Posts in category: Safety

FireAngel’s Co-founder and Chief Product Officer, Nick Rutter, shares his expert predictions for the year ahead

Residents will need alternative strategies to the Waking Watch Relief Fund  

The Government has boosted the Waking Watch Relief Fund with an additional £27m to cover the cost of installing alarm systems in high-rise buildings with dangerous cladding, removing or reducing the need for waking watches. The additional funding, taking the total budget to £57m, will bring some relief to leaseholders living with the financial burden of waking watches and the emotional toll of waiting months, or years, for their buildings to be made safe. Questions remain, however, on whether the extended fund will stretch far enough and provide help to all those who need it. 

Currently, £24.1m from the Waking Watch Relief Fund has been approved for applications, covering 281 buildings across England. However, nearly 800 blocks of flats in England and Wales have waking watches in place, an 85% increase in less than a year, meaning the number of buildings failing safety inspections is growing faster than owners can make them safe. With limited waking watch relief funding available, thousands may be left paying for fire marshals to patrol blocks 24 hours a day, costing over £11,000 on average per building every month. In addition, those who fall outside of the fund may continue to face excessive costs. 

A waking watch is required when buildings have dangerous cladding or fire safety issues change the evacuation policy from stay put to simultaneous evacuation. However, the Government fund generally only covers the upfront capital costs of installing a fire safety system in buildings with unsafe cladding. Therefore, leaseholders impacted by non-cladding issues which render their buildings unsafe may continue to face ongoing waking watch costs and remediation bills. 

As it becomes clear that a change in fire safety strategy is essential, industry experts will continue to look at alternative strategies that can maximise fire safety while minimising costs. At FireAngel, this means ongoing development of connected technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to help cut fire risks within the parameters of an existing budget, offering residents, building safety managers and landlords more intelligent ways to manage their properties.  

Looking to the future, a combination of IoT, robust fire detection and alert systems and evacuation plans could replace the need for waking watches completely, helping tenants who fall outside of the relief fund feel safe in their own homes. 

There will be a greater understanding of how connected data can improve residents’ quality of life  

Industry experts such as the Fire Industry Association (FIA) have started a productive and necessary dialogue around IoT in the fire industry. This year, its IoT report highlighted how IoT can and will impact us all – with estimates that 87% of businesses might be working with IoT in the future.⁴ 

Cutting-edge technology that remotely monitors the home environment 24/7 has the potential to prevent life-threatening events. Using remote alarm monitoring, IoT and predictive data analysis, connected safety technology has the potential to identify a fire risk before it escalates to a 999 call. Not only can the data monitored in real-time alert social landlords to the status of alarms in the property when they are triggered but also when they are removed or when they need to be replaced.  

Connection to the IoT could enable landlords to monitor important features such as the building’s age and condition and the wear and tear of electrical appliances. Being able to combine this information with data on individuals’ physical or mental status is also important. If a person has dementia, is partially sighted or uses a wheelchair, their ability to respond to a fire event may be limited.  

Beyond fire safety, we now have the technology to look at temperature and humidity within a property. As we look to the year ahead, there is the potential for integration of other care and protection technologies to look after the more vulnerable people in society and, ultimately, keep more people safe. 

Fire safety guidance will continue to evolve at a rapid pace, making future-proofing properties more important than ever before 

Following the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities’ response to the Government consultation on smoke and carbon monoxide alarms, people living in the social rented sector will soon be safer in their homes. Housing providers will be required by law to install smoke alarms in all social housing, and carbon monoxide alarms will have to be fitted in social and private rented properties where there is a fixed combustion appliance, excluding gas cookers.

The regulation changes will also require carbon monoxide alarms to be fitted when new appliances such as gas boilers or fires are installed in any home. Additionally, the response to the consultation indicates that landlords, and housing providers in social and private rented sectors, will need to repair or replace smoke and carbon monoxide alarms once they are told they are faulty.  

The guidance on the positioning of alarms and the type of carbon monoxide alarms installed will also be reviewed and may be brought in line with BS EN 50292 and BS EN 50291. These standards show that the alarms have been extensively tested to ensure their quality including sensor reaction times, minimum alarm sound levels and stability over their working life. 

However, as fire safety guidance continues to evolve at a rapid pace, housing providers should not wait for further guidance changes to reinforce their duty of care. They can demonstrate best practice through the installation of alarms that meet an LD1 category, the highest level of domestic protection available. LD1 alarms can future-proof properties from regulatory changes and avoid an average £100 fee per callout to update devices to meet any further new standards. 

