SFPE releases Guide to Fire Risk Assessment 2nd Edition

by Featured NewsSafety

The Society of Fire Protection Engineers has announced the release of a new engineering guide: SFPE Guide to Fire Risk Assessment, 2nd edition.

The new edition of the guide provides guidance to qualified practitioners in developing, selecting, and using fire risk assessment methodologies for the design, construction, and operation of buildings, facilities, or processes.

The guide also addresses fire risk acceptability, the role of fire risk assessment and fire risk management in the fire safety design process, and associated communication/monitoring of fire risk. The guide includes a new flow chart that outlines the risk-assessment process, along with new information related to: risk perception, F-N curves, risk communication, residual risk management, risk monitoring and sensitivity analysis

Chris Jelenewicz, PE, FSFPE, Chief Engineer, Society of Fire Protection Engineers, commented: “Understanding the topic of fire risk assessment is essential to gaining insight into and characterizing fire-related risks to better inform the wide range of decisions that should be made concerning a building, facility, or process as part of the design, construction, or operation.

“As a result, implementing a fire risk assessment can lead to a safer, more efficient, and more cost-effective design — especially for fire engineers implementing a performance-based strategy, as it explicitly ad­dresses unique aspects or uses.”

The 160-page guide is available in various formats from SFPE. Institutional licensing options are available to academic, government, and corporate entities from SFPE.

Energy operators warn against meter tampering over fire risk

by Featured NewsSafety

Energy operators have warned of the risks associated with meter tampering and general electrical equipment interference with new figures showing an almost 400% increase in reported incidents between 2017 and 2021, a trend officials predict will continue to rise in 2022. 

It was shown that tampering with meters and cutting into wires or pipes to interfere with energy supplies has caused house fires, gas leaks and electrocutions and that electricity meters in UK premises are connected to a voltage that can be fatal if not installed by a qualified professional and gas meters ensure there’s a constant and safe flow of gas into a property.  

Investigators recently identified illegal meter tampering as the cause of a tragic fire that gutted a property in Glasgow and led to a woman’s death. Police discovered the fire was started by a spark from a prepayment meter that had been illegally bypassed. 

The dramatic rise in tampering and electrical equipment interference is causing increased risk of incidents for householders as operators are seeing DIY attempts at meter tampering that frequently lead to live electricity conductors being exposed or unsealed holes in gas supply pipes. 

David Spillett, Head of Safety, Health and Environment at Energy Networks Association (ENA), which represents the UK’s electricity and gas network operators, had the following safety warning:  “Tampering with your meter can create a ticking time bomb in your home.   

“The UK’s electrical and gas engineers are highly trained professionals who ensure your home’s power system is entirely safe –  tampering with their work risks serious harm to yourself, neighbours and your loved ones and damage to your property that will not be covered by insurance –  it’s just not worth the risk. 

“If you are struggling to pay your energy bill, please speak to your energy supplier or contact Citizen’s Advice for free and impartial advice.” 
 

Peter Smith,  Director of Policy, National Energy Action said: “National Energy Action campaigns to ensure everyone in the UK can live in a warm and safe home. Given the recent relentless increases in energy bills, we know 6.7 million UK households are now in fuel poverty. The crisis is fuelling many types of unsafe and dangerous coping strategies in the home as millions try and adjust to record high bills.

“This worrying research indicates tampering with energy meters is now on the rise and while the motives, scale and the impact of related injuries or incidents is still largely unknown, it’s right to warn people of the risks.

“Meter tampering can be exceptionally dangerous and in extreme incidents can be life threatening – not only to the perpetrators but also nearby neighbours.”

Johnson Controls’ solutions for Naval and Marine applications

by Projects

Johnson Controls has over 100 years of specialised marine experience – protecting vessels at sea and safeguarding life and assets. Their range of solutions are critical in helping to protect vessels and crew from the risk of fire and flooding to the Naval and Commercial sectors within the marine industry.

For over 120 years, Johnson Controls have been working in partnership with the leading companies in these sectors to safeguard vessels and personnel from the threat of fire. As a result, they offer the complete service and support of integrated solutions for marine applications.

Johnson Controls has considerable resources and are staffed by qualified and experienced personnel with a keen focus on customer care, ensuring consistent delivery of high quality service. They have design, engineering and manufacturing expertise in both mechanical and electronic disciplines, together with project management skills and their installation, service and commissioning staff are all in-house trained to provide the best possible service to our clients.

