Tuesday, 12 January 2010

Fire Safety Implications of Home Improvements: Altering the Internal Layout of Residential Buildings by Adding or Removing Internal Walls

Building a new wall to subdivide a room or create a new room can affect the means of escape from fire. If in doing so a situation is created whereby the route for leaving an existing or new room is only possible through another room then an egress (escape) window from the existing or new room (inner room) will be needed as well as, possibly, one or more smoke alarms.

If the floor level of the inner room is greater than 4.5m above ground level (as with the top floor of a typical three storey house for example) the use of an egress window may not be safe and therefore an alternative solution will need to be sought. This may well be one that does not create an inner room situation in the first place.

Some walls around stairways (typically in houses 3 storeys or more in height) need to have fire resistance to ensure a fire in one of the rooms off of the stairway doesn’t unduly affect the means of escape from other rooms in the house. In other houses (such as in two storey houses) the walls may not need to have any particular fire resistance, but would still afford some protection to the stairway by containing the fire and smoke for a period of time.

The impact of the removal of an internal wall on fire safety should be carefully considered. In two storey houses, the removal of such a wall could normally be compensated by the provision of mains powered interlinked smoke alarms and egress windows from the other rooms off the stair. However, in houses of three storeys and greater this compensation may not be sufficient. The exact features needed will vary on a case by case basis.

A new wall (including any door leading through it), which separates a room from the stairway may need to have adequate fire resistance (typically in three storey houses) and, in the case of a door, be self closing.

Monday, 11 January 2010

The Advantages of Using Fire Curtains to Comply With Approved Document B (fire safety), Part B (2006 Ed., amended 2007)

This document sets out defining principles for building control and design in the UK. Volume 2 Part B specifically looks at fire safety in buildings other than dwellinghouses. The five key aspects the document identifies are shown below. In particular points B1 and B5 reference the requirement to provide protected means of escape, and to slow the passage of fire through a building to both protect the occupants and aid the fire service. BLE smoke and fire curtains are perfectly designed to help achieve these goals whilst having the advantage of remaining hidden and out of the way during times of normal building use. Our curtains boast significant aesthetic, weight and cost advantages over bulky fire shutters and expensive glass screens to achieve the best possible finish without compromising on fire safety.

Part B. Fire safety

The Regulations consider five aspects of fire safety in the construction of buildings:

B1 Means of escape
1. That sufficient provisions are made in design of the building so that in the event of fire the occupants can escape to a place of safety by their own efforts. This includes incorporating a suitable fire alarm system to give early warning of fire to the occupants and users of a building.

B2 Internal fire spread (linings)
2. That the internal linings of a building do not support a rapid spread of fire

B3 Internal fire spread (structure)
3. That the structure of the building should not collapse prematurely and should slow the spread of fire through the building and in unseen cavities and voids by providing fire resisting walls and partitions where necessary;

B4 External fire spread
4. That the spread of fire between buildings be discouraged by spacing them apart sufficiently and controlling the number and size of openings on boundaries;

B5 Access and facilities for the fire service
5. That the building (and the site layout & access roads) are designed in such a way as to aid the fire brigade fight fire and effect rescue of persons caught in a fire.

Friday, 8 January 2010

Fire Compartmentation Laws for Buildings in London

The London Building Acts (Amendment) Act, 1939 Part III, Section 20 requires that large buildings are sub-divided into fire-containing zones to both protect occupants and property and slow the progress of fire throughout the building. BLE smoke and fire curtains are ideally suited to achieve such protection whilst facilitating the incorporation of open doorways and spectacular open atria that would otherwise have to be closed off using walls and fire doors.

Section 20 applies where:
  • a building is to be erected with a storey or part of a storey at a greater height than (i) 30 metres; or (ii) 25 metres if the area of the building exceeds 930 square metres
  • a building of the warehouse class, or a building or part of a building used for the purposes of trade or manufacture, exceeds 7,100 cubic metres in extent unless it is divided by division walls in such manner that no division of the building is of a cubical extent exceeding 7,100 cubic metres.

Wednesday, 23 December 2009

Merry Christmas from all the team here at BLE!

