New Guide Places of Worship

[jayjay]

Just come across this new guide from the BRE it is available on TI not sure about the Web

Building Research Establishment
Document Number BR 499
Fire Safety and Security in Places of Worship
Publication Date Published Jan 2009

[John Webb]

Thanks for flagging that up - I'll take a look at the BRE website later today.

[jokar]

John, your take on this will be of interest to us all.  It seems to fit into the world of "lets have another guide to tell us excatly what the CLG guides say".

[John Webb]

Will do. But will be later in the week due to a medical inspection I'm having on Monday.

Church representatives had pleaded with CLG for separate guidence for places of worship when the RR(FS)O and its guides were announced, but we didn't get it. Result is that most churches have been ploughing through the Public Assembly documents, a large amount of which is entirely inappropriate for both churches and/or listed buildings. Perhaps someone's taken note of comments criticisms at long last.

[John Webb]

Jayjay - can't find anything on the BRE website about this - putting in "BR 499" only brings up something about timber research and there is a blank on the fire-related pages.

Got any more details? ie Authors, ISBN? (I don't have access to TI.)

With thanks in anticipation.....

[Morri]

Here's a link to the BRE shop

http://www.brebookshop.com/details.jsp?id=321572

[John Webb]

Thanks, Morri - I hadn't thought to look at the BRE Bookshop website. But strange there's no obvious mention of it on the fire related pages of the main BRE website!

Not that there's any chance of popping across to BRE this morning to get a copy - I was supposed to be at Hemel Hempstead Hospital this morning but the thick snow (approaching 6in/150mm) in the locality has scuppered that!

As soon as I've laid hands on this BRE book, I'll report back.

[nearlythere]

From my reading of the document it seems to be making the assumption that the passive and active measures are already in place and does not differentiate between a place of worship and any other PPA. It appears to be more a document about the management of fire safety and security issues.

[jokar]

John,
I have sent you a message, that you can pick up from the my messages link at the top of the page.

[John Webb]

Jokar,

Message received but I'm not certain my reply to the e-mail address you gave me was transmitted - got some odd message which implied my anti-virus program had held  it up!

If you haven't received my reply I suggest you PM me on here and I'll have another go.

Ah! the marvels of modern science!

[John Webb]

New message sent at about 10.38am today.

[kurnal]

I would be interested in hearing your views on this document, whether there is anything new within it and whether its worth the investment from the competent fire risk assessors viewpoint.

Thanks

[colin todd]

Kurnal. its digital is it not: if you are advising, or carrying out a fra for, a place of worship, its surely essential, never mind worth the investment. If you arent, its not.

[kurnal]

Tht surely depends on the status and quality of the guidance does it not? There are many useful documents on the subject - eg those produced by the Methodist Church- I was wondering whether this one offers anything new or just the opinion of another stakeholder organisation reiterating similar content? If I buy every new guidance document and read every one there will be little time to practice and still less money  to fund the latest BS which is becoming by far my largest outgoing. Even the kids are starting to look like good value.

[John Webb]

I'm still working my way through the copy Jokar was able to let me have. So far I'm not particularly impressed with it.

The only useful thing I've found so far extra to other currently available advice is the part dealing with the use of fire in some of the non-Christian forms of worship.

I hope to complete my review by tomorrow and I'll post my comments as soon as I can.