SWFire

I agree that the smoke detector is a little over the top and I would not usually make such a recommendation. My concern is that some of the significant findings I have raised were raised 8 years ago by another assessor and by the fire and rescue authority and they’ve not been actioned. With regard to Detection, I suppose it would have to be a Grade D LD2 System although I wouldn’t want Detection in the means of escape as I feel this could be detrimental to the safety of tenants in event of any fire in the escape route. I do appreciate its not an ideal situation and I’m not overly comfortable with it myself and I hope they carry out all other recommendations to further reduce the need for such detection. With regard to checks, I have recommended periodic checks as per the ‘fire safety in purpose built blocks of flats’ to include checking the operation of final exit doors and electromagnetic devices, Visual check of any Communal fire doors and nominal flat entrance fire doors for signs of damage and to ensure housekeeping is monitored.

Hi Tom, Thank you for the response, it’s great to know there are like-minded people who simply want to create a responsible fire safety culture and attitude. Thats what I thought with regard to the meter cupboards With regard to the flat entrance doors, I’ve been told a fire door inspector is being bought in to carry out a 100% check of our doors, all of which are composite. The company I work for are requesting that, as they are doing this, that I remove the flat entrance doors as a significant finding and place it somewhere else in the report as an advisory without a risk rating / timescale attached, which to be honest I won’t be doing as I’ve got no confidence in the doors having taken a look at them and I would rather they weren’t ‘buried’ in the report. This is another reason why I will be recommending a smoke detector in the meter cupboard also, unfortunately some of our blocks have historical issues with regard to housekeeping, storage and smoking within the block, we’re lucky if the door handles are still intact at the time of the FRA! Just to add to that, many of our blocks are never subject to fire safety checks to ensure that final exit doors work, housekeeping is to a good standard etc. (Another recommendation that’s been disputed ?) Appreciate the advice Tom.

Hi all, I’m after some thoughts on the below scenario Block of 6 flats - 2 flats per floor across 3 floors On the ground floor is an electrical meter cupboard in the Communal area opening onto the means of escape Walls, floor and ceiling are concrete - the doors are not fire doors I work for a provider of social housing and part of my role is to carry out Fire Risk Assessments. I recently carried out a fire Risk Assessment (so far I’ve covered about 60 blocks) and generally find that the meter room is being used for inappropriate storage by the tenants (from pushchairs to butane gas ?) or there’s evidence of the electrical equipment overheating. We can’t keep them locked as tenants need to read their meters and forget to lock the door afterward. At the start of my Assessments I was carrying out a visual inspection of flat entrance doors and identified there are no intumescent smoke seals. I was requested to stop doing this as the findings were becoming a ‘headache’ for my manager / organisation as they currently believe the doors are FD30S and don’t want to hear anything different due to cost implications. One of my recommendations is to fit an FD30S door to the meter cupboard and to install some Detection in the cupboard as otherwise, how would anyone be alerted to a fire? I appreciate Detection is not required as a benchmark however, by only fitting an FD30s door won’t it simply delay the spread? What’s 30+ Minutes when your asleep in your flat at night? It has been suggested to me that any fire in the cupboard should burn itself out which is fair enough however, I still think a detector in the cupboard would ensure that we as a company are alerted to a fire, however minor, so that we can carry out the necessary remedial work to prevent it from becoming a bigger issue. I’ve read the sleeping Accommodation guidance and the purpose built blocks of flat guidance. To be fair, both do not advocate for Detection in Communal areas of flats built to building regs unless there is an issue with compartmentation (which I suppose currently there is due to the flat entrance doors). Sorry for the long question but what would you do?