Housing providers should also ensure that any carbon monoxide alarms they purchase are fully certified to the European standard EN 50291-1 and carry a third-party approval mark, such as the BSI Kitemark, to ensure compliance with the latest safety standard. 

England may look to adopt similar legalisation to Scotland  

The February 2022 deadline for the new Scottish Tolerable Standard is upon us. The updated standard requires all properties to have an interlinked fire and smoke alarm system. By deploying interlinking alarms with wireless technology, if one alarm is triggered, the remaining alarms and ancillary devices are immediately activated, alerting a person in the property to the unfolding fire as quickly as possible. Under the new standard, the system must also be supported by adequate carbon monoxide (CO) protection if a flue-burning appliance or flue is present within the property.  

We are already seeing a knock-on effect in England driven predominantly by the Grenfell tragedy and Dame Hackitt’s report. The results of the Government consultation have also kickstarted work in reviewing building regulations and directing landlords to comply with the recommendations in BS 5839-6. As we look to the year ahead, England may look to adopt similar legalisation to Scotland’s Tolerable Standard, further developing the post-Grenfell overhaul and helping to create safer communities across the UK.  

Physically interconnecting smoke alarms will become a thing of the past 

Interconnected smoke alarms have been a requirement of UK Building Regulations since the 1990s. The latest (2019) revision to the British Standard BS5839:6 also requires interconnected smoke alarms in all rental properties. Historically, this has been achieved using a physical wire to link all the alarms in a property. However, this method is cost-prohibitive in retrofit. Accordingly, it’s no surprise that in the run-up to the new Scottish Tolerable Standard, the industry has seen a marked shift towards wirelessly interlinking alarms. Beyond the speed of installation, it is far easier and faster to add additional smoke, heat or carbon monoxide alarms to a wireless system, paramount when UK legalisation continues to evolve at such a rapid pace. 

Choosing the right alarms and wireless interconnect technology also enables cost-effective IoT integration of new and existing installations, simply by adding a connected gateway to the alarm network. This delivers further benefits as gateway devices can have onboard sensors such as temperature and humidity monitoring, enabling a more comprehensive picture of what’s going on in the property. In addition, gateway devices can be connected to an open system, bringing together a range of devices in the home such as smart health monitors, panic buttons and connected smoke alarms. Having a hub that different technologies can feed into can ensure that more residents in assisted living arrangements receive holistic support, increasing the likelihood of preventing additional risks to health and decreasing associated costs in the long term.  

Integrating the right technologies could also highlight who needs more support to help housing providers engage directly with at-risk tenants, encouraging independent living and proactive intervention. As a result, choosing to wirelessly interconnect alarms can be the first step in an organisation’s IoT and AI journey, ensuring fire safety is smarter and more communities are connected. 

A safer future is on the horizon, and we have the technology to take us there. 

The law relating to building safety in England is changing. Proposed reforms currently making their way through parliament will introduce a safety case regime. This will mean new roles and responsibilities for high-rise residential building owners and management, including accountable persons (AP) and building safety managers (BSM).

Building on the safety case principles we published last year, we have continued our work with partners in the public and private sector to develop information that we hope will form a toolkit for building owners and managers.

The first part of this toolkit is a short summary of the key things they can do to prepare.  It’s intended to be a quick read to help people and organisations to understand what they can do.

HSE has now published this headline document on its website.

In the coming months this will be followed by further information that builds on the safety case principles from last year. This will include new material that we have introduced following the very helpful suggestions and comments we received from early adopters, private landlords, social housing providers, and other industry consultees.

Tim Galloway, Deputy Director of the Building Safety Programme at HSE, encouraged organisations and people to start preparing: “I am really pleased that we’ve published this information in such a digestible form.  I want to thank all our partners for their invaluable contribution. We all want safe buildings and I would encourage building owners to start their preparations for the new regime now rather than wait for all the details to be developed. I think the existing principles, this headline document and the further information to come will really help.”

Read more about safety cases and safety case reports here: https://www.hse.gov.uk/building-safety/safety-cases-reports.htm

A company has been sentenced after an employee of a Powys construction company was fatally injured in Liverpool when he fell six metres through a roof whilst working on a replacement roof project.

