Fire Industry News for May 2022

Checkmate Fire Solutions know that a Fire Risk Assessment (FRA) is a process involving the systematic evaluation of a building or premises, and the factors that determine: the hazard from fire, the likelihood that there will be a fire, and the consequences if one were to occur. 4 types of FRA Type 1  This is the most basic of fire risk assessments that buildings will need to satisfy the Fire Safety Order. However, unless the user is anticipating moderate/severe deficiencies in the struct...

Huge congratulations to their Commercial Director, Craig M Bendall, for being promoted from a commercial manager within his first 4 months at Checkmate! With more than 33 years’ commercial experience in the construction industry, Craig began his career as a quantity surveyor in 1988 at Henry Summers Hamilton Ltd (Bristol) at the tender age of 15. Joining a small, family-run building business, he threw himself into everything the firm offered, from architecture to Z bars, alongside studyin...

Despite the challenges of 2020, business leaders' confidence in the resilience of their organizations has risen, according to BSI’s fourth annual Organizational Resilience Index report, which surveyed 500 senior leaders across the globe. Report Findings The index found that leaders remain cautiously optimistic, with more than half (57%) of businesses in the UK, US, and India expecting their financial performance to improve in 2021. The concept of Organizational Resilience refers to an o...

New community face coverings standard has benefitted from public comments, it has been updated to include new environmental considerations as well as enhanced guidance on labeling, cleaning, fitting, fastening, and breathing resistance. The second version of the standard, called Community Face Coverings – Specification, is freely available for use to help UK manufacturers, test houses, retailers, and consumers to ensure single-use and re-usable face coverings are safe and fit for purpose....

Granite Workwear stocks a wide range of products from many top brands that design the best, high-quality workwear. To celebrate the recent International Women’s Day and support the women in many different industries, Granite Workwear thought now would be a great time to highlight which workwear brands are the best for women. Carhartt Perhaps the most well-known and recognized brand on the list, Granite Workwear stocks a wide range of Carhartt products for both men and women, ranging in...

Incorrectly, or non-installed, passive fire protection is often described as a building’s “hidden” risk. A hidden risk that doesn’t always present itself visually to building users, occupiers, and owners.  Indicators of these issues often only present themselves at the fire risk assessment stage, and even then, it is habitually the case that a more extensive compartmentation inspection or fire door inspection becomes necessary to fully understand the extent of the p...

Having worked at a senior level within the industry for over 25 years, Checkmate welcomes Alan Elliott to its team to head up their newly established ‘Social Housing & Compliance’ division across their UK-wide network. Alan's experience Alan served at a high level for several tiers one contractor, before bringing his experience to Checkmate With a plethora of qualifications under his belt, including an HNC in contract management, Alan began his career as an apprent...

Perpetuating a culture of sustainability, charitable works, and giving back to the community, Checkmate Fire is devoted to ethical, sustainable, and responsible working. Checkmate has been working hard to prove it, starting with the announcement of the latest ‘green scheme’. Way ahead of the government’s aim for all new vehicles to be electric by 2030, Checkmate is already on target to achieve a fully electric fleet by the end of this year, reducing the annual C02 footprint by...

Leo Workwear is back with another innovative product. The Combesgate EcoViz AirLayer Snood Sweatshirt. And here at Granite Workwear, they’re always looking to give the customers the very latest products in the workwear industry that are pushing boundaries and bringing innovative items to the workforce. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that the Combesgate Snood Sweatshirt is the latest product that they love! They’ll be taking a look at this high-visibility sweatshirt and outline s...

They may not look stylish or even pretty to wear, but they play an important role in keeping people safe on the job, by way of enhanced visibility. High-visibility clothing or Hi-Vis clothing as its most commonly abbreviated is a clothing piece that usually goes over the top of the regular clothes, in order to ensure higher visibility at night or when working in dangerous conditions. This article covers some of the main benefits of Hi-Vis clothing and why it’s crucial to wear them. Benef...