Johnson Controls Marine Services operates through selected business entities located around the world, ensuring a global reach with local partners—essential for marine customers who need on-the-spot assistance while their vessels are in service. With an installed base consisting of about 10,000 vessels, Johnson Controls’ customer base includes more than 20% of all larger ocean-going vessels.

www.johnsoncontrols.com/industries/global-marine-and-navy

Chubb presents high tech solutions to protect data centres from fire

by Projects

Due to the growing usage of mobile data, the production and consumption of rich internet content anytime and anywhere, as well as secure data storage demand from a variety of industries, our lives now rely on data centres. These data centres host and manage the data that makes our day-to-day activities possible – from energy and lighting, to urban traffic management, collaborating with friends, family, co-workers and customers, and even security systems.

Data centres are one of the fastest-growing categories of real estate assets in our cities, and London alone has over 300 data centres. According to commercial real estate firm JLL, there are currently 63.4 million square feet of data-centre space globally and another 4.3 million square feet under construction*. The U.S. and EU currently have the most, and the number in the Middle East and Asia is also growing rapidly**.

Data centres are large, complex and mission-critical facilities. The high-value equipment contained within them needs to be running 24/7/365 with uninterrupted electricity and a constant flow of cool air to secure IT equipment and information. Any interruptions to its operation can have an enormous ripple effect. The operational risks around any disruption are high, in terms of time, money and reputation. A recent report found that, on average, a single hour of downtime can cost an organisation around $300,000***.

One of the key operational disruption risks to a data centre can be from a fire event. The threat of fire at a data centre is higher than people might imagine, with electrical fires a significant risk given the vast networks of power, cabling and electronic equipment used. The risk of fire not only poses a threat to property and human safety, it can also pose a dramatic threat to a business. For co-location and cloud service providers, fire events can be highly significant as service providers are often held to strict service level agreements for application availability.

Businesses rely on highly technical, advanced computer storage and networking resource availability. These are dependent on the availability and performance of the underlying critical infrastructure of which fire systems is an important component. For some businesses, a power outage at a data centre would be detrimental to its survival. For example, ‘business as usual’ at a financial services institution, such as a bank or trading platform, would be seriously compromised by a data centre fire. Hospitals also rely on huge swathes of readily available data and computer power, and so are dependent on the fire and security measures in place to avoid an outage. It is true that fire events are not commonplace, however, they can be costly and catastrophic.

The dependence of businesses on data centres is only going to increase, with the global roll out of 5G in addition to the rise in company outsourcing to third parties for their data needs. This has resulted in the development of large-scale data centres, utilising Internet of Things (IoT) technology or providing AI/ML capabilities, which use high speed and high power. Seconds matter when dealing with data centres, so the solutions need to be fast-acting. They also have to be very reliable, as false alarms result in unnecessary stoppages, which must be avoided at all cost.

There are a number of different ways of protecting a data centre from fire. Before deciding on the type of system required to protect a data centre, it is important to conduct a risk analysis to understand the needs of the organisation, the environment and the main risks. This analysis is complicated by the fact that the data centre industry is constantly evolving, with the development of new technologies and systems posing new challenges for fire and security professionals. For example, Edge Computing systems feature high-powered and advanced data processing at the edge of a network and are typically “lights-out” compared to a centralised data processing centre. This means that fire and security systems have to be set up and engaged remotely, often without industry professionals present. Adding to this complexity, is the high speed processing and power densities that can result in higher temperatures across the network.

In the case of the Hong Kong financial markets operator, after a thorough study of the existing operational and fire and security protection requirements, Chubb designed and recommended an intelligent, integrated solution. This leveraged 3,000 fire detectors and a surveillance system with 400 CCTV cameras to enhance building safety.

One of the choices for fire and security protection methods is between a water or gas solution. Gas protection consists of injecting halogenated gas into the room, which both reduces the oxygen content and interferes with the combustion process.

A second method is to reduce the oxygen level by injecting an inert gas into the room. When activated, gas systems may require evacuation of staff if the event is not localised. However, in order to minimise disruption to the data centre, the extinguishing gas nozzles can be fitted with sound absorbers that limit the noise associated with gas release and prevent damage to data centre equipment.

