FIRE SAFETY Looking at the implications of EV
charging on the NHS estate, Anthony Pitcher said Estates and Facilities teams needed to consider charger location in relation to buildings. He asked: “For example, if you have a building with suspect cladding, or parking adjacent to a means of escape, should you really be putting EV charging points next to those?” The speaker also said the NHS estate was increasingly seeing solar charging for bike shelters. He said: “You have no control over the quality of these bikes, and, in addition, bike shelters are being put right next to entrances because it’s convenient for users. I would question the logic of that. We need to focus on the potential risks and impact on service delivery with these.”
Fire and rescue access and facilities Anthony Pitcher’s next focus was fire and rescue access and facilities. He said: “Given that fire service personnel will need significant quantities of water, should we be reconsidering our hydrant positions to ensure they’re reasonably close to charging facilities? Likewise, if you have charging facilities, are your chargers manually or automatically isolated?” He continued: “I was recently discussing
an existing hospital building, which is effectively up on stilts, with parking underneath. The hospital was fitted with sprinkler protection, to an OH2 standard, but back in January the standards increased to HHP3, which stipulates significantly higher standards for water supply and duration, so we also need to consider how this impacts on our existing estate.” Turning to discuss parking bays, RC59
recommends 1200 mm of space between cars, but the speaker said if this was implemented, the NHS would lose 40% of its parking capacity. He asked: “What about management response to EV fires; if we do get one, are we sufficiently trained on what to do? Again, it’s about knowledge and documentation.”
Electric ambulances The speaker’s next slide showed two
Figure 8: A variety of published guidance on PV systems and related fire safety.
electric ambulances; a number of ambulance Trusts in England had already introduced such vehicles as they looked to electrify their fleets. Looking to the future, Anthony Pitcher said: “So, five years down the line, we’ve got an electric ambulance fleet, but with bed pressures, the chances are that they’re still going to be outside A&E in a queue with patients ready to offload. It’s foreseeable they’re going to ask for charging facilities there. Should we really be considering charging an ambulance outside an A&E Department? We need to be considering such things, and really focusing on the potential impact on service delivery. The other consideration,” he added, “is that a lot of these emergency vehicles, and doctors’ and district nurses’ cars, carry oxygen – another added complication not factored into any of the current guidance.” Here Anthony Pitcher showed a slide of a burnt-out diesel ambulance that had caught fire in Swansea in April this year. He said: “This just demonstrates that emergency vehicles do catch fire – here there was an electrical cause. There was a patient in the ambulance, but luckily no one was injured. Nevertheless, it shows that these are vulnerable vehicles.” The speaker explained that
RISCAuthority RC 59, Recommendations for fire safety when charging electric
vehicles, is the relevant guidance, and incorporates ‘a very useful checklist’ for EFM teams considering installing EV charging facilities. He added: “The National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC) has major concerns about this as an issue, and is conducting a lot of research on it, and I’d anticipate guidance from them.” NHS Wales SSP was, he added, also looking at issuing its own guidance on electric vehicle charging cross NHS Wales.
Figure 9: UK EV projections. 42 Health Estate Journal September 2023
Looking to the future Anthony Pitcher’s last slide focused on ‘The future’. He asked: “So, what does the future hold for us?” In response to his own question, he told delegates: “I think the industry needs to catch up and match the rate of technological development – particularly when we look at the implications of the ‘decarb’ agenda, picking up on things like the AEs and competence etc. We’ve got to increase our knowledge base, and – through events like this – share best practice. I don’t think we have enough pooling of knowledge and research. If you have a design team that has explored, and developed, a particular solution, surely we should be picking up on that and sharing it with other design teams? I know there can be competitive and contractual issues, but equally, if you have a design solution and have ruled it out for a particular reason, let’s share those reasons, so we are promoting a pool of learning and resource.” Anthony Pitcher added that the sector also needed to develop currently lacking ‘risk-proportionate guidance’, and equally needed to be able to respond to future and emerging risks. He concluded: “So, I hope I have given you an insight into some of the challenges with fire safety and the decarbonisation agenda. As I said at the start, we’re a long way from knowing all the answers; it is an evolving feast – but through forums like this, and everybody contributing, maybe we will have some answers going forward.” Here he thanked delegates for their attention, and invited questions.
Image courtesy of The Climate Change Committee.
Images courtesy of RISCAuthority and The Institution of Engineering and Technology.
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