FOCUS
On the Summit
A packed schedule at the Fire Sector Summit saw key sector topics tackled by various speakers. William RoszczykandJan Wassallreport
J
ONATHAN O’NEILL, FPA managing director, reflected on Nick Ross’ speech at the pre event drinks (see pages 32-34), stating
his ‘wise words’ aligned with the need for ‘refl ection and the action to take’. He highlighted the importance of events ‘setting the agenda for fi re for the coming year’, musing on ‘our views being neglected by government’ in the past. The sector ‘can’t allow infi ghting to blur our goal’, must put differences aside, and ‘provide and articulate a strategy’ to avoid ministers receiving ‘mixed messages – look what happens when they do’. Chair Charlotte Hawkins refl ected on her
career and experience reporting on Grenfell Tower, noting the press ‘felt powerless as spectators’, but that the fire ‘brought home the issue of fi re safety to everyone’ by raising an ‘awful lot of questions’. She added this was ‘positive, but sad that it takes a disaster to effect change – let’s not let the lives lost be lost in vain’.
Construction standards
Dr Barbara Lane, head of fi re engineering at Arup, refl ected in the fi rst plenary that ‘making necessary changes or commitments’ on the handover of buildings was a major issue, highlighting the timeline from use to use
through design, specifi cation, construction and handover itself. It has ‘been clear for some time’ how
signifi cant fi re safety skills are, with ‘change needed in every profession’. Complexity occurs due to the series of construction stages with many stakeholders and disciplines, the ‘journey to having a compliant building’ requiring ‘clear translations all the way through to the fi nal assessments’. Her view was that ‘commercially driven decisions are altering the standards of compliance’, and every stakeholder or discipline should be checked. David Stow, associate director of Arup Fire, outlined the design stage and three frequent problems that can ‘erode or seriously undermine fi re safety’. First was the ‘ability of designers to understand materials they’re using’, as terms are ‘poorly understood by designers and teams’ or incorrectly applied alongside ‘unclear supplier information’. He refl ected on building façades in relation to Approved Document B of the Building Regulations (ADB), and ‘limited combustibility’, and asked ‘who knows what that means, or what products?’ To meet higher energy standards, there has
been a ‘drive to use environmentally friendly but combustible materials’. It can be diffi cult to
36 DECEMBER 2017/JANUARY 2018
www.frmjournal.com
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