FPA responds to DLUHC consultation on sprinklers in care homes

by Featured NewsPassive

The Fire Protection Association has submitted its response to the DLUHC consultation on sprinklers in care homes, the removal of national classes, and staircases in residential buildings.

In its response, the FPA restated its position that health and life safety should be realised alongside the consideration of property protection. The FPA’s response calls on those responsible not to design and build solely to the ‘life safety before collapse’ objective, and for the application of the LPC Sprinkler Rules.

The FPA said: ““We encourage DLUHC to recognise that the protection of care home buildings as an asset and place of healthcare that provides a vital service to residents and their families in the wider community warrants a commitment to the LPC Sprinkler Rules. Other systems providing suppression or extinguishment for health and life safety only are not sufficient to protect the asset.”

The Association said it opposes a 10-bed threshold as an arbitrary threshold will simply encourage 9 bed facilities, and the proposal to limit the sprinkler requirement to new care homes only:“Most care homes already exist, and this DLUHC proposal limited to new care homes does not retrofit the existing stock as it should.”

On the removal of national classifications, the FPA said it broadly agrees with the DLUHC proposal, but noted the issues surrounding the historic problems arising from the Class 0/B transposition in Approved Document B. 

And on staircases in residential buildings, the FPA said that that the question of evacuation and intervention should be addressed for all buildings regardless of height or occupancy, rather than there being a maximum threshold for the provision of a single staircase in multioccupancy residential buildings.

It noted, however, that the: “Call for two stairs is simplistic. It ignores the combination of measures that may be considered to provide for evacuation and intervention” as even in lower rise buildings that have other fire safety inadequacies, single stairs can become impassable. The provision of stairs is just one factor, and the FPA believe it is important not to leap to the conclusion that all single stair buildings are dangerous.

The FPA’s full submitted response to the consultation can be found here.

‘We can do better, we can do more’: NFSA responds to child fire fatalities

by Featured NewsFire Suppression

The National Fire Sprinkler Association (NFSA) has responded to media-reported child fire fatalities since the beginning of 2022 calling for improved fire protection measures.

The Association has logged news articles that report 217 children as victims of fatal fires since January. These fires occurred in apartments, town homes, single family residences and condominiums. NFSA said that although the residences varied, one thing did not; none were equipped with fire sprinklers.

“We can do better, and we can do more,” said NFSA President Shane Ray. “Losing children in fires underscores the importance of fire protection, and there’s no better prevention technology than fire sprinklers. This also reminds us that fire risks increase during the holidays.”  

He continued: “We represent the most effective means of buying you time to escape a fire and for the fire department to arrive. We also represent the only product in residences that is singled out in 26 state laws as prohibited in the code adoption process. Shame on these states.

“The deaths of these children and the thousands of others that die in fire in the future are on the hands of those who work to exclude fire sprinklers.” 

NFSA collects information from across the country on when fire sprinklers save lives and property. Over 37,000 people have died in building fires since 2010 without fire sprinklers. In the same time period, only 68 people have died in building fires with fire sprinklers.  

“It doesn’t matter how old the residence is, it’s the contents that kill people and causes cancer to firefighters,” Ray added. “According to the United States Fire Administration there has been a 24% increase in fire deaths. This will only continue to get worse as more houses are built with more and more unregulated contents that are brought into this country.”  

Pye-Barker acquires Bender & Modlin Fire Sprinkler Inc.

by Americas - Featured NewsFeatured News

 Pye-Barker Fire & Safety, headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, has announced the acquisition of Bender & Modlin Fire Sprinkler, Inc.

The acquisition will strengthen Pye-Barker’s presence in Jacksonville, Florida and the surrounding markets of northeast Florida and southeast Georgia.

Bender & Modlin Fire Sprinkler is a full-service fire sprinkler company specializing in commercial and industrial fire sprinkler and protection systems. Allen Bender and Terry Modlin founded Bender & Modlin together in 1999 after a combined 50-year career as sprinkler contracting managers.

Bender & Modlin is an active member of the National Fire Protection Association, and supporter of the F.A.S.T. Apprenticeship Program and the National Institute for Certification in Engineering Technologies.

Allen Bender, President of Bender & Modlin, said: “Terry Modlin and I are thrilled to now be a part of the Pye-Barker family and to be moving to a new season in the evolution of our company. From the first meeting with Pye-Barker, it’s been evident that this is the right move. The process has been seamless, and we’re excited about the future for our customers and employees.

“We have a great personal relationship with the Pye-Barker management team, and all of us at Bender & Modlin Fire Sprinkler feel that we now have a genuine partner who has our best interest at heart.”

Bart Proctor, CEO of Pye-Barker, commented: “Bender & Modlin has a well-deserved reputation for consistently putting their customer first by recommending and building the most efficient and effective fire sprinkler systems in the industry.

“Their focus on the customer is unmatched and they’re a great group of people to work with. I couldn’t be happier that we are joining forces.”

Bender & Modlin will retain its name, leadership, and knowledgeable employees.

NFPA issues guidance on Sprinkler usage

by Breaking NewsPassive

The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) has issued guidance on best practice for sprinkler systems following National Sprinkler Week which took place from 16-22nd of May.

Today NFPA 13E – the ‘Standard for the Installation of Sprinkler Systems – provides the information necessary to ensure fire departments are trained on and operate effectively with automatic fire sprinkler systems.