Liverpool Crown Court heard that on 22 May 2017, roofer Marius Andrus was completing snagging work on a replacement roof. The worker had accessed a part of the old roof made of fragile asbestos cement sheets, which gave way. He fell through the sheets to the ground below sustaining fatal injuries.

An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that the area accessed did not have safety nets fitted and that the employer failed to take reasonably practicable measures to reduce the risk to those working on the roof.

AJM Services (Midlands) Ltd of Llanfihangel, Llanfyllin, Powys pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 4(1) of the Work at Height Regulations 2005. The company was fined £51,000 and ordered to pay costs of £5,000.

Speaking after the hearing, HSE inspector Andy McGrory said: “This was a tragic incident, which resulted in a needless loss of life and could have easily been avoided by properly planning the work and ensuring appropriate safeguards were in place.

“Those in control of work at height have a responsibility to devise safe methods of working, which should include providing clear and comprehensive information for their workers and ensuring that they are adequately supervised.”

Owners of the building Pearsons Glass of Maddrell Street, Liverpool pleaded guilty to breaching the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, section 3, at an earlier hearing and were sentenced at Liverpool Crown Court in February 2021. The company was fined £80,000 and ordered to pay costs of £6,656.

An Irvine-based construction company and its director have been sentenced after multiple health and safety failings, giving rise to significant risk, were found on a house build site in Irvine.

Kilmarnock Sheriff Court heard how three inspections by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) took place at the construction site at Eglington Park in Irvine between October and December 2016.

As a result of these inspections, multiple prohibition and improvement notices were served on Stable Homes Limited for health and safety failings including unsafe scaffolding, unsafe electrics, inadequate welfare, unsafe traffic management, site tidiness and lack of general fire precautions.

The HSE investigation found that as client and principal contractor, Stable Homes Limited had failed to put an adequate plan in place to manage and monitor the construction phase of the project and this had led to significant risks on site. They also failed to take adequate action to rectify the failings and comply with the enforcement notices.

The HSE investigation also found that Director of the company, Ravinder Singh, was acting as site manager and directly involved in the failings of the company.

Stable Homes Limited of Mill Crescent, Irvine, pleaded guilty to seven charges under health and safety regulations and was fined a total of £35,332.  Ravinder Singh, of the same address, pleaded guilty to six charges under Section 37(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 for the offences by the company being committed with his consent or attributable to his neglect.  Mr Singh was sentenced to 166 hours community pay back order and was disqualified from holding a directorship for two years.

After the hearing HM inspector Helen Diamond said: “Companies should be aware that HSE will not hesitate to take appropriate enforcement action against those who fall below the standards required on construction sites. HSE will also take action against senior people in those companies for their role in the creation of unacceptable risks on sites.”

BSI, in its role as the UK National Standards Body, publishes a new code of practice for the fire risk appraisal of external wall construction and cladding of existing multistorey and multi occupied residential buildings.

It has primarily been developed to support the upcoming changes to the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order which will confirm that the fire performance of external cladding systems is a material consideration.

The code, PAS 9980:2022, Fire risk appraisal of external wall construction and cladding of existing blocks of flats – Code of practice, has been developed by a steering group¹ of experts in the fields of construction, fire, housing and safety. It is for use by fire engineers and other competent building professionals when undertaking a fire risk appraisal of external walls (FRAEW).

The standard sets out a methodology to conduct and record fire risk appraisals of external walls, which can be scaled up or down depending upon the complexity of individual buildings. It uses a five-step risk assessment process to assist in the identification of risk factors influencing the overall risk rating of a building, as well as mitigation steps that might improve the risk rating. Not all buildings will require an appraisal, and of those that do, not all will require intrusive inspection.

It also gives recommendations for the competence of professionals completing such appraisals. The standard aims to assist with the ongoing effort to increase the number of competent professionals, by providing the knowledge on fire risk arising from various aspects of external wall construction.

Where homeowners and building owners are faced with external wall construction which does not meet the expected standards, PAS 9980 provides a methodology for assessing the level of safety. It also identifies the proportionate steps that could be taken to better safeguard residents while seeking not to expose them to undue financial burdens.

The standard does not alter the obligations placed upon those carrying out building work on external wall construction, nor does it affect the compliance of past building work, whether measured against Building Regulations or contractual obligations.

The standard is sponsored by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities and the Home Office.

Download the standard at no cost here.

With its South Yorkshire inspection campaign drawing to its conclusion the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has found 65 per cent of business to be some form of breach of the law.

