Posts in category: Projects

MSA Bristol has secured a major new managed services contract with the UK’s largest fire and rescue service: Scottish Fire and Rescue Service.

MSA Bristol is a leading supplier of personal protective equipment (PPE) to firefighters across the globe.  Its specialist, in-house managed services team are now responsible for the inspection, washing and repair of all structural, urban search and rescue and wildland PPE for Scottish Fire and Rescue Service’s 6,660 firefighters, including fire coats, trousers, hoods and gloves.

As part of the contract, MSA Bristol regularly collects PPE from key fire service hubs which are spread throughout Scotland. The PPE is then thoroughly cleaned, de-contaminated and inspected for signs of damage or wear. If any issues are identified, items are swiftly repaired and then returned to Scottish Fire and Rescue Service – all within seven days.  

MSA Bristol has two in-house service centres in Bristol and London and is in the process of setting up a third in Livingston, Scotland. The servicing of Scottish Fire and Rescue Service’s PPE is currently taking place in Bristol, but this will move to Scotland later in the year when its new service centre goes live.

Scottish Fire and Rescue Service’s PPE was procured through the UK Collaborative PPE Contract, and supplied by MSA Bristol. Each item of PPE therefore has a unique bar code, which enables MSA Bristol and Scottish Fire and Rescue Service to effectively track its service history.

Edward Shepherd, MSA Bristol’s Service Operations Director said: “We are delighted that the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service has put its trust in us to clean and maintain its PPE. As manufacturers of their PPE, we know it inside out and can ensure it remains clean and always fit for purpose. The cleaning and maintenance of PPE is a top priority for the fire industry, with the vast majority of UK fire and rescue services now taking up professional managed services provision as part of their PPE contracts. 

In recent years, MSA Bristol has seen a significant increase in take up of Fully Managed Services packages in the UK, partly due to convenience and competitive pricing, but also partly due to health concerns. Our new service centre in Livingston will enable us to handle more items of PPE and improve our resilience.”

Roddy Mackinnon, Equipment Manager at Scottish Fire and Rescue said: “As the largest Fire and Rescue Service in the UK, it is essential that all of our firefighters have the right PPE and equipment to continue to serve the local communities of Scotland and are adequately protected while doing this. Regular cleaning, decontamination and repair is recognised by the Service and industry as the best way to ensure firefighters’ PPE remains fit for purpose. We have been using MSA Bristol’s managed services since March 2021 and have been very impressed with the level of service and quick turnaround times.”

Global safety solutions provider Survitec has launched a unique service for the marine industry that provides a streamlined supply chain process for critical firefighting and other lifesaving products. 

Called Survitec Essentials, the new service addresses the need for marine operators to have predictable and convenient access to essential safety products at major maritime hubs around the world.   

Survitec Essentials ensures the availability of a consistent range of products critical to maritime safety at short lead-times with fixed prices at 12 ports worldwide. Ports include London, Hamburg, Rotterdam, Algeciras, Piraeus, Colon, Barcelona, Houston, Fujairah, Shanghai, Singapore, and Busan.

Finn Lende-Harung, Survitec Product Category Manager – Fire, said: “This is a completely new approach for the commercial maritime industry. Survitec Essentials offers a consistent range of quality safety products at a fixed price at key ports along the global trading routes.

“This makes it easier for ship managers to budget and plan ahead. For the crew, it simplifies the training, service, and spare parts regime. With Survitec Essentials, we have addressed the ship managers’ supply chain challenges and worked to simplify them.”

Addressing the procurement challenges ship operators and crews currently face, Survitec Technical Sales Manager Wim van Iperen elaborated: “You can go onboard a ship and find several brands providing different versions of the same piece of kit, different versions of the same spares and accessories and different manuals and instructions, possibly in several languages. Crews need to match all of these elements when they come to maintain, service or use the equipment. This not only increases stock inventories onboard, but can be confusing, time consuming and complicated for crews. 

“Now, with the Survitec Essentials range of more than 70 essential safety products, including spares and accessories, operators can be assured of having the products they need, where they need them, to stay safe and compliant, whilst also removing unnecessary complexities surrounding the management of safety equipment onboard.”

“Take a CO2 fire-extinguisher,” Iperen furthered. “With Survitec Essentials, the extinguisher, parts and instructions/manuals will be exactly the same across all the ports in the programme. No one else is doing this, certainly not on such a global scale. The further benefits are huge.”

Going onto explain the commercial and administrative advantages of the concept, Lende-Harung added: “With a fixed price arrangement across 12 key ports, ship managers no longer need to worry about exchange rates, quotes on a case-by-case basis, or multi-currency transactions.

