Fire Insurance - News

BAFE and FireQual Ltd are pleased to announce that they have appointed Nic Preston as the FireQual Qualifications Manager from 1st September 2020. Nic Preston Nic Preston has over 14 years of experience in the training and development sector with a proven ability in quality assurance demonstrated in several roles influencing training environments within the UK. His most recent roles have been developing and implementing growth strategies as Chief Executive of SFEDI Awards, the Awarding Organi...

As part of a continuing campaign, the British Automatic Fire Sprinkler Association (BAFSA), Business Sprinkler Alliance, the National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC) and European Fire Sprinkler Network (EFSN) have been involved in to influence the Review of BB100 Sprinklers in Schools in England. Zurich Municipal analysis of data on over 26,800 schools in England shows the average fire risk in schools is almost double when compared to that of non-residential buildings. Schools in England are nearly...

Toyota Financial Services (TFS) announced it is offering payment relief options to its customers affected by Hurricanes Laura and Isaias, as well as those impacted by the wildfires in California and the derecho which struck the Midwest earlier in August 2020. This broad outreach includes any Toyota Financial Services (TFS) or Lexus Financial Services (LFS) customer in the designated disaster areas. Toyota Financial Services cares about the safety and well-being of its customers, and wants to he...

CertaSite announced that Advanced Fire Company, Approved Fire Protection and Advanced Fire & Security have merged to form Advanced Fire, a CertaSite Company. CertaSite is a new commercial fire protection and life safety company that provides high levels of customer service, responsiveness, building safety and code compliance to customers across the country. The company goes beyond compliance, focusing on partnerships and professionalism while providing customers a simplified and dependable...

The FIA is pleased to announce that following extensive and detailed discussions with BAFE, the independent register of Third Party Certificated fire safety service providers, BAFE will be acquiring the operation of the FIA AO.   BAFE will be establishing FireQual Ltd as an OFQUAL-approved Awarding Body to run the existing Fire Detection and Alarm qualification examinations and to develop new qualifications across the fire sector that will support the call for greater competence and avail...

Trevor Palmer, Property Insurance Specialist at NFU Mutual, said: “The ongoing global crisis has put pressure on commercial property owners and their tenants as they adopt new measures to ensure working environments are COVID-secure, often involving changes to the premises. Having seen a spike in our commercial fire claims statistics, we’re concerned that the added focus on Coronavirus may be causing some premises to put other safety matters to one side." "While following Coronaviru...

A structure fire was reported at the Golden Bear Lodge on Big Bear Boulevard in Big Bear Lake at approximately 2:02 a.m., on Saturday, August 8, 2020. Upon arrival, fire crews observed a two-story structure to be fully involved.  Amidst firefighting efforts to the first structure, crews noticed the structure next door showing heat damage and small flames. Fire suppression activity All occupants of the cabins were evacuated prior to arrival. Big Bear Fire Department units commenced fire...

On August 7, 1954, the Glen Echo Fire Department relocated to their present home on Massachusetts Avenue and Sangamore Road. The dedicated volunteers at the Glen Echo Fire Department provide tens of thousands of hours of service responding to emergency calls and training in their roles as firefighters, EMTs, medics, and trainees.  Providing these services while maintaining a 66-year-old building is a financial challenge. The Glen Echo Fire Department thanks everyone for being so gener...

Since its launch in 2018, the Apollo Test Set has helped to save time on thousands of sites by aiding Engineers in fault finding and loop management. The Research and Development Team has designed some exciting new features for the Loop Tester and the firmware update will be available on the website with a few simple clicks from 18th August. What are the new features? The two new main features of this update are: Drift Management Soft Addressing Drift Management Drift management assi...

According to the President of the Association for the Promotion of German Fire Protection (vfdb), Dirk Aschenbrenner, the operational conditions for fire departments and rescue services and disaster control are changing more and more rapidly.  “Innovative solutions are urgently needed in order to keep up with developments and remain efficient,” said Dirk Aschenbrenner at a virtual specialist conference. It is, therefore, important to recognize the need, develop solutions and in...

