There's been thousands of column inches, hours of TV and video plus pages of internet information devoted to fitting sprinklers to flats above 18m high in England & Wales in the way and Wales as our Scottish pals enjoy, following Grenfell.
Of course, its pretty clear that a sprinkler or water mist system would have been very useful at Grenfell, as if the fire had been contained in the flat (it nearly was by the LFB), there would have been no (or less) external fire spread and only a few of us would have ever heard of the building. Surely it is now very likely that additional sprinkler requirements will be one of the outcomes of the inquiry, but of course, we will have to wait and see.
I am interested how in Scotland - and elsewhere - when sprinklers are fitted into social housing blocks that suffer vandalism, what sort of provision is made to protect heads from nefarious activities resulting in their actuation? I am aware of sprinkler heads that tuck away out of sight, but unless they are set behind thick plate steel, the yobs are bound to get in and do their worse.
I used to be stationed at North Kensington fire station before I discovered the black art of fire safety. I knew Grenfell Tower fairly well. There was smoke detection on landings behind powder coated steel mesh boxes. Many of the boxes were blackened and had their plastic coating burned off as yobs presumably held lighters against the smoke detectors in order to actuate the fire alarm system. Unfortunately for them, the heads were part of the AOV system so there were no sounders.
The landings were often used as youth clubs during poor weather. Youths would hang around bored, and damage what they could to keep amused. They'd also leave their drugs and used sharps in dry riser outlet boxes (by placing them through the U shaped gap where the boxes were cut to be placed over the riser pipe). The potential for a needlestick injury was a real problem for fire crews setting in to the riser in a hurry.
This is the level of vandalism current right now across the UK in some areas. I can see sprinklers as being a huge target for yobs and ?thousands of damage occurring regularly in some areas
I recall some work being carried out in relation to fitting sprinklers in prison cells. This of course would be an environment where sprinklers may be a target for fun/vandalism. I am not sure what the results were from that work, but perhaps this is an option???
