Recent new and updated British Standards in Fire Safety are supporting alternative appropriate Fire Safety solutions to that of  Approved Document B for the growing trend of open plan living in our homes, apartments and independent living premises.

Salus Approved Inspectors provide an extracted update summary of some of the aspects from the introduction of the new British Standard on Water Mist installations and Fire Safety Engineering Design guidance for Residential premises.

Within England there is currently no specific water suppression requirement, other than in high rise apartments over 30m high, whereas from 1st January 2016 the Welsh Government extended the requirement for the provision of fire suppression systems to cover new and converted dwellings and flats, moving on from the 30th April 2014 requirements applied to care homes, children’s residential homes, boarding house, halls of residences and hostels.

BS 8458:2015 – Fixed fire protection systems – residential and domestic watermist systems – code of practice for design and installation

This British Standard came into effect on 30 November 2015 and supersedes DD 8458-1:2010, which is withdrawn.

Watermist fire suppression systems for residential and domestic applications are designed to provide an additional degree of protection of life and property, above that to be achieved by the installation of smoke and/or fire detectors and systems.

The British Standard presumes that the watermist fire suppression system will form part of an integrated fire safety system as part of the building design. It is a full revision of the Draft for Development, and incorporates the following principal changes:

  • Clarification of the application of residential and domestic building categorizations based on occupancy and risk;
  • Change to building height limit (from 20 m to 45 m);
  • Changes to fire test protocols:
  • Removal of one ventilation fire test;
  • Addition of two optional “open room” fire tests;
  • Changes to the limits of application dependent on fire tests successfully completed;
  • Increase in maximum nozzle spacing;
  • Expanded guidance on water supplies;
  • Additional measures for vulnerable people;
  • Additional recommendations for components.

Fire Suppression systems, such as domestic and residential systems are now supported by Watermist, importantly now verified by the accompaniment of the new British Standard, all of which have an outstanding track record of preservation of life in fire scenarios.

The advent of watermist nozzles that operate at an earlier stage in the development of a fire, together with the recognition that the largest numbers of deaths from fire occur in the home, have led to the introduction of watermist fire suppression systems specifically designed for residential and domestic occupancies.

A correctly designed, installed and properly maintained watermist fire suppression system can detect, suppress and control a fire at an early stage of development, and activate an alarm. Operation of the system rapidly reduces the rate of production of heat and smoke, allowing more time for the occupants to escape to safety or be rescued.

They can have features such as smaller bore waterways and they generally operate at higher pressures, producing smaller droplets of water.

The provision of a watermist fire suppression system does not negate the need for other fire precautions or practical measures, which can include structural fire resistance, escape routes, smoke or fire detectors and safe housekeeping practices. Even with the installation of a watermist fire suppression system, normal actions on the discovery of a fire need to be taken, such as immediate evacuation and the calling of the fire and rescue service.

Salus regularly offer our clients CPD presentations on changes to regulations, for further details please contact Paul Meadows, Director paul.meadows@salusai.co.uk

BS 9991:2015 – Fire safety in the design, management and use of residential buildings – Code of practice 

This British Standard which came into effect on 31 October 2015, superseding the 2011 version gives recommendations and guidance on the design, management and use of the following building types, to achieve reasonable standards of fire safety for all people in and around:

Dwellings (single-family dwelling houses, self-contained flats or maisonettes);

Residential accommodation blocks (e.g. for students or hospital staff), with individual bedrooms and the provision of kitchen/sanitary facilities constructed within a fire compartment;

  • Specialised housing.
  • Residential care (also known as care homes) fall outside the scope of BS 9991. A new development will be specialized housing if it does not fall within the mainstream housing or the independent living residential care category.
  • The standard complements BS 9999.

This is a full revision of the standard, and introduces the following principal

Changes:

  • Change from “sheltered or extra care housing” to “specialised housing” and expansion of related recommendations;
  • Expanded recommendations for escape from basements;
  • Updating of recommendations relating to lifts;
  • Inclusion of new recommendations for power supplies;
  • Inclusion of new recommendations for cluster accommodation;
  • Inclusion of new guidance on the management of additional needs and disabilities;
  • General update to take into account new and revised standards published since 2011.

