Current affairs
ensure as far as practical that the effect on the environment of the fire effluent will be minimised.
5. As a minimum, all fire protection products shall be third party certified to an appropriate product or performance based standard.
6. All fire protection products/systems shall be installed by appropriately trained specialist installers.
7. The building shall be fitted with an appropriate automatic fire alarm system that should suitably reduce/ prevent false alarms such as high integrity detectors.
8. The fire protection systems shall be regularly inspected and maintained by a competently trained person, so that they are able to perform their intended function throughout the life of the building.
9. There shall be adequate provision to prevent an arson attack.
10. The building shall be so constructed that fire cannot spread into the premises from an adjoining building or other external fire source.
11. The building owner shall ensure an adequate standard of fire safety management throughout the life of the building.
12. All building services (including all forms of renewable energy), eg heating, lighting and power, shall be designed, constructed and installed in a manner that reduces their potential as an accidental source of ignition (not unreasonable in my view).
This is not new: these have been insurers’ guiding principles for the past 25 years, to my certain knowledge, and I don’t think that they are desperately complicated either.
Scope and engagement
Since the last regulations review, construction and refurbishment techniques and the associated materials have changed/altered substantially. The Grenfell Tower fire has also highlighted the social challenges associated with loss of accommodation. Current regulations are focused only on life safety with no cognisance of property protection objectives. We believe that consideration must
now be given to extending the scope of the regulations and associated ADs and guidance (HTMs; BB100) to address the changing risk environment and identified emerging trends. Key areas for attention (not limited to) are: •
to include a ‘lowest bar’ or non negotiable (prescriptive) property protection element around which the life safety provision is formed
•
to address fire ingress – an emerging trend that has led to both significant property loss and near miss life safety issues
•
to address arson (both internal and external) as a tangible threat and to amend many other sections of ADs which may also contribute
•
to review suitability, particularly in respect of the provision for some modern building methods of combustible structure and voids
FOCUS
www.frmjournal.com APRIL 2018
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