Fire Industry News for August 2023

The government is facing criticism from across the fire safety sector, as well as from campaign groups and bereaved relatives of the Grenfell Tower residents, having previously promised to implement the inquiry’s recommendations in full.  The Home Office published a consultation document that outlined its reasoning, stating that they believe it is not "proportionate" to follow the recommendations and will continue to place its faith in "stay put" advice in most buildings. PEEPs in h...

In 2021, one in ten cars bought in the UK was electric, according to the Society of Motoring Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT). Electric vehicles are powered by large batteries, which are either fueled by the motion of the car itself (in a hybrid model) or charged at a charging station. These lithium batteries are extremely advanced but highly flammable if misused or faulty. In the case of "thermal runaway," there is a rapid and extreme rise in temperature passing between battery cells, which ca...

The Fire Investigation Fire Standard focuses on ensuring fire and rescue services (FRS) deliver effective, efficient, and valid fire investigations into the origin, cause, and development of fire. One of the desired outcomes of the Fire Investigation Fire Standard is that services will have a competent and resilient capability to undertake fire investigations, adhering to relevant legislation, guidance, and codes of practice. The Fire Investigation Fire Standard also makes reference to the ISO...

This Earth Day, Hempel is “Investing in our planet” and announces amendments to its EUR 1 billion Revolving Credit Facility and its EUR 500 million Term Loan. From 2022, borrowing costs will be linked to Hempel’s sustainability targets. To help drive efforts to meet Hempel’s ambitious sustainability targets, the facility’s interest margin will be adjusted up or down, based on Hempel’s ability to meet its four sustainability goals.Hempel’s KPIs linked to...

The UK government has presented amendments to the Building Safety Bill, including the removal of clauses 82 to 86, relating to the appointment of a Building Safety Manager. The amendments were made in the House of Lords in the Report Stage prior to the Third Reading. Prior to these amends, the Building Safety Manager had a significant role in the Bill, with responsibilities to manage the Part 4 building safety risk for higher risk buildings, which is outlined in clauses 60 to 81. These clause...

Over 2,500 delegates joined the latest Fire Protection Association webinar, produced in association with Barbour EHS, that looked at the important topic of Best Practices in Fire Risk Assessment and Competency.  Howard Passey, Director of Operations and Principal Consultant at the FPA, addressed the challenges presented by forthcoming updates to legislation, guidance, and competency requirements that will see fire risk assessors coming under increased scrutiny. responsible person Beginni...

All homes in Scotland must have interlinked smoke alarms from 1 February. As the date nears, members of the Scottish Parliament have expressed their concerns about whether all homeowners will be able to comply. The Scottish Government gave Care and Repair Scotland £500k to help older and disabled homeowners install alarms. The daily record reported on 25 January that Care and Repair Scotland had struggled to meet demand and had closed its doors to new requests. Since September the se...

The award recognizes the work undertaken throughout 2020/2021 by the FPA to revolutionize its digital services by launching two new websites and a CRM system to improve customer engagement, integrating a third-party security tool throughout all digital platforms to protect the members, delivering two successful virtual events, and implementing a new webinar platform to improve member engagement and also in the process of launching an app to improve accessibility to digital products. Both websit...

Thanks to member feedback, the new membership scheme offers FPA members additional benefits such as access to the Business Property and Protection Portal which produces a risk report for any business type in the UK, the Cladding Compliance Toolkit created by RISC Authority, which aims to help users understand the complex legislative fire safety requirements of external building cladding systems, and easier access to resources such as our popular Assembly Point Podcast. Launch of a CPD Record To...

An update to all BAFE registered organizations and the wider fire safety industry. Recent weeks have seen a new Omicron variant of COVID-19 emerge and begin to spread across the UK. With this, the Government has re-introduced measures to mitigate this risk such as mask-wearing in shops and on all public transport.   BAFE is confident by now that the fire safety industry fully understands its position as a life safety, and therefore necessary, provision of service required to continue (whe...

