With gyms increasingly prevalent nationwide, Adair Lewis studies the high proportion of fires started deliberately in them
Gyms risk review G
YMS TEND to be like Marmite – you either love them or loathe them. Personally, I have never understood the attraction
of punishing yourself with exercise, especially in front of mirrors, which seem to be prevalent in gyms. Nevertheless, it has to be admitted that these locations are a beneficial provision, and are now not only to be found in sports centres and hotels, but also increasingly in places of work. Although only accounting for 1.7% of all large
loss fires in the nine year survey period, the large loss database includes 89 large loss fires in sports premises, of which 12 occurred in gyms. The recorded causes of the fires, however, is significantly different from sports premises in general, in that a greater proportion (50% against 37% for sports premises) are shown as being deliberately started and about a third (some 9% less) started accidently. The reason for the high proportion of deliberate fire raising is not easily understood; the majority of gyms provide a social meeting place, as well as a venue for pursuing activity targets or a form or relaxation. The time of day at which the fires occur does not shed further light on the cause; there are few fires (8.3%) in the mornings, presumably when gyms have minimum use, but the remainder are spread equally through the rest of the day. Three occasions are recorded on which the responding fire and rescue service encountered impedances to firefighting operations, and two of these related to access to the premises. These might have resulted from parking
problems, but could also have been related to additional security measures employed to protect the premises from arson attack. The third related to
52 APRIL 2018
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‘resources’, but no further information is available. The cost of fires in gyms averaged £440,918 per large loss fire, nearly half of the £880,625 loss in an average sports venue. This is surprising in view of the number of expensive treadmills, cycle machines and similar exercise equipment to be found in most modern gyms. The cost of these items is reflected in the
proportion of the insurance component of the loss relating to the contents of the premises which, at 13.4%, is some 60% higher than the 8.3% for sports premises in general. Despite this, the average cost per square metre of a large loss fire in a gym is still, on average, about 50% of that encountered where there is a large fire in other forms of sports venues. All in all therefore, fires in gyms do not appear to be inordinately costly.
Minimising the risk
Many serious fires that have occurred in gyms have involved gym or crash mats. Historically these have concerned old style mats, which were easy to ignite, and led to a rapidly developing fire. Recognised best practice, which is included in HM Government’s Life Safety Fire Risk Assessment Guides, is to:
• ensure that foam mats (eg gymnasium mats and crash mats), foam pits and similar equipment are constructed of combustion modified foam
•
reduce the potential rate of fire growth by laying gym mats flat when not in use, and stacking them on top of one another in a dedicated storeroom, which ideally is
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