As Executive Vice President & Chief Operating Officer (COO) and a member of the company’s Executive Management Board, Katarina Lindström will play a central role in driving Hempel’s strategy. The company has the ambition to double in size in the next five years, and Katarina will lead Hempel’s strategic agenda within operational excellence, innovation and sustainability. She comments: “I’m very pleased to begin at Hempel. The company’s growth strateg...

When it comes to protecting businesses against disruption, water damage can pose a serious threat, especially in the modern age where electrical systems are ingrained in almost every aspect of daily life. Advanced moisture detection systems can help building owners mitigate the risks to their bottom line. Building owners and facilities managers have an almost all-encompassing role to play in keeping businesses running. For these professionals, ensuring downtime is minimized by staying ahead of...

East of England Ambulance Service (EEAST) and Her Majesty’s Coastguard are trialing an initiative that aims to improve response times to search and rescue missions on the northeast Suffolk coast. One of HM Coastguard’s six response vehicles in Suffolk has been based at Saxmundham Ambulance Station since the summer and the new location is expected to significantly cut response times to incidents on the coast. This co-location will also improve joint working between HM Coastgua...

Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service (CFRS) will be taking part in #KnowExactlyWhere week with emergency services, local authorities and organisations around the United Kingdom (UK), in order to raise awareness about the free what3words app - and how it can be used to save precious time, resources and lives in an emergency. what3words has divided the world into a grid of 3m x 3m squares. It has given each square a unique combination of three words - a what3words address. ///ports.rests.stint,...

The 12th annual ImageTrend Connect Conference – Connect 2020 came to a close on Friday, July 24, 2020, after a week of education, idea sharing and networking with peers, all while taking place in a hybrid setting. Connect 2020 event brought administrators and users of ImageTrend solutions together from 41 US states from the comfort and safety of their own homes. Connect 2020 conference event Highlights of the Connect 2020 event included the release of ImageTrend Aware, a free mobile app...

Continuing its transition from component supplier to provider of integrated solutions, focused on solving complex problems, IDEX Fire & Safety is tapping into its vast cadre of talent, to name new roles and responsibilities that will guide the company in its strategic growth. The new promotions and role expansions recognize 11 company leaders and industry experts. Integrated solutions provider “We continually strive to provide end users and our channel partners with integrated solut...

CIC welcomes the MHCLG’s publication of the draft Building Safety Bill, together with its associated guidance and the Home Office’s publication of the Fire Safety Consultation. Taken together, CIC believes that the new legislative framework has the potential to deliver the most fundamental improvements to building safety regulation for over 50 years. These will include: A new national regulator that will strengthen the whole regulatory system for building safety, Greater acco...

Professional competence recommendations set out in Dame Judith Hackitt’s Building a Safer Future report are set to be fulfilled by BSI with a new standards program. BSI, in its role as the UK National Standards Body, announced a new National Standards program to raise professional competence in the built environment sector. The standards aim to tackle the competence challenges identified in the Independent Review of Building Regulations and Fire Safety, Building a Safer Future,...

The government is determined to continue to learn the lessons from the Grenfell Tower fire, and reform building and fire safety to ensure that such a tragedy can never happen again. Government published the draft Building Safety Bill which “takes forward reforms to the (domestic) building and fire safety system.” They state the Bill will “improve building and fire safety, so that people will be, and will feel, safer in their homes.” UKAS Accredited Third-...

Two Norfolk paramedics from the East of England Ambulance Service (EEAST) went above and beyond the call of duty by tackling a fire in a top-floor flat before evacuating the building. Doug Bishop and Jonathan Poole were the first emergency service at the flats on Hunstanton High Street, shortly after 2pm on Thursday 9th July, 2020 and found the couple who had reported the fire at the bottom of the four-storey building. Hearing the fire was still ablaze and residents in neighboring flats were st...