BAFE continues to stress the importance of verifying appropriate UKAS-accredited third-party certification with growing industry support. 'Don’t just Specify, Verify' campaign As the nation moves towards stronger responsibility and accountability for fire safety measures, the BAFE Fire Safety Register reiterates their message on the significance of UKAS-accredited third-party certification. BAFE’s 'Don’t just Specify, Verify' campaign launched in March 2020 identifies the im...

On-call crews need to live or work within five minutes of a fire station, which makes it a real possibility for those now working remotely, just like Phil Gower. Phil responds to emergencies from Cranbrook fire station during the day, in the evenings, and at weekends as required, including when he’s working from home. Author's quote He said, "My employer is really supportive of my role as an on-call firefighter and understands that in an emergency, there’s somebody out there who u...

The shipping industry is responsible for three percent of global GHG emissions every year. The good news is that the necessary technologies to achieve a significant emissions reduction from shipping are already available. “The climate crisis requires urgent action. We already have technologies that make vessels significantly more fuel efficient, preserve the marine environment, reduce fuel costs and enable a more sustainable value chain,” says Alexander Enström, Executive Vice...

In 2020, the Osage Beach Fire Protection District's Board of Directors approved the proposal to purchase a new fire boat. This new purchase would replace the oldest boat in their fleet, Marine 11, which has since been sold to a department in New York State. The boat, purchased from Lake Assault Boats is a 31-foot Mono Hull with twin Mercury 300 Horsepower outboard engines. The boat will come equipped with a 5 Kw Generator and 1500 Gallons per minute fire pump. It will also be outfitted with mul...

Kent Fire and Rescue Service (KFRS) is at the center of a new initiative to support homeless people and rough sleepers to live safely in temporary accommodations before moving into permanent homes.  With government direction, charities have been working to provide people living on the streets with shelter in hotels and bed and breakfasts during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the fire service recognized the need to offer support and safety advice to those living in new and unfamiliar accommodat...

In the latest episode of Assembly Point, FPA Director of Operations - Howard Passey talks to Lewis Ramsey, Caretaker Manager at BAFE to examine the key issues and areas to consider when looking at fire risk management in buildings that are occupied by vulnerable persons. Howard and Lewis also explore the criticality of active and passive fire systems being suitable for the purpose, installed correctly, and that their subsequent maintenance and testing is undertaken by an accredited third party....

The Home Office has published the latest fire prevention and protection statistics, showing a massive reduction in fire and rescue service activity during the pandemic. The number of fire safety audits carried out by fire and rescue service inspecting officers fell 30 percent on the previous year to just over 34,000. This is substantially lower than five years ago when services carried out over 54,000 audits. Fire and rescue service inspection Fire safety audit is a planned visit by a fire an...

The NFCC Academic Collaboration, Evaluation and Research Group (ACER) will get to work this autumn, led by Nottingham Trent University academic Dr. Rowena Hill. ACER will review research from both the UK and across the world, keeping a watching brief on lessons learned that could apply to UK fire and rescue services. The NFCC is keen for ACER to encourage approaches from academics who share areas for potential research. NFCC set up The NFCC set up NOL that analyzed incidents to then share lea...

West Sussex Fire & Rescue Service has been awarded a grant from the Regulators’ Pioneer Fund. This is a new funding pot encouraging the creation of a UK regulatory environment that supports innovation and growth. Teaming up with the National Fire Chiefs Council, the University of Northampton, and Eyecademy Ltd, the West Sussex-led project will deliver a new web-based fire risk assessment tool. The interactive tool will improve users' understanding of fire safety. fire risk assessment...

Pegwell Bay Country Park is Kent Wildlife Trust’s largest nature reserve and is of international importance for its bird populations, including nightingales and cuckoos.  However, a number of these animals and their habitats were destroyed when a campfire became out of control at the site, which sits between Sandwich and Ramsgate, and spread across a large area of grasslands and undergrowth.  Kent Wildlife Trust Kent Wildlife Trust has thrown its support behind KFRS campaign t...