As Christmas is almost upon us we would like to take the opportunity to wish all of our customers, distributors and partners a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

In what has been a challenging year it has been a pleasure and a privilege to work with each and every one of you, and we hope that we can continue to do so for a long time to come.

Many thanks for your business, and we hope to speak to all of you again soon in the New Year!

Monday, 16 February 2009

How do Smoke Curtains fit into your Fire Risk Assesment?



On 1st October 2006 the Regulatory Reform Fire Safety Order came into force, replacing the Fire Precautions Act 1997, and over 100 other pieces of related legislation. Fire safety checks and certificates aren't conducted and issued by the Fire Brigade any more - instead it is now your responsibility to conduct a fire risk assessment.

Fire is a major risk in most business premises. So much so, that most organisations suffering a large fire go out of business within three years. Thousands of UK businesses are getting this wrong. Here's how not to be one of them...

Competent fire risk assessment requires a special kind of foresight - you need to be able to see the unseen, expect the unexpected, predict the unpredictable. Hopefully, through the instalation of fire alarms, sprinklers, smoke curtains and fire curtains etc most of the hard work is already complete.

However, despite the recent change in the law, many businesses are not taking their fire risks seriously. But, fire is the one of the most likely events that could affect your business and, unless controlled, will spread quickly, creating smoke damage as well as fire damage. Even if contained, the remainder of your premises can still be damaged, either by smoke or water. Without proper risk assessment and management, the outcome would be that your business would not be operational for some time.

Your three key tools for protecting your business from the devastating effects of fire are: a Fire Emergency Plan; a plan of action to improve your risk profile; and a contingency plan to help your business keep trading in the event of a disaster. Only through careful examination of your premises, practices and processes, can you identify relevant risks and take appropriate precautions.

Monday, 9 February 2009

Fire Safety In the Workplace -

Each year people die or are seriously injured as a result of fires at work. Besides loss of life, fire costs UK business millions of pounds, from damage to property, loss of business, fines, compensation claims and insurance premiums.

Many fires can be avoided by taking fire precautions. If a fire does break out, the effects can be minimised by having effective controls and procedures in place.

In England, Scotland and Wales, rules introduced in October 2006 replaced most existing fire safety legislation. Fire certificates are no longer required, and the emphasis is on preventing fires and reducing risk.

Anyone who has some control over premises must take reasonable steps to reduce the risk from fire and make sure people can safely escape if there is a fire. The regulations apply to all non-domestic premises.

In many offices and public buildings the utilisation of either a smoke curtain system or fire curtain system or a combination of the two to create a protected means of escape, thereby helping to demonstrate reasonable steps have been taken to ensure people can safely escape.

Thursday, 5 February 2009

Flagship Fire System For The Uk’s Favourite Department Store


Fire Curtain


Undisputedly one of the top ten department stores in the UK, John Lewis Oxford Street is the flag ship of the John Lewis Partnership. With over 140 years on the same site, the store spans seven floors, stocks over half a million lines and is synonymous with excellent customer care, quality and reliability.
So, when it came to choosing a company to create the fire and smoke protection strategy as part of a £64m renovation and improvement programme in 2007, the John Lewis Partnership selected market-leading BLE Smoke & Fire Curtains – recently awarded the international UL standard for quality.
BLE designed, manufactured and fitted all of the fire and smoke safety equipment in partnership with architects Davis Langdon & Everest. The UK manufactured equipment, which will eventually be rolled out to all of the John Lewis stores, has an exceptionally neat finish to ensure it blends seamlessly with the breath-taking new design. The smoke and fire curtains are instantly retractable with very simple mechanisms, ensuring minimal disruption during maintenance and repair.
The complete redesign of the 300,000 square foot store increased selling space by 16% and centered on the creation of two striking, light and airy atria. The fire strategy had to address the potential hazards created by these two vast wells, containing 24 new escalators, plus the additional of a 17,000 square foot food hall in the basement - the first food hall in the chain - and the opening of two new restaurants.
BLE engineers worked out-of-hours for four months to install the equipment, ensuring that John Lewis Oxford Street could remain open during the refurbishment without ever compromising the safety of shoppers in the store.

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