Soteria Dimension is a new addition to the Soteria family of products – the next generation in fire detection. With an innovative flush-mounted design and chamberless technology, they continue their 40+ year history of designing and manufacturing innovative products that keep people safe from fire every second of every day. A common issue when designing a high-end, luxury building is the integration of the fire system. Countless hours are spent meticulously creating an elegant hotel lobby...

Wearing the correct clothing in a workplace can oftentimes prevent serious injury. Risk assessments are carried out and employees must meet the regulations put in place by their employer as well as industry regulations. Wearing shorts and a t-shirt in a high-risk workplace is generally not acceptable. But wearing high-visibility workwear, hard-hat, proper shoes and clothing is what’s needed to prevent. Granite takes a look at why protective clothing is so important. What Is PPE? PP...

Damien Ward has been in the passive fire protection industry for over 13 years now, and he has found that it’s one of those industries that someone is either in, or they have no real idea about – at least, not beyond the basics. A bit like the Freemasons, or the Illuminati, or the Order of the Phoenix (that does exist outside of Harry Potter, right?). Following the devastation of Grenfell, users probably know that there’s a cladding crisis in the country, and they definitely k...

Granite Workwear products are always manufactured with the user in mind. They understand the importance of needing high-quality workwear that users can rely on. That’s why they make sure all their products are fully tried, tested and fit for purpose. Granite Workwear highlights 5 products that can help keep users warm this winter. Helmet Liners - JSP has a range of helmet liners to help keep the head warm when working in cold working conditions. Whether the user is on a construction site...

Committed to innovation, along with the development of trainee engineers, Checkmate began the conversion of an unused mezzanine space into a training area in one of the stores recently.  Working together to utilize more space, a group of engineers and Checkmate’s technical compliance department teamed up to clear out the unwanted clutter and build a wall that runs across the top floor. As a result, Checkmate has been able to create a facility where the operatives can und...

The Fristads Fusion range offers workers high-quality garments that meet the need of various industries such as service, building, and construction. With male and female options available, there’s a style that suits everybody and a uniform for all different industries. Granite Workwear prints and embroider onto the clothing so that users can have their logo and name on the garments to stay on-brand across the board. Granite is going to outline some of the key features and benefits of the...

Hardstaff Barriers has maintained its prestigious FORS Gold status for another year, in recognition of the company’s commitment to fleet safety, efficiency, and environmental protection. The manufacturer and supplier of protective barriers and perimeter security systems first received Gold accreditation in the Fleet Operator Recognition Scheme (FORS) in 2019. The company learned that it had maintained its Gold status – the highest level that can be reached due to its consistently hi...

Users may commonly associate base layers with athletes and with benefits including muscle compression, aid recovery, and improved blood flow and oxygen intake, it’s easy to see why they’re popular in the sports industry. But there’s no reason why they have to be limited to sports and why workers in cooler temperatures can’t benefit from base layer clothing. Granite Workwear has a wide range of base layer clothing for both men and women and from high-quality brands includ...

As activity around UK ports increases considerably due to Brexit, it is vitally important to keep the emphasis on safety to protect people and critical infrastructure. Recent events have shown that port safety needs to be a priority and managing the effective flow of people and traffic will be a key challenge to port authorities. Hardstaff Barriers have a range of products designed with port operations in mind that meet stringent industry standards, including their concrete options such as Mult...

The staff at Hardstaff Barriers has been busy over recent weeks, growing moustaches of different shapes and sizes – raising £1400 in funds for charity. Throughout the month of November 2020, four members of the Hardstaff Barriers’ team took part in the ‘Hardtash’ challenge, in order to raise money for Movember, the men’s health charity. Movember – Men’s health charity Hardstaff Barriers is a globally renowned manufacturer and supplier of roadsid...

