OF LATE, there has been much talk of the dash for warehouses that service a thriving e-commerce sector. Demand is strong for large, tall and clear spaces to meet the seemingly insatiable appetite for online shopping. When you consider that the average cost of a large warehouse fire is £5.9 million and that 43 warehouse fires occur every month, can those businesses operating them afford to take any risks when it comes to fire protection? The Business Sprinkler Alliance investigates.

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THE UPHEAVAL in education due to the pandemic in the past year has only highlighted how damaging the closure of schools has been and the legacy of lost learning. Further unnecessary interruption to education should be avoided, not least when it comes to fire, writes Iain Cox.

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IN EARLY April, when industrial fires broke out in two different locations, they both had the same devastating outcome. As Tom Roche observes, these outcomes once again create a focus on the debate about mandating fire sprinkler systems for buildings.

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RECENTLY, AN article authored by Lars Rohde (the Governor of Denmark’s National Bank) was published in The Financial Times and highlighted the fact that a bank’s capital buffer should work much like a sprinkler system. In other words, writes Iain Cox, it exists to ensure a bank can continue to provide credit in times of crisis, much like a sprinkler contains a fire prior to the arrival of the Fire and Rescue Service.

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BACK IN August 2019, a fire started in the roof area of a care home in Crewe, but then spread rapidly and completely destroyed the complex. Seventeen months later, a bedroom fire at another care home in Mobberley was extinguished by an automatic sprinkler system in less than three minutes. According to Iain Cox, this begs the question: ‘With so many vulnerable residents in these buildings, why did one care home have sprinklers and the other didn’t?’

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In the eyes of the law, to what extent do any British or European Standards have to be complied with when it comes to issues of fire safety? With a keen focus on fire sprinkler systems in particular, Stewart Kidd assesses some major court case judgements in a bid to determine the answer

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THE RECENT publication of the Government’s draft Building Safety Bill confirms its commitment to putting safety at the heart of all future building design and development. Here, Ges Wallace discusses the document and what it could mean for the future of our built environment.

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DESPITE THE easing of some of the restrictions around the Coronavirus, there remains a strong emphasis on keeping workplaces COVID-19 secure, with companies who fail to comply facing criminal prosecution. Ian McKinnon discusses what this means for employers and explains what can be done to promote compliance throughout the supply chain.

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In an exclusive interview for Fire Safety Matters, Western Business Media’s CEO Mark Sennett chats with Paul Pope (Group business development director at Global Fire Equipment and also a director of the Fire Industry Association) and Mike Tobin (chair of the Independent Fire Engineering and Distributors Association) about the current ‘State of the Nation’ in the UK’s fire industry. The impact of COVID-19, the overriding need for competency and the likely effects of Brexit are very much under the microscope

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FIRE EXTINGUISHERS are full of pressurised chemicals so it follows that they cannot simply be thrown into the rubbish. Rather, certain steps must be taken to ensure safe disposal.

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FIRES CAN realise short-term and long-term devastation on data processing operations, but also reach far beyond the Data Centre itself, impacting Data Centre customers, their customers and so on. Here, Richard Taylor examines the key points to consider when formulating a fire safety strategy.

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THE DISPARITIES between Approved Document B (Fire Safety) Volume 1 and the recent revision of Part 6 of BS 5839 present housing providers with varying guidelines on the minimum requirement of fire safety provisions their property portfolio should currently specify. Ian Ballinger outlines why housing providers should consider pairing an LD1 Category specification with the Internet of Things and Artificial Intelligence to future-proof their housing portfolio.

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Where do we stand with the introduction of new products or innovations to the fire safety market? Are they openly embraced and recognised for their benefits or met with a barrage of naysayers and general scepticism underpinned by comments such as: “It will never work as it doesn’t comply…”? Peter Blandon addresses this issue.

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AS AN industry, we’re now well versed and experienced in the value of sprinkler systems. Here, James Broadest explains precisely why it’s crucial to deliver continuing education on this matter so Government bodies and building owners alike recognise the truism that substantial costs – and lives – can be saved thanks to retrofitted fire sprinklers.

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Given the rapid pace of technological change experienced across most sectors, the lack of transformative innovation across fire safety engineering is often a surprise to many. Here, Yusuf Muhammad explains the challenges faced by engineers designing fire safety solutions and the changes that need to be made to reignite innovation across the sector.

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In essence, fire strategies are the fire safety ‘blueprint’ when it comes to how a building, its management and, indeed, its occupants will perform in a fire scenario. Why, then, are they still being treated in some quarters as a tick-box exercise? Ritchie O’Connell argues why this scenario simply has to change and low-level specifications must be confined to history

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WITH THE new regulatory framework placing more accountability on those responsible for building safety, William Makant is keen to encourage an open-minded evaluation of the most effective fire safety solution for each situation, rather than taking a one-size-fits-all approach.

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IN THESE rather challenging and somewhat surreal times for us all, Andy Hicks examines precisely why now is most definitely not the time to neglect fire safety on construction sites and temporary Coronavirus-related facilities.

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Stewart Kidd explains what the problems are in the wider-use of watermist and demonstrates why it is important to follow prudent engineering practice when specifying, designing and installing all automatic fire suppression systems.

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Since fire and smoke curtains play a vital life safety role, it is essential that they are well maintained, says Jonathan Brown.

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