INSTITUTE NEWS Three new fire safety guides tackle key areas
Emphasising that even with much of the current focus in healthcare engineering and estate management circles very much on the additional challenges posed by the coronavirus outbreak, good fire safety practice remains critical in any healthcare facility, IHEEM’s Fire Safety Technical Platform has produced three new online guidance documents focusing on fire compartmentation, fire doors, and fire dampers. The Institute said: “While we understand the importance and speed needed in responding to the needs of the COVID-19 pandemic, we also need to make sure that the basic principles of fire safety are being maintained. An appropriate level of fire safety maintenance is a requirement under law.” The first of the new guides focuses on what the IHEEM Fire Safety Technical Platform considers ‘one of the most essential elements of fire safety’ – fire compartmentation – i.e. the fire compartment walls, floors etc., the fire doors in those walls, and the fire dampers in the ductwork which penetrate those walls and floors. The guide says: “An evidence-based, risk assessed approach has been applied to the maintenance of these elements to arrive at a protocol for each. These protocols have been designed to reduce risk to ‘as low as reasonably practicable’, and may be considered as a means to achieving ‘compliance’.” The No.1 Fire Compartmentation Guide also includes guidance on continuing assurance, contractor requirements, and annual verification of fire compartmentation.
The No. 2 Fire Doors Guide focuses specifically on fire doors, pointing out that effective fire doors in fire-resisting walls and compartments ‘play a critical role in containing a fire at its source, thereby reducing its effect on the primary building structure’. It says: “Fire doors are the most frequently used and often abused element in a fire compartment.” The new guide sets out an example of a risk-based approach to the planned preventative maintenance of fire doors, designed to meet the requirements of Article 17 of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 (the Order). Among the key elements are ‘monthly tests and checks’ to verify that all fire doors are in good working order and closing correctly, and that the frames and seals are intact, while annual tests and checks should include inspecting any structural fire protection and elements of fire compartmentation, with remedial action undertaken as required. The guide acknowledges, however: “The practicality of inspecting all fire doors in a large hospital monthly by estates and facilities staff make this task very difficult to achieve, and beyond the remit of ALARP. A basic check of fire doors may be undertaken locally by fire wardens monthly; if this is coupled with a risk- based approach to more extensive checks, this may give a satisfactory level of confidence in compliance with legislative requirements in the Order. It should be ensured that there is in place a full set of plans showing the location of
all fire compartmentation, the rating of that compartmentation, and the location of all fire doors. This inventory should be in line with guidance on fire safety protocols in HTM 05-01 appendix E.” The third new fire safety guide, No.3 Fire Dampers, quotes a Department of Health Estates and Facilities Alert for England issued on 21 October 2014, Ref: DH/2014/003, Reminder for the testing of fire & smoke dampers and ensuring the integrity of fire stopping. It stipulates that: n Healthcare organisations should review their existing risk assessments and inspection/maintenance regimes relating to the inspection, maintenance, and testing of fire and smoke dampers, and their associated actuating mechanisms and control systems.
n All healthcare organisations should ensure that they have a full inventory of all installed fire and smoke dampers within their premises.
n All installed fire and smoke dampers, and their associated actuating mechanisms and control systems, should be included in a formal maintenance programme to ensure they are inspected and tested in order to confirm that they: meet the guidance cited above, and are fit for the purpose they are intended, are in good working order, and have not been damaged, disconnected, or wedged open.
To access the three new guides, visit:
https://www.iheem.org.uk/News/ iheem-fire-safety-technical-platform- fire-guidance.
Online focus for 2020 as face-to-face events are deferred
Last month, a decision was made by the IHEEM Council and Head Office to defer all the Institute’s 2020 face-to- face events. IHEEM President, Ian Hinitt (pictured), said: “The safety of members, delegates, staff, and volunteers, along with our commitment to address our wider social responsibilities, are paramount, and, following Government and WHO guidance, we have concluded that holding face-to-face events with large numbers of people is both impractical and puts many at undue risk, which is something we are not willing to do.” Pete Sellars, IHEEM’s CEO, added: “As a Professional Engineering Institute, we realise the commitment we have to our members regarding their continued professional development (CPD), and are looking to moving to digital events to ensure that we support our members and their CPD requirements.
10 Health Estate Journal June 2020
“I hope that these online opportunities will prove useful in terms of helping members fulfil their CPD obligations, as well as providing an active base for learning, knowledge-sharing, and best practice, until we can all meet again in a safe environment.”
For IHEEM events including the
Authorising Engineer Conference, the Regional Conference planned for Cardiff, and the Dublin Conference, IHEEM Head Office will be contacting the relevant stakeholders, while Step Exhibitions will be in touch with all stakeholders to discuss ongoing options for the Healthcare Estates Conference, Exhibition, and Gala Awards Dinner. IHEEM is considering the feasibility of providing an online congress to replace the flagship October event to ensure that it is sharing knowledge, learning, and best practice, particularly about what has been learnt throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. It promises to keep members updated as this progresses. For any queries relating to this announcement, email
office@iheem.org.uk The Head Office team is still working remotely, and this is the easiest and quickest method to get in touch with them.
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