Last week 22 inspectors from HSE’s Yorkshire and North East Field Operations teams inspected 71 businesses in the Sheffield and Rotherham area. Of those visited 46 companies needed to make improvements to better protect the health, safety and wellbeing of workers in metal fabrication, engineering, general manufacturing and waste and recycling sectors

During the course of the week inspectors served three prohibition notices and 31 improvement notices. Examples of some of the breaches found included poor controls of welding fumes and metal working fluids.

In addition to where notices have been served, HSE has formally written to a further 23 local businesses to compel them to improve various aspects of health and safety.

Andrew Denison, Acting Head of Operations said: “Protecting the health, safety and wellbeing of workers is of paramount importance and at the heart of what we do.

“The high proportion of breaches identified during this initiative indicates that the risks were not being adequately controlled.

“Inspectors’ have taken robust proportionate action to deal with serious risks and to ensure companies are complying with the law. I hope businesses will take note and understand that they will be held to account if they fail in their responsibilities.”

The recent tragic fire in New York underlines how fire remains a potent threat, despite advances in building design and construction and strict building regulations. 

Some 20 people, including nine children died during a fire in the Bronx apartment building.  Another 32 people were taken to hospital, several of whom remain in a critical condition.

It came just days after an apartment fire in Philadelphia killed 12, with eight children among the dead.

With the Grenfell Tower file still fresh in our minds, it’s also a reminder of something else.  Residential and commercial buildings need fire alarm systems, a sprinkler system where appropriate, and fireproof compartments to contain the fire at source and prevent it spreading.

No doubt, American fire and building safety experts will be looking at both fires.  Not only to determine their cause but how they could have spread so quickly.

Taken together, active and passive fire safety elements are designed to allow occupants to escape from the building.  They also provide safe access for the fire and rescue services.  How those elements are applied depends on the size of the building, its complexity and its function.

For example, an evacuation plan for a hospital or care home will be different to that of an office block, and require a different building safety approach.  In other words, building safety also addresses the mobility, or otherwise, of its likely occupants.

Whatever the building, compartmentation is fundamental to its safety, creating a series of protected fire zones to ensure that the fire is contained. 

For the glazed elements, the UK’s Glass and Glazing Federation has a specific guide on fire-resistant glazing.

Fire is spread through three methods: convection, conduction and radiation, of which convection is the most dangerous. 

This is when smoke from the fire becomes trapped by the roof, spreading in all directions to form a deepening layer.  Smoke, rather than fire, is often the real danger – and seems to have been a major issue in the New York fire.

Jane Embury is a director of Wrightstyle, the advanced glazing specialist

Britain’s workplace regulator the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is set to clamp down on businesses in Sheffield and Rotherham after a sharp increase in the number of serious and fatal incidents noted by its inspectors within the last five years.

There were 12 worker deaths reported to the Health and Safety Executive HSE – under the “RIDDOR” regulations – in Sheffield and Rotherham between 2014 and 2021 and a further 594 serious injuries reported over the same period. Inspection teams will primarily focus on conducting inspections on businesses where workers regularly undertake welding and use metalworking fluids, a high proportion of which are based in the area.

In 2020 around 12,000 people in the UK died from lung diseases likely to be linked to past exposure from work. There is scientific evidence to suggest that exposure to welding fumes can cause lung cancer and exposure to metalworking fluids can cause a range of lung diseases.

From today, Monday 10 January 2022, 22 inspectors from HSE’s Yorkshire and North East field operations teams will visit more than 70 local business, identified by HSE’s targeting and intelligence team as operating in a high risk sector or performing poorly. The businesses span a wide range of sectors including metal fabrication, engineering, general manufacturing, waste and recycling. The operation will last for a week.

Andrew Denison, Acting Head of Operations said: “It is estimated that each year 12,000 workers die in Britain from occupational lung disease and 17,000 new cases report suffering work-related breathing and lung problems. This part of South Yorkshire has a fine tradition in metal fabrication and manufacturing; we just need to ensure that the innovation continues to extend to safe working practice.

“Local inspectors have witnessed an alarming rise in the number of fatalities and injuries in the Sheffield and Rotherham area in the last five years. This initiative will ensure that inspectors are able to visit sites and speak with duty holders to ensure the appropriate controls are in place to protect their workers’ health and safety, particularly in relation to the risks from occupational lung disease. “

During the visits the companies will need to demonstrate that they have measures in place to manage risks to protect the health and well-being of their workers including health conditions such as occupational lung disease.

