FIRE SAFETY
Fire damper corrosion is easy for inspectors to spot during annual testing, but they will not see fixing or fire-stopping problems.
occupying employer – take necessary precautions for fire safety in a building. There is happily now broad compliance on annual inspection and testing of fire and smoke dampers in healthcare premises, in accordance with the HTM 03-01 guidance on specialised ventilation for healthcare premises, and HTM 05-01, which sets out requirements for managing healthcare fire safety. There are still, however, instances where dampers simply cannot be accessed, and Estates teams are having to budget for more inspection hatches to be fitted. Now there is an explicit requirement to check that the original installation was safe and correct as well, and ultimately the building’s responsible person carries that duty too. DWP145’s installation guidance already
stipulates that the initial responsibility for ensuring a compliant damper installation lies with the ‘design office’, and the final responsibility with the on-site fitter. By ‘design office’ it says it means any of the building services consultants, mechanical services contractors, or, in the case of ‘design and supply’ projects, ductwork contractors; it all depends on the contract.
The right response Providing interim guidance in a technical bulletin on maintenance should not be taken as suggesting that the immediate and urgent task of identifying and remediating dangerous dampers can be tagged on to routine inspection and testing. Many specialist skills are involved in fire damper specification, installation, and ongoing maintenance. They involve architects, specifiers, manufacturers, building control, and fire authorities, mechanical and electrical contractors, fire barrier contractors, and penetration seal specialists. So, while recent discussions at an engineering trade association conference explored the idea of streamlining specialist engineering services such as fire damper safety, I’d say the scope of this is limited. Economy comes not just from fewer visits, but also from the right visits: from using each skillset efficiently, not asking a highly
Fire damper damage seen during annual inspection would likely compromise performance, and call for a full survey.
skilled surveyor to add routine inspection tasks to their job sheet. They’re likely to be commanding a salary significantly higher than that of the inspector who’s still a few steps behind them on the career development ladder. Any contract will base estimates on an hourly rate, so it’s important that the team your partner fields brings the right combination of skills to the table, in the right ratios.
Expertise for the job in hand A testing and cleaning technician is not qualified to comment on the way a damper has been installed. Yes, they may see obvious faults – such as early signs of corrosion, or gaps in firestopping and seals, and we would report back on that. That would not constitute a failed damper, however – the damper may be in perfect working order, but it would become your responsibility to act on the report. Similarly, a damper with the wrong fixing screws could be in good working order and pass annual routine inspection and testing; the difference is that before the VH001 advice to have a surveyor check on them, you might never have known about the risk.
Review your asset register Step one is to commission a review of your asset register and – if it does not reassure you that your fire dampers have been correctly fitted – then a full survey is called for. Tagging this check onto routine annual inspections as they come around will be more expensive, because more senior operatives will be required, and in the worst eventuality it could also be too late, and there could be a fire in the interim. What might the outcome of a survey
be? Ideally a clean bill of health. If not, incorrectly fixed dampers can usually be re-fitted using the required fusible fixings for a fraction of the cost of replacing a damper from scratch. Re-fixing work would be followed by a suitably qualified and registered passive fire protection specialist verifying that the correct fire- stopping system has been applied and correctly installed. Only then comes the return to routine annual inspection, testing, and re-setting, of the fire damper.
The trick is to work with specialist
contractors with a deep understanding of legal, safety, and practical priorities, who can go the extra mile to help create and manage a pragmatic, risk- based plan of works. This doesn’t have to be a big-ticket project.
Andrew Steel
Andrew Steel CEng, FIHEEM, has led Airmec Essential Services as managing director since acquiring the company in 2011. The business remains ‘proudly independent’, with a ‘mission’ to deliver quality and effective air, water, and fire safety services. It focuses on using established and practical methods to optimise existing resources and infrastructure. Airmec teams work at healthcare and high-security public sector sites, as well as for private businesses. Under Andrew Steel’s leadership, Airmec’s vision is ‘to build a business valued by customers that generates success and fulfilment for all of the team’. He has been active in the sector for 15 years, working with the healthcare sector throughout this time. His experience addressing the challenges of risk mitigation and management in older buildings – a category which increasingly includes PFI site FM contracts – is ‘well- recognised’.
October 2023 Health Estate Journal 61
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