The purpose of emergency lighting is to ensure that if the normal lighting fails the escape routes routes are maintained safe to use. The alleyway above, which is a pathway from an exit, leading round the building, has no lighting at all. A night shift operates, so that persons are at work when the escape [...]
Typical construction in factories will include roof lights like these. Should a fire occur, the steelwork in the structure loses 2/3 of its strength by about 550 degrees C. Fires can easily bring about temperatures in excess of 1000 degrees C. Structural collapse becomes a distinct possibility. Pictures of the aftermath of fires in industrial units [...]
Sometimes the Fire Risk Assessor is the bearer of bad news. Above, we see a typical factory unit and the bad news is that (a) if a fire breaks out, it is contained by the steel covering (making for difficult fire-fighting because of high temperature and smoke-logging); and (b) if the steelwork gets overheated there is a significant [...]
No Comments. Continue Reading...
Question: if you live in a block of flats, should there be a fire alarm? Answer: (in true fire safety tradition) it all depends. What we at Armstrong Fire Management work to is the new guide: Fire Safety in Purpose-Built Blocks of Flats, issued by the Local Government Group. This guide tells us that a [...]
We can take the ignition hazard from smoking out of the equation for workplaces, so what’s likely to cause a fire? Electrical hazards are a common source of ignition. The picture above shows a portable heater that is supplied from a multi-adaptor extension lead. This poses a hazard because (i) an overload may occur at the [...]
Storage issues can make for lots of different problems in a building. The Fire Risk Assessment has to address these issues. Storage of tyres in a building brings in the potential for tremendous output of heat and smoke. Fire-fighters could well have real difficulty in approaching such a fire. And how do people in this [...]
Think about this little problem that has arisen twice in my recent Fire Risk Assessments. The premises is a four bedroom bungalow, in which there is supported living for mentally and physically disabled persons. John is a large person whom staff cannot lift manually, to the extent that a special hoist has to be used to [...]
Sawdust accumulations make for a severe hazard because if the sawdust is stirred up it acts like a gas and is well capable of exploding. The worst case is that a fire starts, a fire-fighting jet stirs up the dust, an explosion follows; more dust is stirred up and then an even bigger explosion follows. [...]
No Comments. Continue Reading...
If there’s one thing guaranteed to annoy your local Fire Officer, it’s a key in a box to open up the fire exit. Arrangements like this simply don’t work over a long period. Someone gets to the exit. desperate to get out because there’s a fire. and the key no longer fits the lock. ( I’ve [...]
No Comments. Continue Reading...
Think about this. Aerosols are stored in a cupboard. A fire starts, for whatever reason. The canisters heat up. As they get hotter they pressurise. The contents are flammable – you can see the warning symbol on the back of most aerosol canisters. The pressure increases as the aerosols get hotter, until finally one fails, exploding [...]
No Comments. Continue Reading...