Alternatively, there are two water-based options to consider – conventional sprinkler or water mist systems. Water mist will spray a fine, high-pressure water mist into the burning area. It may sound strange to introduce water into an area with electricity and mission-critical information, but in fact the high-pressure water mist system brings together the best of sprinkler and gas methods and is highly suitable for suppressing fires.

Indeed, it can be favoured in certain instances because in order to incorporate methods using gas, the room housing the data centre needs to be either purpose-built with gas suppression in mind or retrofitted to withstand a semi-pressurised environment.

The systems involving water do not require the room to be pressure sealed, the ventilation system to be switched off, or require people to be evacuated. The discharge is localised so it minimises the water damage, and resetting to standby position is both fast and inexpensive.

However, recently, a shift has been taking place across our cities, as buildings utilise integrated solutions to manage their fire and security solutions. An integrated system can include surveillance systems, fire suppression systems and alarms – all aligned to optimise response time and protect vital internal infrastructure. In Hong Kong, we helped a financial client utilise 3,000 fire detectors and a surveillance system with 400 CCTV cameras to enable them to have real-time video of fire alarm scenes. The data centre operators can see the actual fire situation, so the whole process of identification to extinguishing takes 10 seconds, reduced from 15 minutes with a traditional fire alarm response.

The dependence of businesses on data centres is only going to increase. Key considerations across all these system choices are safety, cost of implementation and best utilisation of the space available. In addition to this, it is important to be mindful of the impact on the environment and operations around the systems that make up part of the data centre’s infrastructure. Ultimately, business continuity is the most important factor for data centre fire solutions.

Footnotes 

*https://www.jll.co.uk/en/trends-and-insights/investor/global-capital-shows-commitment-to-booming-data-centre-market

**Kaiser Research – Technavio (2016) Global Data Center Market 2016 -2020

***Gartner: The cost of downtime

www.chubbfiresecurity.com

Amazon removes balcony barbecues over fire risk fears

by Active

Retail giant Amazon has removed a number of barbecues specifically designed for use on balconies from sale over serious safety concerns highlighted by London Fire Brigade.

The Brigade’s Deputy Commissioner Richard Mills wrote to the firm and other companies that stock or manufacture the products last month, stating that they are a serious concern with regards to public safety.

Amazon and gift retailer Menkind both responded, confirming they had removed the items from sale and contacted customers who had purchased them offering a full refund if they return or dispose of the barbecues.

Deputy Commissioner Mills is now urgently asking anyone who has purchased such a barbecue and have received an email from one of these companies not to ignore it and to take the risks seriously. If customers have purchased a balcony barbecue from another outlet, they must contact the company and raise the issue if they haven’t heard from them.

He said: “We welcome the prompt and crucial action taken by both Menkind and Amazon in response to the concerns we raised.

“We advise that people never barbecue on their balconies as balcony fires can be devastating.

“Products designed specifically for people to barbecue on their balconies are incredibly irresponsible, and we are now asking customers to take action immediately and not to ignore the warning.

“The fact these companies took such swift action to take these products off the shelves shows what a very real risk they are. However, we remain deeply concerned that other companies did not respond to my letter and that these products may still be available for sale and customers are unaware of the dangers of using them.”

Amazon spokesperson said: “Safety is extremely important to Amazon. As soon as the London Fire Brigade raised concerns and new evidence about these particular products we took quick action, removed them from sale and contacted customers. We value the expertise of the London Fire Brigade and are committed to working closely with them and other relevant authorities on these matters. If customers ever have a concern about an item they’ve purchased, we encourage them to contact our Customer Service team directly so we can investigate and take appropriate action.”

Firefighters have attended more than 600 balcony fires in London in the last three years, including one at a block of flats in Deptford in May which was caused by a barbecue being disposed of in a plastic bag. Dozens of residents were evacuated from the building and a number of people were permanently displaced.

Menkind’s Marketing Director, Fred Prego, said: “Our customers’ health and safety is of utmost importance and we have taken swift action following fire safety concerns from the London Fire Brigade over the balcony barbecue product.

“We immediately removed this product from sale and contacted Menkind customers who purchased it, advising them not to use it on balconies and that they can return it for a full refund.

“Menkind is committed to complying with the latest product safety laws and regulations and we continuously collaborate with relevant authorities on the matter.”