FIRE SAFETY ANDREW STEEL – MANAGING DIRECTOR, AIRMEC ESSENTIAL SERVICES, UK
Critically important fire damper maintenance
Andrew Steel, managing director of Airmec Essential Services, outlines the critical importance of fire dampers and in keeping these devices fully maintained and compliant, especially in healthcare facilities.
Fire dampers are critical safety devices, hidden away inside ventilation ducting and key to preventing the spread of fire. Hopefully, they are never required to close in anger, but regular inspection and testing of their readiness to do so is obviously vital – and required by law. However, there are a worrying number of buildings where these checks are still not happening. This is for many reasons, but none
would standup in a court of law following a disaster. The use and configuration of a building may have changed many times over the years, leading to an incomplete understanding of where the dampers even are. Stretched budgets may have pushed even mandatory actions down the list of priorities. Chequered maintenance histories are,
in my experience, all too common. Add to that issues with incorrect installation techniques, and the bottom line is that potentially thousands of fire dampers in UK hospital premises are non-compliant with current safety legislation, posing a direct risk to building users.
The solution NHS figures have put the cost of eradicating all backlog maintenance in NHS estates at £13.8 billion, and we all know there is not enough money to plug the gap. Trusts continue to face enormous daily challenges, and it is increasingly being accepted that choices have to be made, with a growing emphasis on risk- based maintenance.
What does this mean in practice for
The first step towards resolution is to know your building
safety-critical infrastructure, specifically fire dampers which, following recent information campaigns and guidance updates, can no longer be kept out of mind? There is, however, a roadmap based on intelligent and diligent application of a risk-based approach to compliance management. The first step towards resolution is to
know your building, have a comprehensive asset register that gives you a complete
Andrew Steel
Andrew Steel has been leading Airmec Essential Services since 2011. He has drawn on many years’ business management and leadership experience across the facilities management,
healthcare, life sciences, energy, marine, and aerospace sectors to create air and water services that are aligned with the changing needs of customers. His engineering and commercial skills enable a pragmatic approach to support customers as they balance budgets with compliance, and the overarching need to keep premises open and fully operational.
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picture, and to work to understand risk so you can manage it pragmatically with a focus on building users, not just compliance box ticking. You will almost certainly need to work with a specialist service provider but will still hold the ultimate responsibility as a duty holder or responsible person. Choosing the right partner is essential.
Why the urgency? Poor compliance of fire damper maintenance has been a concern of mine for many years. I have long witnessed that it has been easy to overlook, or to defer because of logistical and budget implications. We were so often coming across buildings where there was no definitive register of where fire dampers were, let alone evidence of a robust inspection and testing regime. Now the risk has become impossible to
leave on the back burner because, back in 2022 alarm bells were rung about faulty
IFHE DIGEST 2026
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