FOCUS
Solid case Sprinklers fitted or retrofitted in a range of
building types are essential to saving lives and protecting property, argues Iain Cox
A
LTHOUGH THE best approach to fire safety is not to have a fire in the first place, when a fire does occur it is
important that lessons from the incident are taken on board, and that similarly avoidable fi res are prevented. While it is possible and cost effective to retrofit sprinklers into an existing building, the deciding factor about whether or not to fit them should not be how tall a building is, but what benefits sprinklers will offer in terms of life safety and the protection of property. Regardless of the type of building, it is
imperative that stakeholders look at their property portfolios and review how well they are protected. Designers, owners and users of student accommodation, hotels, healthcare, and commercial and industrial buildings all need to recognise the value of fire protection and of sprinkler systems, which reduce the risk to life and significantly reduce the degree of damage caused by fi re and the ensuing costs of business interruption. Furthermore, advances in sprinkler technology have helped to minimise the disruption of
44 JULY/AUGUST 2020
www.frmjournal.com
retrofitting, reducing installation time and providing greater design freedoms and cost savings for developers. Evidence shows that while sprinklers are primarily intended to contain or control fi res, they can also be instrumental in saving lives. There are no cases on record of multiple fi re deaths occurring in buildings with appropriately designed, installed and maintained sprinkler systems.
Tower block retrofi t
Despite one of the enduring sprinkler myths being that they are costly and tricky to fi t into buildings after their initial construction, a number of local authorities are actively retrofitting sprinklers to some of their housing stock. After the 2009 Lakanal House fi re in Camberwell, London, a pilot project was undertaken at Callow Mount, a 13 storey 1960s tower block in Sheffield. It took only four weeks to successfully
install sprinklers within 47 flats, and this was completed with little or no disruption to the
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