“If a vessel operated out of Greece needs equipment in, say, Singapore or Panama, the company simply contacts their local customer service in Piraeus. This provides the customer coordination from one point of contact in the same time zone, speaking their native language for all ports. Furthermore, the prices are fixed in the customers’ preferred currency, procured through one entity and handled through one bank account, further simplifying the procurement process.” The same model applies for operators out of other countries, including the US, Germany, Korea, UAE, and Norway – all will now be able to rely on Survitec Essentials for consistent predictable product supply globally, through one point of contact.   

West Sussex Fire & Rescue Service is continuing to make ‘significant’ improvement in a number of areas according to Fire service inspectors.

Following a revisit earlier this year, Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services noted further improvements since their last revisit last year.

They said extra funding from West Sussex County Council had been used to increase capacity in the fire service’s prevention and protection teams.

In a letter to the Chief Fire Officer, Sabrina Cohen-Hatton, inspectors said this had contributed to the improvements being made and a new IT system is supporting these improvements.

They also noted that the funding has been used to create an organisational assurance and governance team which inspectors said had brought an increased level of co-ordination and support for organisation-wide improvement.

Inspectors also praised the positive work going on around culture and values within the service. They noted staff have been engaged in developing organisational behaviour statements.

Inspectors said while some of the changes could have been quicker, the pace of change had ‘understandably slowed’ due to COVID-19 and the service having to deal with the consequences of the pandemic.

In his conclusion, Matt Parr, the lead HMICFRS Inspector of Fire and Rescue Services, said: “The amount of improvement work and change in the service continues to be significant.”

Inspectors identified further work needs to be carries out in the service’s prevention activity to better target the most vulnerable people and support those most at risk of fire.

The service will now use all the inspector’s feedback to further improve its work.

Chief Fire Officer, Sabrina Cohen-Hatton: “It is really good news that the inspectors noted that we continue to make significant progress. We have always been realistic about the amount of time this work will take to get right, but the revisit has shown that we continue to make very real progress.”

Cabinet Member for the Fire and Rescue Service and Communities, Duncan Crow: “A lot of work has been going on at the fire service to tackle areas of improvement raised. We are on a journey and it is good to hear from Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services that this journey continues to move positively and in the right direction as the revisit has demonstrated.”

Read the letter here: www.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmicfrs/fire-and-rescue-services/west-sussex/.

The Fire Brigades Union have responded to calls by Labour for the Government to finally put an end to the building safety crisis. Commenting on Labour’s demands for action Matt Wrack, FBU general secretary, said: “We welcome Labour’s demands for a deadline to remove all combustible cladding. Developers and the government must put an end to our building safety crisis once and for all. Decades of deregulation in the building industry led to the fire at Grenfell, and urgent action needs to be taken to get to the heart of this crisis and make homes safe.

“We have called for the removal of all flammable cladding since the fire at Grenfell. The government has had four years to make our buildings safe, yet thousands of people across the UK are still living in homes wrapped in dangerous materials. It is simply not good enough.

“The high-rise fire in Poplar just this month is a warning that another Grenfell could happen at any moment. Developers had the means and ability to remove the dangerous cladding, yet sat on their hands. The onus is on ministers to force the companies responsible for these buildings to take immediate action to make them safe, without slapping innocent homeowners with a huge bill at the end.

“Government complacency and delays are putting people’s lives at risk, and they must take action before another tragedy strikes.”

Following a decision of its Board, Euralarm has welcomed its newest member Viking, a dependable partner in fire protection with almost 100 years of experience. The company will join the Extinguishing Section of Euralarm.

The Extinguishing Section represents the active fire extinguishing sector and covers existing, new and emerging technologies, covering automatic extinguishing systems using gas, water, foam, powder and aerosols, oxygen reduction systems, portable equipment and other manual means of fire-fighting as well as fire-fighting agents used in either fixed automatic systems or in portable equipment.

Membership benefits

Viking will now benefit from Euralarm’s services in terms of representation towards European institutions and standardisation organisations. This includes the monitoring of legislative and standardisation issues relevant to the industry. The company will have access to the extended network of national associations and major companies in the electronic fire safety and security sectors, which form Euralarm’s members. The new membership will create opportunities for both sides, as it also strengthens the association.

By its membership of Euralarm, the company taps into the association’s political expertise and understanding of how EU policy is impacting the industry and its markets. It also enables Viking to make personal connections with technical and political experts and gain expertise on standardisation. Members like Viking have their voice heard in Brussels and can support and direct standardisation and legislative processes.