Fire and rescue services across the UK worked with partners to respond to the impact of COVID-19. Making a difference provides a series of short case studies to show the range of activities that services did over the last 18 months; it recognizes that the pandemic is not over and services continue to help communities in many different ways.  Phil Garrigan is the NFCC lead for the COVID-19 response. He said: “The pandemic was unlike anything else we have...

The value of the contract currently published on Contracts Finder is between £9 and 12 million over five years. The council is looking to install new fire sprinkler systems (and associated works) in 30 of its two and three-storey supported housing blocks as well as 102 blocks of general needs residential accommodation. The closing date for suppliers to respond is 10 September 2021. Retrofit sprinkler systems This comes after the council worked with Hampshire and Isle of W...

Responding to an average of nearly 30,000 calls a year to false alarms generated from automated fire alarm activations, unwanted fire alarm signals (UFAS) account for 30% of all incidents by the service. Time for Change Reducing Unwanted Fire Alarm Signals is a new consultation document from the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service. It shows that only 2% of automatic fire alarms from non-domestic properties were actual fires, with only a tiny percentage requiring firefighting as the majority were...

A Sheppey homeowner is helping Kent Fire and Rescue Service (KFRS) share life-saving safety advice after a vanity mirror sparked a fire in the bedroom of his home. The blaze developed in the occupant’s bedroom in Belgrave Road on Sheppey, on a sunny afternoon on Friday 16 July, and is believed to have started after sunlight reflected from a vanity mirror onto some bedding. The heat from the mirror's reflection caught the bed alight, which then spread throughout the room within a matter o...

Kent Fire and Rescue Service (KFRS) is urging smokers to light up outside to reduce the risk of fire in homes across the county. Despite the number of people smoking in the UK falling, Kent is seeing a continuous trend in the number of property fires linked to smoking – with fire crews tackling the equivalent of one smoking-related fire every single week. 'Smoke Outside, Feel Safer Inside' campaign Most often these types of fires start when smokers light up and then fall asleep or get d...

Fire and rescue services received money from the Housing Ministry to pay for work to review risks on residential buildings higher than 18 meters. The £6 million grant helped services like South Yorkshire to employ specialist staff to identify and review buildings in their area. South Yorkshire received £126,000 from the grant as part of the Building Risk Review program. Initially, fire and rescue services focused on identifying buildings with ACM cladding. The current phase of work...

In focus contains contributions from the four existing Police Fire and Crime Commissioners and two PCC candidates looking to take on fire. Since the PCC elections in May this year, the number of Conservative PCCs has expanded to 30 and they are now far in the majority across England. Prior to the May elections, the Home Office published the first part of a review into PCCs and made it clear they wanted to expand the model across the country. The much-trailed Fire White Paper will cont...

In the upcoming weeks, further restrictions regarding COVID safety may be reduced or completely removed following assessments by Governments across the nation. This poses important steps for fire safety service providers/contractors, including reviewing their own COVID-19 safety policies in the interest of employee and client safety.  BAFE would like to offer the following guidance considering the removal or reduction of restrictions: Continue to exercise a risk-based approach prior to...

Marion Body Works is proud to welcome nine interns across four departments for the 2021 Summer Internship Program. Returning to Marion’s engineering department for a third summer is Bridget Streicher (Michigan Tech – Mechanical Engineering). Joining Bridget in engineering is Seth Korb (UW-Platteville – Mechanical Engineering), Jacob Barnick (UW-Platville – Industrial Technology Management), Elijah Etten (UW-Oshkosh – Mechanical Engineering), and Ryan Genskow (Clint...

In anticipation of the upcoming Fire White Paper, the Fire Minister launched a new website called 'Fire England', where the government is now hosting 'trusted, transparent, and consistent' information about fire.    Previous Fire Ministers have trailed the creation of a fire-focused website for England, but it has not materialized until now. Unusually, this new website is located at www.fireengland.uk and not part of the standard gov.uk domain. Fire Kills campaign Fir...