Butler and Young aid prisons meet fire regulations

Butler and Young tackle security and fire safety for staff and inmates in UK prisons.

Designers face touch challenges when trying to keep staff and inmates safe if a fire breaks out.

Inmates are locked in their cells and completely reliant upon trained custodial staff in the event of a fire.

If an evacuation does become necessary, inmates then have to be supervised at all times to prevent them escaping or taking the opportunity to attack staff or fellow inmates.

To aid security, it is advisable for inmates to be kept in full view at all times when not secured within their cell.

The design of prisons normally results in the cells being arranged on balconies around a central hall, with open metal staircases leading from floor to floor.

But when the Ministry of Justice decided to embark on a programme of building more prisons and extending existing ones, the familiar question of security versus means of evacuation was raised.

The new fire regulations, which has introduced a risk based protocol, imposes a responsibility for the safety in the event of fire of inmates, visitors and staff.

The question was: did unenclosed staircases satisfy the provisions for the safe evacuation of the building occupants? Trenton Consultants, a specialist fire engineering company of the Butler and Young Group, were able to show that they did, thus ensuring that the highest levels of security can be achieved whilst saving the Ministry of Justice a significant sum of money.

Trenton produced sophisticated computer models of fires, using Computational Fluid Dynamics, to demonstrate how hot toxic and potentially lethal smoke could be kept above head-height on the balconies and stairs for long enough to allow for either the fire to be dealt with or for a full safe evacuation.

Tim Clements, Director of Trenton Consultants, explained: "Security is the biggest issue.

What makes prisons unique compared to any other facility, is that inmates are not able to self-evacuate.

"If you were in a hotel, for example, guests and staff would hear the fire alarm, come out of their rooms and make their own way to the fire exits.

"Normally, they would go down an enclosed staircase leading to an outside space - but, clearly, in a prison an enclosure around a staircase means people are not visible and that creates a security problem for the custodial staff.

"Also, you may have to have a phased or staged evacuation to ensure that certain groups of inmates do not meet.

"We were able to model different sizes of fires which were possible, given the furniture in a cell, and show that at all times the resulting smoke could be kept high enough above all floors to allow a safe evacuation - at least 2.5m.

"Being able to keep open staircases both reduces costs and maximises security in the wider sense as inmates will be on view at all times".

Trenton Consultants were called in at an early stage by the Ministry of Justice to test the designs for the new prisons and prison wings, thus avoiding costly amendments.

The company is being increasingly called upon to advise architects and construction companies at an early stage of big building projects.

Mr Clements said: "Typically, the saving made for our client far outweighs our professional fees.

They can avoid the cost of having to abort designs at a later stage by getting us on board as advisors at an early stage.

Also, we generally find our expertise in modelling fires reveals that they require less expensive ventilation systems than they at first predicted - saving more money".

Butler and Young Group is one of the UK's leading names in building control and has a network of offices across the country.

Its divisions operate as approved inspectors for building control, fire safety engineers and construction consultants.

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