The guidance document explains that although some fire sprinkler systems are designed to suppress a fire, most are designed to control a fire. The main difference between fire control and fire suppression is related to the fire sprinkler systems impact on the fires heat release rate. 

The three principal causes of fire sprinkler system failures identified in NFPA 13E are a closed control valve, inadequate water supply for the system and occupancy changes that render the installed system unsuitable.

Beyond the primary causes found in the recommended practice, NFPA has conducted research on the U.S. Experience with Fire Sprinklers to help understand fire sprinkler effectiveness. 

The NFPA said that familiarisation with the types of control valves and their layout in a system will allow firefighters to both understand what valves will disrupt water flow and what position have they should be in for effective operation. 

If firefighters encounter a valve which is not in the correct position during a fire, placing that valve in the correct position may restore the system effectiveness.

Additionally, fire departments should never turn off a sprinkler system that has activated until they have confirmed the fire is fully extinguished and overhaul has taken place, and noted that simply turning the system back on may not reestablish fire control.

On water supply, it said it may be inadequate due to a lack of available water flow, lack of available pressure or both, and since fire department pumpers often have the capacity to supply water at higher flow rates and pressures than the normal water supply, utilising a fire department pumper to supply water to the fire department connection (FDC) can address most inadequate supply concerns. 

On occupancy changes, it said that although the fire department does not have an ability to impact occupancy changes during a fire incident, an effective pre-plan and inspection program has the potential to identify occupancy changes which can adversely impact fire sprinkler system effectiveness before fires occur.

It advised training those conducting these inspections to understand what types of commodities would represent a high heat release rate fire and how to identify if a sprinkler system could be designed to deliver the necessary water density can reduce this potential cause of failure.

It concluded by saying: “As with all NFPA recommended practices, the language is less rigid than a standard or code, utilising “should” instead of “shall” as to not limit the individual fire departments, allowing them to adopt more effective procedures.

“Familiarisation with NFPA 13E provides anyone who may be utilising a fire sprinkler system the knowledge necessary to positively impact the systems effectiveness. 

NFCC Think Sprinkler campaign backed by victims’ families

by Featured NewsPassive

The families of two women who lost their lives at a care home fire in Hertfordshire in 2017 have backed the National Fire Chiefs Council’s (NFCC) campaign urging the government to improve sprinkler regulations in England.

Claire Miles and Carole Murray, daughters of Daphne Holloway and Ivy sprigs who lost their lives at a fire at Newgrange Care Home, have added their support as part of NFCC’s ‘Think Sprinkler’ week of action which runs from 16-22 May.

NFCC are campaigning for all care homes in the UK to be retrofitted with sprinkler systems, as well as requiring new build care homes to have sprinklers to help protect residents in these buildings today and for future generations.

According to research by NFCC and the National Fire Sprinkler Network, Sprinklers reduce fire damage by around 75% and people are 50% less likely to be injured. On 99% of occasions sprinklers can control or extinguish a fire.

There is currently no building regulation requirement in England for care homes to be fitted with sprinklers.

Claire Miles, daughter of Daphne said of the campaign: “Yes, there is a cost to fitting sprinklers, but there’s a greater human cost to those who risk life and limb for others – and those firefighters called to Newgrange certainly did that. There’s a cost to losing those we love before their time and in such terrible circumstances.”

Mark Andrews NFCC lead for higher risk accommodation, said the NFFC applauds homes that have opted to install sprinkler systems.

“More widespread installation of sprinklers in all care homes will prevent future deaths and could have prevented the loss of life at Newgrange and in other care home fires across the UK,” he said.

“We urge families to ask questions of care home managers and owners to ensure your loved ones are adequately protected from fire.”  

AEI Cables says fire industry needs guidance on sprinklers

by Passive

AEI Cables is asking for further guidance on the application of new measures which make sprinkler systems mandatory in all new high-rise blocks over 11 metres high.

The government announced an amendment to the statutory guidance to building safety regulations, known as Approved Document B, reducing the requirement for sprinkler systems from the current 30 metres to 11 metres.

Stuart Dover, general manager of AEI Cables, said: “The introduction of new legislation is welcomed but the cabling industry and wider fire safety industry needs more detail on the guidance to make it work in practice.

“The fire safety industry relies on the highest quality products to make changes in legislation and we are already being asked questions about the changes.”

The Fire Safety Bill, which was introduced to Parliament in April, will also empower fire and rescue services to take enforcement action and hold building owners to account if they do not comply with the law.

The tried and tested generation of AEI Cables’ fire performance cabling ensure critical fire-safety circuits can continue to operate in the event of a fire from 30 minutes up to 120 minutes and often support systems which provide intelligence for the fire and rescue services.

AEI Cables’ Firetec Enhanced cabling is the only cable to be independently approved and certified by LPCB to BS8519 (Annex B) Category 3 Control for firefighting systems including sprinkler pumps, fire suppression water mist systems, water spray systems, wet riser pumps, wet riser valve and equipment monitoring under the Code of Practice.

All AEI Cables’ products are supplied with approvals from independent bodies including BASEC and LPCB. It also holds approvals from organisations including Lloyds, the MoD, Network Rail and LUL and works to international standards around the world.

www.aeicables.co.uk