All fire safety measures, procedures, etc. need to take into account the particular circumstances of the individual building or complex concerned.

In both new construction and upgrading existing buildings, the various aspects of fire precautions are interrelated and weaknesses in some areas can be compensated for by strengths in others. A higher standard under one of the areas might be of benefit in respect of one or more of the other areas.

BS 9991 provides a level of flexibility that allows the fire protection measures and the risks to be assessed to enable reasonable practical solutions to be designed.

Amongst the factors that need to be taken into account in establishing a minimum package of fire protection measures are:

  1. i) The potential users of the building;
  2. ii) The hazard posed by one occupancy to another;

iii) Provision for giving warning in case of fire, including any automatic fire detection;

  1. iv) The provision of automatic fire suppression systems and smoke control arrangements;
  2. v) The overall management and control of the building or development, from a fire safety point of view;
  3. vi) Structural fire protection and compartmentation;

vii) The security of and access to the building.

BS 9991 provides recommendations and guidance on the provision of measures to control or mitigate the effects of fire. The primary objective is to ensure that an adequate standard of life safety can be achieved in the event of fire in the building.

Combined with  automatic water suppression it can offer considerable design flexibility by controlling a fire to a small size, reducing the production of smoke and toxic gases and preventing the fire from spreading beyond the room or dwelling of origin. This means that there can be flexibility achieved in the design of the building. It would also provide a good standard of protection for property.

Salus regularly offer our clients CPD presentations on changes to regulations, for further details please contact Paul Meadows, Director paul.meadows@salusai.co.uk

New! Proposed Approved Document Draft released.

R1 In-building Physical infrastructure for high-speed electronic communications networks

This approved document supports requirement R1 of Schedule 1 to the Building Regulations 2010. It takes effect on 1 January 2017 for use in England*. It does not apply to work started before 1 January 2017, or work subject to a building notice, full plans application or initial notice submitted before that date.

Requirement R1 transposes article 8 of Directive 2014/61/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 May 2014 on measures to reduce the cost of deploying high-speed electronic communications networks.

Compliance with Part R is not one of the requirements identified in regulation 6. That is, Part R requirements do not apply to a material change of use – except where a building is also subject to major renovation works

Requirement R1 applies only to new buildings and buildings subject to major renovation works. It applies to both dwellings and buildings other than dwellings.

R1

(1) Building work must be carried out so as to ensure that the building is equipped with a high-speed-ready in-building physical infrastructure, up to a network termination point for high-speed electronic communications networks.

(2) Where the work concerns a building containing more than one dwelling, the work must be carried out so as to ensure that the building is equipped in addition with a common access point for high-speed electronic communications networks.

A multi-dwelling building should have a common access point, and dedicated vertical and horizontal service routes, so that service providers can make connections from the access point to the network termination point in each dwelling. Diagram 2 shows a schematic of a possible arrangement for the physical infrastructure for a multi-dwelling building.

The consultation on the Approved Document ran from 30 November 2015 to 11 January 2016.

Summary

Consultation on a new Part R to the Building Regulations concerning high speed electronic communications networks.

This proposal mainly affects developers and the telecommunications industry.

‘This consultation will inform the approach we will take to implement Article 8 of the 2014 Broadband Cost Reduction Directive that requires all new buildings and major renovations to have in-building physical infrastructure which supports connections to superfast broadband. We are planning to meet this requirement by introducing a new ‘Requirement R1 – In-Building Physical Infrastructure’ to the Building Regulations’.

It sought views on CLG’s approach to implementing Article 8 of the 2014 Broadband Cost Reduction Directive (EU 2014/61) and on the guidance they have set out within the draft Approved Document R. They also welcomed any further evidence to inform the supporting impact assessment.

Salus regularly offer our clients CPD presentations on changes to regulations, for further details please contact Paul Meadows, Director paul.meadows@salusai.co.uk