FOCUS
Imperfect discipline Dennis Davis describes how the impact of
the Grenfell Tower fire further shaped work underway to improve industry competency
– competency – and not just within its own workforce. The interim report of Dame Judith Hackitt on the building regulatory system has placed the subject centre stage. So, what exactly caused the internal industry concern and the external inquiry alarm? Well, observed ignorance and poor skills in practice, leading to ineffective compartmentation wrongly fi tted or breached in construction; improper fire risk assessments; failure to ensure adequate maintenance of installed fi re defences; and a lack of knowledge and understanding in fi re safety design, prevention and mitigation at the start of a building’s life.
L Survey and matrix
Although nothing new, some of these problems had manifested at the Lakanal House fi re, and this renewed the determination to gain a greater insight and try to fi nd longer term solutions. A survey was conducted using the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) building life stage approach, slightly expanded to include more occupancy factors and
20 MARCH 2018
www.frmjournal.com
AST YEAR’S terrible fi re at Grenfell Tower has again highlighted an issue that has long concerned many in the fi re sector
the ultimate demolition stage, since this is where many economically damaging fires also occurred. The survey had defi nitions and a matrix designed to capture conclusions referenced to an axis devoted to the performance of ‘actors’ against what was now a twelve stage building life cycle. The selected actors in different occupancies
were rated from the fi re safety awareness and skills perspective by informed fi re practitioners, with scores made against each actor in the cycle and the occupancy – acknowledging that risk is essentially derived from assessment of people, property and purpose. The occupancies were care institutions; social housing; residential housing; public assembly; leisure and theatres; colleges and universities; retail stores; manufacturing and factories; storage and distribution; municipal buildings; utility structures; and heritage and culture. These were placed within a graded 1-5
scale, progressing from those that had little defi ned concerning competency, to a range with some systems of support, recognised competency systems and recognised accreditation systems, and on to those with highly defi ned competency and accreditation systems in place. The outcome was plotted
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