Checkmate's CheckSafe initiative was seen in action when COO, David Woffendin, and Operations Director, Simon Kelly visited one of the South East based sites, where they were shown around by Supervisor, Deividas Jocys.  CheckSafe embeds a culture of working safely on-site and encourages that doing so is a collaborative effort. The question “Am I working Safely?” encourages building users to communicate easily with the business, and enables them to “correct and learn&rdq...

Granite Workwear highlights a range of Fristads flame protection workwear. Through rigorous tests, Fristads have released a range of clothing that keeps users safe, even in the most dangerous situations. flame protection clothing Their flame protection clothing puts users' safety first and is made with the end-user in mind. Get the ultimate protection by the latest European norms. Fristads have been very careful to make sure that this range is fit for purpose including tests that compromise th...

When working on the job users want a mask they can rely on. Something that isn’t intrusive and is comfortable enough for them to do work all day. Introducing the JSP Force8 Half Mask. Fully compliant with: EN140 (Face piece) EN14387:2004 (Filter performance) EN143:200 (Filter performance) Features of mask And the low resistance exhalation valve offers easy breathing with a stable mask configuration This face mask comes with 2 Press2Check filters which can be used on average...

The Dallas Fire-Rescue Department, located in Dallas County, Texas, has placed a 28-foot Lake Assault Boats firefighting and rescue craft into service. The boat will be stationed on Lake Ray Hubbard, a busy 22,000-acre body of water that is bisected by Interstate 30 and located entirely within the city limits. The vessel is engineered to respond to a wide range of on-the-water firefighting and emergency response scenarios. versatile and powerful craft Lake Ray Hubbard is a vitally important n...

MSA Safety Incorporated, the global pioneer in the development, manufacture, and supply of safety products that protect people and facility infrastructures announced that Nish Vartanian, Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer, and Kenneth Krause, Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, and Treasurer will participate in a webcast conference call sponsored by Stifel on September 10, 2020, at 10:00 a.m. ET. The live webcast can be accessed on MSA Safety's website. Following the c...

MSA Safety Incorporated, the global pioneer in the development, manufacture, and supply of safety products that protect people and facility infrastructures announced it has established a Joint Development Agreement with perspective Robotics AG of Zurich, Switzerland. Established in 2014, Perspective Robotics AG develops advanced situational awareness tools that utilize tethered drone technology for first responder applications under the brand name Fotokite. Advance fire scene situational aware...

The campaign, Don’t Just Specify, Verify!, launched by the BAFE Fire Safety Register recently was established to create greater awareness of Third Party Certification in the fire safety sector. Quality regulation awareness All premises management (i.e. the Responsible Person/Duty Holder) must understand quality regulation is present in the fire safety industry through UKAS Accredited Third-Party Certification and specify these appropriate providers. This should always be followed u...

The FIA is offering an exclusive new member benefit service with the offer to have the CPD certified by the FIA. All are included in the cost of membership, so there is no additional cost. As part of the service, the FIA can host, market, and manage all bookings for any of the sessions which have been certified by the FIA CPD Certification Centre. The FIA will then issue CPD certificates on the user's behalf to the delegates (only if the CPD session is hosted by the FIA). Data on the attendees...

This Guidance Note has been prepared by a Special Interest Group (SIG), comprising representatives of FIA member companies, other invited experts in the practice of fire risk assessment in housing premises, and an observer from the National Fire Chiefs Council. Members of the SIG represent companies that carry out, in total, over 40,000 fire risk assessments for multi-occupied residential premises (blocks of flats and maisonettes) per annum. It has been published with the approval of the FIA Bo...

The UK Government has launched its £1 billion building safety fund, initially revealed in the most recent Budget announcement by Chancellor, Rishi Sunak. The registration process is open and closes on 31 July 2020. Fire safety standard "The fund is aimed at making sure tenants, leaseholders, and residents living in buildings covered by the fund are safe and feel safe by remediating unsafe non-ACM cladding systems. These will be cladding materials and systems that do not meet an appr...