If an HSE inspector identifies any other areas of concern during an inspection, they will take the necessary enforcement action which in some cases may lead to an Enforcement Notice being served or, in the case of serious breaches, a prosecution.

A care home business run by private health and care provider BUPA has been ordered to pay a record £1.04m after a resident died in a fire while smoking at one of its care homes.

BUPA Care Services (ANS) Ltd was fined £937,500 for fire safety failings and ordered to pay £104,000 prosecution costs at Southwark Crown Court. It is the highest ever fine for fire safety breaches in the UK.

London Fire Brigade brought the prosecution against BUPA under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order after it was called to the blaze at the Manley Court care home on John Williams Close in Brockley in March 2016.

Cedric Skyers, a 69-year-old wheelchair user at the home, died in a fire whilst smoking unsupervised in a shelter in the garden of the home. A care assistant saw the fire from a first-floor window and called 999 before staff attempted to put the fire out, but Mr Skyers sadly died from his injuries.

A subsequent investigation found that although a smoking risk assessment had been carried out for Mr Skyers, it did not assess his use of emollient creams, which can be flammable if allowed to build up on skin, clothing or bedding.

Additionally, apparent burn marks indicative of previous incidents were found on Mr Skyers’ clothing after his death, something which care home staff said they had not been aware of. They said that if they had been, they would have ensured more regular checks were made when he was smoking.

The Brigade brought the case as there had been a failure on BUPA’s part to comply with fire safety duties which placed Mr Skyers and other residents at risk of death or serious injury in case of fire.

BUPA pleaded guilty to contravening Article 11 (1) which relates to the management of fire safety measures. Specifically, it accepted that it had failed to:

• ensure staff understood the risks from the use of emollient creams;
• warn residents using paraffin-based products not to smoke, or, require precautions to be taken such as the use of a smock or apron;
• instruct staff not to leave a resident using paraffin-based products smoking unsupervised; and
• carry out an individual smoking risk assessment of the resident as normal with the control measures in place 

The Brigade’s Assistant Commissioner for Fire Safety, Paul Jennings, said: “This case is an absolutely tragic example of what the devastating consequences of failure to comply with fire safety regulations can be.

“There are a number of measures which the home could have put in place to mitigate the fire risk which Mr Skyers’ limited mobility, emollient cream use and smoking posed – but none of these were implemented.

“Mr Skyers’ family should rightly have been able to trust that he would be safe in a care home, when sadly the opposite was true.

“Such a large fine highlights the seriousness of BUPA’s failure to protect a vulnerable resident in its care.

“If there can be anything constructive to come from this, we hope that it will be that anyone who has a legal responsibility for fire safety in a building – whether as a landlord, property manager, care home provider or any other setting –  takes note and makes sure they are complying with the law.

“I would like to thank my fire investigators, fire safety inspectors and the Brigade’s legal team which has worked tirelessly on this harrowing case for more than five years.”

BigChange, the field service management software provider, today announced that it has adopted location technology what3words to provide more accurate addresses for job locations, making it easier for field service teams to find their site.

By integrating the technology into its job management platform, BigChange has made it possible for customers to add a what3words address to any job booking. 

what3words has divided the world into a grid of 3m squares and given each one three random words from the dictionary: a what3words address. A what3words address provides an extra layer of accuracy to a traditional address, meaning that field teams will arrive at exactly the precise location.

This latest BigChange innovation supports more precise job planning and customer service alerts for BigChange’s customers globally, and enables field service teams to be directed to an exact location – including specific building entrances or destinations in parks, rural areas and building sites not covered by street addresses. This means that no time is wasted looking for the correct location.

More than 100 UK emergency services organisations already use what3words to achieve faster and more accurate responses. BigChange estimates that what3words could save individual field-based employees up to 30 minutes per day in time spent locating jobs.

Richard Warley, BigChange CEO, comments: “Demand is booming for field service businesses. They are looking for innovations that make scheduling slicker, boost productivity and customer experience, and help them grow stronger.”

“This powerful functionality will enable BigChange customers to plan better, provide more precise arrival times with confidence, and save valuable hours every week by directing field-based teams precisely where they are needed.”

James Cochrane, Partnerships Lead at what3words, comments: “We’ve all experienced the horrible feeling of being late to a job because the address wasn’t accurate, and you couldn’t find exactly where you needed to be. what3words acts as a tool in your pocket to ensure you’re directed to the right place, first time, every time.”