Fire regs

Euroclad - low risk fire solutions

For over twenty-five years Euroclad has been at the forefront of the manufacture, development, design and application of low fire risk metal envelope solutions for a wide range of buildings from commercial and industrial buildings to schools.

Euroclad has a range of tested wall, roof and wall constructions that combine the most appropriate materials and designs to deliver guaranteed fire performance. No one material or product is best for all applications and the Euroclad team will help with the right specification that will be 'fit for purpose'.

Designing a building for fire safety is rather different from many other design exercises. Fire may never occur throughout the life of the building, so fire safety design and precautions may prove to be unnecessary and the design may never be tested. There is seldom an opportunity for 'fine tuning' because, if the fire precautions fail, there will probably be no building left to fine tune.

That is why it is vital that designers understand the basic performance of materials, components and structures when exposed to fire attack. They will then be able to make the correct decisions that will reduce fire risk and produce a robust fire risk assessment. Euroclad solutions are tested and proven and the Technical team can give all the information required  for fire design and fire risk assessment.

Fire Safety Order

New fire safety rules affecting all non-domestic premises in England and Wales came into force nearly four years ago. The Regulatory Reform [Fire Safety] Order 2005 is called the Fire Safety Order [FSO] for short and is the biggest overhaul of fire safety legislation in decades. The Government's over-riding aim is to save more people from death and injury by reducing risk and preventing fires. Key to this is a switch from fire protection to fire prevention and the foundation to this is a new emphasis on fire risk assessment. It also introduces the concept of "responsible person" who has the duty to complete and update a fire risk assessment for a building that is occupied. The FSO covers virtually all buildings - new and old - except for dwellings not in multiple occupation and some that come under Crown Immunity.

[For more information and links to official guidance click this link.]

Building Regulations and fire risk assessment

The 2006 revision to Part B of the Building Regulations reflects this and for the first time designers are being asked to complete a fire risk assessment as the first stage of the design process.

"It would be useful for the designers of a building to carry out a preliminary fire risk as part of the design process. If a preliminary risk assessment is produced, it can be used as part of the Building Regulations submission and can assist the fire safety enforcing authority in providing advice at an early stage..."

Previously a fire risk assessment was done after the design was complete and fire prevention measures added to the design. This may have included sprinklers, smoke extraction, alarms and protection of combustible materials by non-combustible materials

This is also picked up in the new Appendix G: Fire Safety Information that links them to the FSO. It states:

"Fire safety information shall be given to the responsible person at the completion of the project or when the building or extension is first occupied."

Fire safety information means information relating to the design and construction which will help the responsible person. This should include compartmentation and separation, passive and active fire design assumptions.

[For information and links to official guidance click here]

Fire service

The fire service has been radically reformed in parallel with the FSO. Saving lives, rather than property is now the priority with a focus on the need for more effective fire prevention as well as fire protection. National service standards used for the last 50 years and based on property have been scrapped in favour of local Integrated Risk Management Plans [IRMP] based on saving lives.

The consequence of many IRMPs is that brigades are sending small appliances, or in the first instance, just an observer, to commercial fires where no lives are at immediate risk. Insurers are concerned that they are starting to see more large losses.

The situation for schools, hospitals and shopping centres may be improved but the trade off is that industrial estates overnight are less well served. Many insurers are already insisting on improved passive safety.

The Association of British Insurers  [ABI] in their latest design guidance calls for:

'Increased use of compartmentation should be considered for new and existing premises to limit spread of fire'

What this means is that previous fire engineering design decisions based on assumed response time from the fire service may have to be modified. Fire fighting may be delayed or non-existent.

Euroclad has a range of metal envelope solutions that will deliver low risk buildings and counter any increased risk from the new approach of the fire service.

**Interesting Info - Richard Hammond's Engineering Connections - Series 2 - Guggenheim Bilbao

It is available on BBC Iplayer - http://bbc.co.uk/i/snkxs/

In this program, Richard discusses the engineering principles behind the design of the Guggenhein which, endorses our philosphy - that is  - when constructing with ultimate fire resitence in mind, Rockwool within the construction is the best solution.

If you would like to learn more - why not book a CPD Seminar they are FREE! click here

If you can't find what you are looking for please get in touch - Call 02920 790 722 or email us at support@euroclad.com