We look at the latest guidance for fire safety in healthcare buildings and some innovations designed to improve the operation of fire doors and employ the building's HVAC system to make evacuation easier and safer.
Stephen Adams, Chief Executive of BAFE, the independent registration body for third party certified fire protection companies across the UK, talks Pulse through the latest regulations and advice around fire safety for the healthcare premises.
Regulations
The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 (and equivalent legislation in Scotland and Northern Ireland) states a number of requirements that need to be performed to ensure the safety of the people in the building. This includes assessing all fire risks, equipping the building with appropriate fire-fighting equipment such as fire extinguishers, a quality fire detection and alarm system and illuminated emergency exits where required. These must all be maintained to a good standard, ready to work in the event of fire.
There is also the Health Technical Memorandum Part K (Guidance on fire risk assessments in complex healthcare premises) that provides comprehensive advice intended for use by competent persons (1.9).
Competent contractors
At present anybody can claim to be a fire risk assessor, fire alarm installer, extinguisher technician to perform these works with complete disregard for any recognised qualifications/certification. If you specify works to be performed in your building and they are completed by a provider that is not deemed competent you are the person that is responsible in the eyes of the law. This is why it is so important to do things right at the first opportunity and ensure all equipment is maintained to a high quality standard.
I use the word competent because this is what legislation specifically states. A competent provider must be knowledgeably aware of how to perform works in the area of fire protection for which they are specified.
Facilities managers should specify third party certified providers for their fire safety requirements. Third party certification is a clear means of providing evidence that your provider is competent in specific areas of fire protection. This also helps to create a clear case that you have acted with due diligence to keep your building protected and safe from fire.
Strategies & procedures
Fire safety is always about life safety. BAFE acknowledged this even more strongly when we launched our Life Safety Fire Risk Assessment scheme (SP205). It is obvious the main reason for any risk assessment is to protect life first and foremost but this becomes of vital importance in buildings such as a hospital. This then relies on the person responsible for fire safety to ensure that the right procedure is in place in the event of fire.
Keeping staff up-to-date and trained on systems and provisions such as the fire detection and alarm system and locations of fire extinguishers/how to operate them is crucial. You should also actively encourage your staff and visitors to report anything that needs attention (for example, an illuminated fire exit sign not working or fire doors not closing correctly). This will help your duty of care to identify issues and to rectify these as quickly as possible.
Help is available
The Fire Risk Assessment Competency Council has published ‘A Guide to Choosing a Competent Fire Risk Assessor’ which can be found online. This document has been created to establish who is competent to fulfil this task as well as methods by which people can demonstrate their competence, including companies registered to the BAFE SP205 scheme.
A competent, skilled fire risk assessor will be able to assist in highlighting all the required necessities to complete a full assessment. This may also mean new tasks will be required, such as the siting of fire extinguishers or installing additional detectors to ensure a safe environment, which is vital to ensure people are alerted to fire as quickly as possible to allow a safe evacuation.
All BAFE registered companies are third party certified in specific areas of fire protection by UKAS accredited Certification Bodies using BAFE developed schemes.
If you require fire protection services for your premises, using BAFE will ensure that the companies that provide them are competent, meet all the appropriate standards and have been regularly, independently audited.
Solving the persistent wedged door problem
Agrippa fire door holders are proving a great success at one of the North East’s largest hospital Trusts, where they are legally holding open fire doors, helping to ease access through busy corridors whilst protecting occupants in the event of a fire alarm.
Designed for ease of installation and quick fitting to any door, Agrippa wire-free door holders use Geofire’s unique, advanced digital technology to ‘listen and learn’ the sound of a specific fire alarm. This ensures the holder’s releasing trigger reacts only to the precise sound of the fire alarm rather than extraneous loud noises, so false activations are eliminated.
Gateshead NHS Foundation Trust’s Fire Safety Advisor recognises that for many, fire doors can be a barrier to access, particularly for wheelchair users and people with restricted mobility. A spokesperson says: "Agrippa fire door holders have proved to be the perfect solution within certain areas of the Trust - they are compact, easy to fit and programme. Additionally, their ‘learning’ of the specific fire alarm means that they work perfectly with our alarm bells and there have been no false closures due to loud noises."
It can be tempting to wedge open fire doors to help free movement around a busy building, such as a hospital or care home. However well intentioned, wedging open fire doors provides no protection for a building and its occupants should a fire break out, allowing smoke and flames to rapidly spread.
As a retrofit solution, Agrippa acoustic devices are designed for ease of installation and can be fitted quickly to any door. The magnetic fire door holder is hygienically mounted at the top of the fire door. A unique learning function optimises settings to suit the installed position, and it can be programmed for timed daily releases. It will not cause damage to flooring, and can be reapplied or moved with minimal fuss. It requires only two C cell batteries (which last for 12 months), has battery life indication and low battery warning. It is approved to EN1155 and CE Marked.
The Agrippa acoustic products range also includes an acoustically triggered ‘free-swing’ fire door closer. UK specialist Geofire designs and manufactures a wide range of electromagnetic door holders and other activation devices used widely as part of fire, security or ventilation systems.
Let the fire service take control
A fireman’s override function built in as standard to the latest ABB HVAC drive is improving the speed and safety of emergency evacuation procedures in non domestic buildings and tunnels. The feature is helping consultants to design functioning escape routes and escape strategies within buildings. It also allows emergency services to easily trigger these essential functions to aid in the evacuation of personnel or whilst fighting fires. All of this is achieved without the cost or additional system complexity of using a building management system.
Fireman’s override is a switch or input that allows the fire service to take control of variable-speed drives (VSDs) controlling fans and turn them into smoke extraction units to maintain escape routes. It maintains the VSD’s operational availability whilst it is being used as part of the emergency fire control operations.
The fireman’s override allows the VSD to be programmed to a pre-set or PID-controlled speed for assistance in emergency situations or emergency evacuation route protection.
The mode is usually triggered with a special key at the fireman’s control station. Upon receipt of a contact closure or a signal from the building’s fire alarm system, the VSD enters 'fire mode' and overrides all other inputs whether they be analogue/digital, serial communication and all keypad commands. It ignores faults and warnings to ensure a 'run at all costs' operation and forces the motor to run at the adjustable, pre-set speed or PID-controlled speed.
The VSDs then operate the HVAC motors in reverse to remove smoke from the building, assisting with visibility and safety during firefighting.
Fire mode cannot be triggered by any other signal or manual option. Once the VSD enters fire mode it cannot exit this mode until the fire condition signal is reset.
The emergence of stairwell pressurisation to ensure escape routes are accessible is easier to achieve with a VSD in PID control than with an uncontrolled direct-on-line (DOL) motor. This is because DOL runs the motors at full speed without any control, whereas PID control maintains the pressure in a stairwell at constant value, thereby keeping the stairwell positively pressurised to keep smoke and fire out.
Furthermore, the PID controller will detect sudden pressure change caused by doors opening, windows blowing out or walls burning away, and alter the motor speed accordingly to keep the pressure correct – DOL cannot do this as it is either 'on' or 'off'.
