FOCUS
Adapt and learn In this critical time of great global change,
Yusuf Muhammad points to fire safety innovation and shows how it will continue to save lives
times of crisis, change is inevitable, decisive and invariably fast paced. Importantly, the window of opportunity that is opened up can be used purposefully to make or hasten significant improvements. While we are yet to understand the full implications of the coronavirus outbreak across the world, it would be naïve of us to think that we can simply reverse some of the changes that have been made as a result of it – some will inevitably be permanent. This has certainly been the case for fi re safety. Since the tragic events of the Grenfell Tower fi re, building regulations have been under constant scrutiny amid rising concerns about the protection of high rise residents.
C Signifi cant steps
Almost three years on from the deadliest domestic fi re disaster the UK has seen since World War II, the government is now taking signifi cant
42 MAY 2020
www.frmjournal.com
ORONAVIRUS HAS affected us all and has been fundamentally reshaping the ways in which we live our daily lives. In
steps to overhaul existing regulations and provide clarity on responsibilities relating to fi re safety. We have seen this in the form of proposed changes to the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 by the Home Offi ce, with the draft Building Safety Bill 2019-211
. However, a universal shift in culture is
required to support the delivery of buildings that are safe, both now and in the future, and this cannot be achieved through policy and regulation changes alone. While these documents provide a good foundation for organisations to work from in order to mitigate safety risks, more needs to be done to place individuals and their needs at the centre of fi re safety strategies – particularly across social housing. In fact, Dame Judith Hackitt made a
number of recommendations to reform UK building regulations in the wake of lessons learned from Grenfell, stating that much of the prescriptive guidance available is not sufficient when designing and building complex buildings. This was especially notable in an environment where building technology
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