Sleeping Accomodation - page 55

[partymarty007]

I think sprinklers IS the answer. Although retro fitting would be to costly. New domestics buildings with a storey height more than 18m above ground will be sprinklered.....  AFD in the bedrooms, living room and kitchen, good quality Long duration fire door is the minimum standard for existing. Properly maintained and a home fire safety check for the occupiers.

[Phoenix]

Hi Marty,

In England it's 30m, not 18m.  Is Scotland different?

Stu

[partymarty007]

Sure is Stu

2.15 of the tech handbook states a high rise domestic requires auto life safety fire suppresion.  Definition of high rise domestic is a building with a storey height more that 18m.  Then annex 2A gives more info on system etc.

Give me an email at work re reunion etc.

cheers

[mevans421]

Has anyone got experience from fitting sprinklers - what trade off in terms of not having to upgrade other aspects of compartmentation they have been able to negotiate with their respective FRS's?

[Phoenix]

The trade-off for sprinklers is usually in terms of levels of fire resistance.  For blocks of flats there's not a lot to be had - the requirement for compartmentation does not diminish when sprinklers are installed.  Maybe you feel it should but then you'd have to be very sure about the reliability of the sprinklers throughout the entire lifetime of the building.  Reliability not just in terms of operating but in terms of controlling the fire also - two different things - and two things that have not proven 100% reliable so far.

Now we may have good evidence at our fingertips that compartmentation has questionable reliability and that may strengthen the argument to offer compensation for sprinkler installation.

Stu

[Bobbins]

Re the Camberwell Fire - anyone any idea where I would find or buy "preliminary results" from any investigation currently under-way?

I've tried googling - but obviously all that's coming up thus far is very tragic human interest stories. 

I have some information on the preliminary causes, the stairs were of wood construction and the supporting structure penetrated the walls of the stair well into voids and cavities that were not fire stopped. House keeping and maintenance was poor and vandals had stolen some hinges from fire doors. The main problem for the lateral flame spread appears to be the building design. The internal stairs for each flat penetrated the lateral corridors inside the false ceiling without any form of fire resisting casing. Windows were open and plastic bird spikes on the window ledges are also thought to be contributing factors. All councils across the UK are checking their housing stock apparently the design faults would not have been obvious during a walk around risk assessment. ‘Official sources claim’ 

[Bobbins]

Re the Camberwell Fire - anyone any idea where I would find or buy "preliminary results" from any investigation currently under-way?

I've tried googling - but obviously all that's coming up thus far is very tragic human interest stories. 

I have some information on the preliminary causes, the stairs were of wood construction and the supporting structure penetrated the walls of the stair well into voids and cavities that were not fire stopped. House keeping and maintenance was poor and vandals had stolen some hinges from fire doors. The main problem for the lateral flame spread appears to be the building design. The internal stairs for each flat penetrated the lateral corridors inside the false ceiling without any form of fire resisting casing. Windows were open and plastic bird spikes on the window ledges are also thought to be contributing factors. All councils across the UK are checking their housing stock apparently the design faults would not have been obvious during a walk around risk assessment. ‘Official sources claim’ 

The bit about the internal flat stairs is the official CLG release the rest is just press stuff sorry I mixed the two together following a conversation about the fire. I have seen the official release now and it does only mention the wooden internal flat stairs breaching the communal horizontal corridors.

Sorry I wasn't strictly accurate.

[ps]

Cheers Bobbins - very useful info - either way round!