The latest fire statistics from the Home Office show a five per cent reduction in the number of incidents English Fire and Rescue Services (FRSs) attended, 11 per cent fewer fire-related deaths and a three per cent fall in fires.

However, the National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC) has voiced its concern that false fire alarms remain the largest reason for FRSs attending incidents, accounting for 42 per cent of all attended. While these have reduced by four per cent, NFCC warns this is too high and placing unnecessary pressure on resources.

Responding to the national statistics, NFCC Chair Mark Hardingham, commented: “The fall in incidents, fires and fatalities is to be welcomed. It is also testament to the hard work and dedication of FRSs and their prevention and protection work.

“While we have seen a reduction in face-to-face work in these areas due to the pandemic, this is now being scaled up. I hope will see this trend continuing, but we must acknowledge there could be short term impacts relating to this area while the country was in lockdown.

“However, any fire death is one too many and there is still work to be done to see such tragedies further reduce. One area which does need further exploration is the number of false fire alarms making up the biggest percentage of incidents. While a number of these are made in good faith, more than 5,000 were malicious.

“These calls are not only a waste of time, they show a lack of respect for firefighters. The reality is they can divert crews away from other incidents, where life could be at risk.”

The fire and rescue incident statistics, England (year ending December 2020) reports on all incidents attended and are sourced from the Home Office’s online Incident Recording System (IRS).

FRSs attended 528,601 incidents: a five per cent decrease 153,278 of these were fires. A three per cent decrease221 fire-related fatalities compared with 248 in the previous year. 64,066 primary fires, a seven per cent decrease compared with the previous year. Statistics show fires accounted for 29 per cent of all incidents, false fire alarms 42 per cent and non-fire incidents 29 per cent.

The latest fire statistics show:

Mr Hardingham also pointed out that while these statistics are a step in the right direction, it is essential we do not become complacent.  “I want to see a fire service that is fit for the future and with the forthcoming White Paper on Fire Reform it is essential we have a well-funded, well equipped service which can meet future challenges head on.

“We saw how much additional work was undertaken during the pandemic showing the sheer scale of work FRSs are ready, willing and able to take on. Yet we face other challenges such as recruiting a diverse workforce and ensuring a resilient on-call firefighter duty system, to operational challenges as well as the day-to-day activities being undertaken. Climate change is impacting on the work all FRSs do and flooding and wildfires are becoming more commonplace which needs to be taken into account.

“The past 12 months have made NFCC’s view clearer than ever; the UK FRS must be resourced to risk as well as demand, This is to ensure we are building a resilient service ready to serve their communities and maintain the pride people have in the FRS. This is also clear from the 11 per cent increase reported in “assisting other agencies”, which covers a range of areas and is part of the duty to collaborate legislation and reflects the increasing awareness of partner organisations of the benefits the FRS can provide to them and help local communities.”

The report shows this year’s decrease was partly driven by decreases in primary fires as well as decreases in non-fire incidents and false fire alarms. It should be noted that the year ending December 2020 includes two national lockdowns and various local lockdowns which applied strict limits on daily life.

The full statistics can be found on the Home Office website.

Leading respiratory protection designer and manufacturer CleanSpace Technology is urging the industrial sector to double down on protecting their workers from silica dust.

Dangerous silica dust can be formed on site from concrete cutting, grinding or polishing and using power tools on stone. Breathing the silica dust can result in irreversible, untreatable diseases, including silicosis and lung cancer.

A report released last year from Monash University in conjunction with WorkSafe Victoria, found one in three stonemasons screened had an identified case of silicosis.^[1]

Whilst state regulators have made recommendations to address exposure to respirable crystalline silica in the workplace, the report findings highlighted the scale of the issue and reinforced the importance of employers proactively addressing employees’ health.

“This is a wake-up call not just to stonemasons but to anyone working with crystalline silica. Regardless of whether you see the dust or not, silica is a hazard you simply can’t afford to ignore,” said CleanSpace CEO Dr Alex Birrell.

“I implore all employers to review their current respiratory protection program to ensure the exposure to silica dust is minimised, and check employee training includes silica-specific information,” said Dr Birrell.

Since the release of the report, CleanSpace Technology has ramped up its commitment to educating the industrial sector on the occupational hazards of silica dust and is urging all employers and sub-contractors to review their current respiratory protection program.

The Institution of Fire Engineers (IFE) and Fire Industry Association (FIA) have joined forces to launch a new Special Interest Group (SIG) focusing on façades and external wall fire safety issues.

