Burning issue
www.heatingandventilating.net
Rising damper issues W
Over a year after the British Standards Institution issued new advice on fire damper maintenance, this area of essential compliance is still not receiving the attention that it deserves – and indeed requires by law – warns Gary Nicholls, managing director of Swiftclean Building Services
e did hope that the new advice issued in January 2017 on BS9999 would ensure that fire dampers would rise rapidly to the top of many building managers’ ‘to do’ lists, but it seems that we do have quite a
way to go before the importance of this, potentially quite literally, burning issue is universally realised. A large number of building managers have been unaware for many years that they even had fire dampers installed in the properties for which they are responsible. Many inherited properties with lists of assets which neglected to include fire dampers entirely, others may have lists which did include a number of fire dampers, but with no clue as to their type or location. Others have been handed incomplete lists which entirely underestimated the number of assets. Awareness of the issue as a whole has a lot of ground to make up, something that we are trying hard to address. This was not helped by the fact that in the past, a great number of facilities
correctly. We have seen far too many installed incorrectly; some upside down. We’ve also seen an alarming number propped open with various improvised methods; beer bottles, soft drink tins, bits of wood, and lengths of string for example. Obviously, these would not close correctly in a fire, but most, clearly, haven’t been tested in years. Any incorrectly installed fire dampers must, of course, be reinstalled correctly before testing. With the fire dampers located, you can devise a regular annual testing schedule, in compliance with BS:9999 2017. However, you may still have a second challenge to overcome, in accessing the fire damper in order to test it. This may sound obvious, but we repeatedly find fire dampers that have been installed with no nearby access point to allow cleaning and testing. In many cases, we can retrofit access doors to allow testing and compliance with BS:9999; but not all. In some buildings, once the ventilation system has been installed, walls, false ceilings or even stairs may have been installed, masking lengths of ductwork which are now inaccessible for cleaning and testing. This may mean that compliance will involve extensive remodelling, or it
Gary Nicholls of Swiftclean Building Services
managers have been given little or no record of where fire dampers are installed in each property; many have been unaware that they were installed at all. Where they have been installed, many buildings do not have full asset registers or up-to-date drawings of the locations of their fire dampers. As a result, few have been regularly maintained. Now, the HSE and fire prevention officers are being much more stringent in checking fire damper compliance, and this is a challenge which FMs must tackle. Fire dampers are essentially metal louvres which must be installed
wherever ventilation ductwork crosses a fire-resistance rated internal wall or curtain. Normally, they stay open to allow air flow, but in the event of fire, they shut automatically to compartmentalise the building, delaying the spread of fire and buying valuable time to evacuate the building. Under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order it is a legal requirement to
test fire dampers at regular intervals in accordance with BS:9999 2017, using a method known as ‘drop testing’. Previously, under BS:9999 2008, fire dampers were categorised according to their type; a small number needed to be drop tested only every two years; now all fire dampers must be drop tested and cleaned annually. Healthcare properties have an additional regulation, in the form of Health
Technical Memorandum (HTM) 03-01: Specialised ventilation for healthcare premises Part B: Operational management and performance verification. In care settings, a fire damper testing routine will normally be agreed with the local fire prevention officer. The first challenge is often to discover how many fire dampers the property has and where they are located. You will usually need help with this; you may have far more than you thought. In buildings with internal fire-resistance rated walls and mechanical ventilation systems, such as hotels, hospitals, schools and care homes, there will a lot of fire dampers, probably at least one per room. The next task is to determine whether the fire dampers have been installed
April 2018
could mean that it is simply impossible to achieve compliance in some parts of the building. This could have serious implications for your buildings insurance, which could be compromised if you don’t comply with BS:9999. This access problem could be avoided at the design and construction stage. In the future, FMs will also be responsible for compliance with TR/19, the leading guidance document for ventilation ductwork hygiene, issued by the Building & Engineering Services Association (BESA), as well as BS:9999. If you have any influence at design stage of a new building, you should advise constructing the ventilation system in accordance with TR/19 guidelines, specifically referring to section 3 Design and Access to the Internal Surfaces of the Ventilation System, so that access to both the ductwork and the fire dampers is ensured. You must document your drop testing and, where required, cleaning and maintenance, in order to demonstrate your compliance. As responsible person for the property, you should be able to demonstrate, in the event of a fire or a visit from a Fire Brigade fire safety compliance officer, that you have done everything you can to comply with the law. If you can’t do this, you could be prosecuted for negligence and, in the most serious of cases following a fire and failure of fire dampers to function, a custodial sentence could be imposed. We advise getting documentation which provides photographs of before the test, the closure of the drop test and the reopened damper after the test. Some specialist companies simply provide a tick to say that the test has been done; in a court of law, we feel it is safer to have photographic evidence of compliance in line with TB/001, the guidance issued by BESA on the subject. As fire damper testing has been largely neglected for many years, it may
also represent a new cost to the property owner. A specialist company will be able to help you, not only to locate, identify and correct any fire damper installations they will also devise a cost-effective schedule of testing and maintenance. Compliance with the new BS:9999 2017 isn’t an optional extra. Lives may depend on it.
Fire dampers in open and shut positions
www.heatingandventilating.net
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64