BAFE, the British Approvals for Fire Equipment has stated that professional competence recommendations set out in Dame Judith Hackitt’s ‘Building a Safer Future’ report is set to be fulfilled by BSI with a new standards program. National Standards program “BAFE is actively working on a number of Working Groups (WGs), including the Built Environment Competence Standards (BECS) Strategy Group and the Competence Steering Group (CSG) to help raise and set the bar of fire sa...

Dyne Fire Protection Labs is excited to announce the growth of the laboratory services to include Total PFAS Analysis via TOF. The concerns regarding per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) continue to grow. In response, regulations continue to impose restrictions on PFAS, a group of thousands of manmade chemicals, and not just individual species of PFAS, like perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) or perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS). As a result, PFAS analytical techniques that only look for a ha...

Work has started this week on a brand new, energy-efficient station for firefighters in Barnsley. The existing 60-year-old, three-storey building on Broadway, Kingstone is being demolished after it had reached the end of its operational life. It’s being replaced with a new two-floor, three-bay facility on the same site. A separate multi-use facility is planned to be built on the same site, which will host the service’s award-winning Princes Trust Team Program initiative, as well as...

BAFE SP101 fire extinguisher technician assessments and BS 5306 Exam during the coronavirus pandemic. BAFE is focused on protecting assessors and fire extinguisher technicians from the threat of COVID-19. After reviewing the risk threat posed by COVID-19, BAFE has established new safety procedures to recommence fire extinguisher technician assessments for the BAFE SP101 Scheme. BAFE SP101 Scheme BAFE is now in a position to accept bookings for assessments with immediate effect from 06/07/2020...

The Chief Executive of East of England Ambulance Service has thanked staff for embracing new ways of working which have helped deliver faster response times during the first phase of the COVID-19 pandemic. The latest figures show that despite the challenges of COVID-19, the Trust is consistently meeting all national standards, due in part to more staff to manage calls and more vehicles on the road. Compared to 2021, ambulance response times to reach the most seriously ill (category o...

Following the Grenfell Tower tragedy and the points raised under the Dame Judith Hackitt review covering compliance and competence with independently tested products, the IFC scheme was developed with the Smoke Control Association (SCA). Developed to raise the importance of smoke control and the use of the EN/BSI and ISO standards, utilizing SCA guides for fire safety in buildings alongside of sprinklers. The IFC SDI 19 scheme is the first smoke control scheme accredited to UKAS. competence an...

The cancellation of Independence Day professional fireworks programs in 2020 could raise the risk of wildfires as more amateurs undertake their own pyrotechnic shows, according to four organizations who focus on risk mitigation. "Leave fireworks to the professionals. Sparklers alone generally cause about one-fourth of all injuries during each year's Fourth of July celebrations," said Michele Steinberg, Wildfire Division Director, National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), who noted amateurs w...

The technology behind the Twiceme solution, Near Field Communication (NFC), has been around for quite some time. However, it isn’t until now that it has gained momentum as a widespread and household technology. This has been adopted by key players in the field, as recent strides forward have opened all NFC functionalities to Apple’s iPhones as well as Android smartphone makers. The technology is therefore introduced for the first time to a truly global public, which enables third-pa...

The world of the fire service is heavily related to tangible and tangible things. In this context, people like to think of personal protective equipment, portable pumps, pumps, rescue equipment or emergency vehicles, a dream on 4 wheels with flashing lights and a tone horn, so to speak. Intangible things like software (unfortunately) do not yet have a high priority in the fire service. Digitization In the current discussion about digitization, however, the use of information technology is gett...

Wildfire smoke occurring during the COVID-19 pandemic can increase susceptibility to the virus and other infections by irritating the respiratory system, resulting in altered immune function. Populations vulnerable to smoking, including those with compromised immune systems, children under 18, pregnant women, adults 65 and over, and outdoor workers need to be aware of this risk. How to reduce risk from wildfire smoke Inform the community about these actionable steps that t...