The steering group features members from both organisations along with additional co-opted membership from the Centre for Window and Cladding Technology, Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and the National Fire Chiefs Council. Co-chaired by Jon Pagan and IFE Fellow Adam Monaghan, the SIG held their inaugural meeting last month.

Co-chair Jon Pagan who is a Director for Fire Safety Engineering at International Fire Consultants Ltd, said: “It is essential the fire industry takes more ownership of helping to deal with fire safety issues concerning façades and external walls. We created this SIG to raise awareness of the issues and to provide support to the many fire engineers who work in this area.

“It will be the SIG’s responsibility to identify and monitor research and guidance and to take part in related industry consultations. One of the main focusses of the SIG will be ensuring that both the IFE and FIA members are kept up to date with the various ongoing activities which are occurring in this key area so that they benefit from the work that we do.”

The SIG will act as a forum for exchange of ideas and to agree consistent approaches to common issues related to façades. In addition to this, the group plan to look at the training and education of those professionals who are involved in this work.

As one of the first activities, the SIG would encourage all interested parties to respond to the recently published draft for comment PAS 9980 Fire risk appraisal and assessment of external wall construction and cladding of existing blocks of flats – Code of practice. Members can do so here and must submit responses by 20^th May.

Four years on from the Grenfell Tower tragedy, there are many thousands of people still living in high rise residential buildings clad in flammable material (ACM). The British Safety Council has been campaigning for leaseholders to be protected from all remediation costs that have arisen through no fault of their own.

The Government’s Fire Safety Bill, aimed at making homes safer, was passed on 29 April without further amendment or more financial protections for leaseholders. It means leaseholders in high rise buildings over 18 metres (six storeys or more) will not have to pay for removal of the cladding, while leaseholders/ tenants in high rise buildings of 11-18 metres (four to six storeys) will have to pay up to £50/month towards a loan scheme for the cost of removal. This means that leaseholders are trapped in homes they cannot sell, because lenders will not offer mortgages until the cladding is removed.

The British Safety Council continues to believe that making leaseholders pay for the cost of removal of unsafe cladding is a grave injustice and that the Government should meet all the costs upfront and then recoup them from property developers. We are therefore calling on the Government to revisit its proposals and develop a scheme that more accurately matches the scale of the issue. While the Government has so far committed £5bn towards the cost of the removal of unsafe cladding, the Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee believe the true cost is closer to £15bn.

Mike Robinson, Chief Executive at the British Safety Council, commented: “It is indefensible that the Government has not protected all leaseholders of properties with unsafe cladding from paying the cost of its removal when the fire safety problem was not of their making. Leaseholders and tenants are already paying unaffordable sums for 24/7 fire wardens, to patrol their buildings and ensure they are safe.”

“The passing of this bill will not relieve the mental health issues many leaseholders and tenants are already suffering, now further exacerbated by the threat of bankruptcy now hanging over them due to the high cost of the remedial work.”

“The issue of the cost of who pays for the work to remove unsafe cladding has now overshadowed the primary purpose of the legislation to ensure effective fire safety regulation in the built environment.

Nigel Glen, CEO of the Association of Residential Managing Agents (ARMA) said: “We believe leaseholders should be protected from cladding remediation costs which is why we fully support the recent report from the Commons Select Committee with its sensible demand for the establishment of a Comprehensive Building Safety Fund. This will cover full remediation and associated works of affected buildings regardless of tenure and will be risk based rather than determined by height, thereby shielding leaseholders from life changing bills. We need to get people safe now, the Government can decide who will pay for it later.”

BSI, in its role as the UK National Standards Body, has published the first standard to address battery safety issues posed by button (non-lithium) and coin (lithium) batteries, and provide a consistent approach for products that contain these batteries. It is sponsored by the Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS).

The new standard, named PAS 7055:2021, Button and coin batteries – Safety requirements – Specification, is aligned with The General Product Safety Regulations 2005 (GPSR) which requires that new and used consumer products placed on the market are safe.

It specifies battery safety requirements for button and coin batteries up to 32 mm in diameter to mitigate the risk of ingestion. It also defines the safety requirements for manufacturers and producers of button and coin batteries, including the consumer products that use them, and the retailers and distributors of these products. The requirements cover labelling, instructions and packaging, alignment of safety and health warnings, merchandising, safe disposal and product safety of typical consumer products using button and coin batteries.  

Anne Hayes, Director of Sectors at BSI said: “With recent developments in product design and technology, batteries are now available in a wide range of consumer products which can be aimed at vulnerable groups including children. PAS 7055 is an important step to address the safety issues posed by batteries to protect consumers.”

The standards have been developed by a steering group of consumers and experts from the battery, retail and safety industries.