoke dampers are tested annually. Any dampers found to be faulty must be repaired or replaced on an urgent basis. The fire safety guidance and legislative
framework also, of course, includes HTM 03-01: Specialised ventilation for healthcare premises, and HTM 05-01: Managing healthcare fire safety, as well as CIBSE’s guides for maintenance engineering and management. At a practical level, it is BESA DW145 – Guide to good practice for the installation of fire
60 Health Estate Journal October 2023
A fire damper blocked open. Airmec says that without compliant inspection, such instances can ‘go unnoticed for years’.
and smoke dampers, and BESA VH001 – Fire damper maintenance, which are the touchstones. DW145 is under revision to further highlight the most appropriate methods of installing fire and smoke dampers. The revision is expected to add chapter and verse to the current advice to follow manufacturer instructions on installation.
Follow manufacturer instructions on fixing I say ‘newly highlighted’ because there has never been any doubt in my mind that Tek screws are countermanded by implication in the existing DW145. It already makes it clear that contractors must follow the manufacturer’s instructions to ensure that fire dampers and smoke dampers are installed correctly and comply with fire regulations. Section 6 – ‘Typical Damper/ Barrier Installation Arrangements’, already defines the need for breakaway joints. Updating the VH001 technical note helps us to get on with the job of checking the installed base, but it should not be taken as meaning that fixing this problem
is a five-minute job to be ‘tacked on’ to routine maintenance inspections. Contracts for inspection and testing work are already fiercely competitive and price- sensitive, and there is no fat to trim. To reiterate, there is currently no
standard for the maintenance of fire and smoke dampers in the UK. VH001 is a technical bulletin, issued by BESA, that ‘plugs the gap’. Following the 2022 revision, VH001 also addresses current concerns about the way many smoke control dampers and fire dampers have been installed.
Need to report on incorrect installation The key change in VH001 3rd edition is the requirement for testing to include reporting on where dampers have been incorrectly installed without break-away joints. Breakaway and flexible joints need to be manufactured from non-fire resistant material with a low melting point, such as aluminium or plastic. This ensures that in the case of a fire, the ductwork might break away, but it will leave the damper in place, and the fire separation between compartments intact. VH001 further describes the crucial role played by the penetration seal where ductwork passes between fire compartments in a building. It also stresses the importance of maintenance teams being able to find and access dampers for testing and repair, and the need for designers and installers to seek expert advice from damper manufacturers. Manufacturers will, in turn, be informed by the updated DW145 guidance on installation before the year end, and it is to be hoped that their instructions are all ‘crystal clear’ across the board. There are a lot of people involved in
A newly-fitted access hatch in a UK hospital.
fire damper specification and installation, but overarching all of this, The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 requires that the person responsible for the building – be that the owner or the
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