The Grenfell Tower tragedy has led to a nationwide debate around fire safety, especially concerning building materials, regulations and the value of fire sprinkler systems. On the specific call for the fitting of sprinklers, only residential buildings erected after 2007 and taller than 30 metres are required by Building Regulations to be fitted with sprinkler systems. But the fire has led housing stock owners such as councils and housing associations having to look beyond the tragedy and rolling out additional fire safety measures and considering retrofitting sprinklers in existing buildings. However the deciding factor about whether or not to fit sprinklers should not be about how tall a building is but more around what benefits do sprinklers offer in terms of both protection of life as well as protection of property.
The tragic recent events have not stopped at the door of residential property owners as others sectors have now started to look at their property portfolios and how well they are protected. Designers, owners and users of student accommodation, hotels, healthcare and commercial and industrial buildings, all need to recognise the value of fire protection with sprinkler systems reducing the risk to life and significantly reducing the degree of damage caused by fire and in these cases the costs of business interruption.
Evidence shows that while sprinklers are primarily intended to contain or control fires, they can also be instrumental in saving the lives of people. There are no cases on record of multiple fire deaths occurring in buildings with appropriately designed and properly installed and maintained sprinkler systems. The evidence also shows that no lives have been lost in the UK due to fire in homes fitted with domestic sprinkler systems.
Callow Mount
Despite one of the enduring myths about sprinklers being costly and tricky to fit into buildings after their initial construction, a number of local authorities are actively retrofitting sprinklers to some of their housing stock.
Following the Lakanal House fire in 2009, a pilot project was undertaken at Callow Mount, a 13- storey, 1960’s tower block in Sheffield. It took only four weeks to successfully install sprinklers within 47 flats and was completed with little or no disruption to the residents who remained in their homes throughout the installation programme.
The sprinkler installation was carried out at a cost of £1,150 per flat. The cost of annual maintenance will be £250 per year if a contract for the whole block is entered
into and if access can be guaranteed at the same time. The combined cost of installation and maintenance provides an annualised cost per flat of £40 over a 30 year timeframe. The Callow Mount retrofit project proved conclusively that it is possible to retrofit sprinklers into an existing high-rise block without having to evacuate and relocate the tenants. Sheffield Council is using the learnings from its Callow Mount pilot to retrofit sprinklers to about 540 low-rise, timber frame, ranch-style maisonettes.
As a result of the outcome of Callow Mount project, a number of housing authorities and associations have installed sprinklers in an increasing number of high and low rise social housing schemes.
A call for sprinklers
The events at Grenfell have far ranging implications for other sectors with recent devastating fires at the Weybridge Health Centre and Camden Market bringing into sharp focus the vulnerability of unsprinklered buildings.
Housing two GP practices, a walk-in centre and other NHS services, the Weybridge Health Centre fire in the early hours of July 12th spread across all three floors of the building. The unsprinklered building was completely destroyed and all medical services have been transferred to alternative sites. In addition to the disruption to staff and patients in the local community, the fire caused the evacuation of nearby residents and road closures.
At Camden Market three days earlier, 10 fire engines and 70 firefighters attended a blaze in a building containing different businesses and market stalls. While the cause of the fire is under investigation, the first, second and third floors, plus the roof of the building were severely damaged by the blaze. This market building did not have sprinklers which is in stark contrast to a fire earlier on February 28th that broke out at the Stables Market in another area of Camden Market. In this case, a sprinkler system has been retrofitted and helped control the spread of the fire at a market stall until firefighters arrived, with crews able to confine the fire on the ground floor where the blaze originated.
The sprinklers controlled the fire spread in the Stables Market fire, limiting damage to the building and preventing anyone from being put at risk.
So as well as limiting fire damage and being potentially life-saving devices, sprinklers and other fire suppression systems helped with business continuity by minimising disruption and allowing businesses to get back to normal as soon as possible.
Business resilience
One of the most efficient and effective ways to reduce the impact of fire is through measures which ensure that when fires start they are quickly extinguished so that damage is minimised. Fire sprinkler systems do just this – they make buildings and businesses resilient to the impact of fire because they automatically control or even put out the fire before the fire and rescue service arrives, with the result that the business can be up and running again usually within hours of the incident.
It should always be appreciated that UK fire safety laws seek to ensure only minimum standards of fire protection for the safety of persons in and around buildings. By simply complying with fire safety legislation, a building owner might not be adequately protecting either the building or their future business activity.
A wide-ranging review of the building regulations relating to fire, particularly the guidance contained in Approved Document B (ADB) is long overdue. It is needed to protect people and property from fire and help business and building owners better understand the threat that fire poses to their infrastructure and future.
Having sprinklers fitted therefore protects businesses in the long run, safeguarding them against potentially disastrous losses, which amount to £3.4m each day across the UK. By preventing large fires, they also protect the environment by avoiding CO2 emissions, excess FRS water use and water supply contamination and by preventing buildings from being destroyed by fire. Proven time and again with consistent reliability, sprinkler systems control or extinguish fires in 99% of cases and are a small price to pay to ensure people and property are protected.
1Efficiency and Effectiveness of Sprinkler Systems in the United Kingdom: An Analysis from Fire Service Data – May 2017
