Reducing your fire liability through accreditation

Specifiers and Building Control officers should ensure that installers of fire protection systems have the knowledge, third party accreditation and certified products to meet the new requirement.

With imminent changes to Building Regulations Part B (fire and smoke) and the Regulatory Reform Orders, specifiers and Building Control officers should ensure that installers of fire protection systems have the knowledge, third party accreditation and certified products to meet the new requirement, states Andy Kay of Hilti .

With the implementation of the Fire and Rescue Services Bill in October 2006, the way the Fire Services will operate could change fire investigation and liabilities in future.

Where a fire has occurred, the Bill allows a fire and rescue authority to investigate the cause and progression of the fire, remove documentation and take samples for analysis.

They can also decide not only the cause of the fire but, also, who might be held responsible if its spread was poorly restricted.

Now one independent authority can investigate and apportion responsibility, for possible prosecution.

This may involve the building owners, occupiers, designers, main contractors, sub contractors and manufacturers.

Performance based fire regulations.

The Building Regulations Approved Document B gives guidance on how to design fire safety measures.

The changes mean that designers must ensure a correct design and that it is implemented correctly.

ADB also specifies the use of Accredited Third Party Contractors to ensure that any liability as a result of a fire is reduced.

This is further backed by the guidance offered by the Fire Protection Association Publication, "Design Guide for the Fire Protection of Buildings".

This document is endorsed by the UK insurance industry and includes 12 Essential Principles that will enhance the fire protection within both new and existing buildings.

Third party accreditation and best practice.

The Association for Specialist Fire Protection, endorsed by the Department of Trade and Industry, gives clear guidance that a Third Party Accreditation scheme for installers should include: verified skills training; suitable materials; certificated operatives and supervisors; random inspection; certificate of conformity on completion; an audit trail and UKAS accreditation.

Although there are many good, but unaccredited installers, they cannot offer the 'Certificate of Conformity' that ensures that the quality of the workmanship and installation has been independently assessed.

Liability for failure of installations in such cases will obviously shift towards the contractor and the scheme itself.

Certified fire products.

Approved Document B, the Essential Principles and the Regulatory Reform Order also state that products used for fire protection measures should also be subject to independent inspection and certification.

Where specifiers do not know enough about compartmentation and penetration of compartment walls e.g by services, they might instruct that the compartment be restored to the recommended integrity, without mentioning specific products.

This could lead to incorrect or inferior products being installed, so the specifier is obliged to be more specific.

Third Party Product Certification schemes regularly assess that the product sold is manufactured to the specification used in the original fire test, and is application specific.

Checking the test detail.

Fitness for purpose and application to match the manufacturer's specified detail are important.

A very good example of a product that is widely misused as a passive fire stop is PE "Fire Rated" Foam which will often claim a 4 hour fire rating.

However, the original fire test for this product would usually be on a 15mm gap in a 200mm thick solid wall with no services passing through it.

The limited size of the hole restricts the amount of oxygen that can fuel the flame and so the foam is able to withstand fire for 4 hours.

If you increase the hole size to 50mm and reduce the wall thickness to 100mm the foam can burn through in less than 5 minutes.

If a product is specified and installed in line with its 3rd party accredited detail, this kind of life threatening mistake can be avoided.

Helping Building Control officers.

Certainly, Building Control Officers are now recognising that the appointment of 3rd party accredited installers can reduce their workload and in the DCLG (ODPM)'s proposed changes to Approved Document B, the following wording is suggested when referring to installer and product schemes: "Schemes such as those mentioned - may be accepted by building control bodies as evidence of compliance - for the purposes of the building regulations.

Large clients such as Tesco and Metronet will only use FIRAS contractors to install 3rd party accredited passive fire products on their sites.

A specifier can do no more to satisfy his duty of care than to add the simple sentence to his specification "to be installed by a 3rd party accredited contractor using 3rd party accredited products".

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