Category Archives: NewsFeed
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Liquids on site
Posted on March 7, 2012 by bill in Bill's Blog, NewsFeedI’m doing Fire Risk Assessment Manchester and I want to help the environment as much as the next person. So when in the course of said Fire Risk Assessment Manchester I find the situation shown above, I recommend that something is done about it. What’s the problem? You may ask. The thing is, if there’s [...]
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Emergency Lighting
Posted on February 1, 2012 by bill in NewsFeedThe 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 [...]
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Factory roof lights
Posted on February 1, 2012 by bill in NewsFeedTypical 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 [...]
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Protection of property against fire
Posted on January 24, 2012 by bill in NewsFeedSometimes 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 [...]
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Fire Safety in Residential Blocks
Posted on January 3, 2012 by bill in NewsFeedQuestion: 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 [...]
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Misuse of electrics, a cause of fire.
Posted on December 29, 2011 by bill in NewsFeedWe 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 [...]
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Storage Issues – Fire Risk Assessments
Posted on December 21, 2011 by bill in NewsFeedStorage 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 [...]
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Sprinklers – are they useful or not?
Posted on December 19, 2011 by bill in NewsFeedThink 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 [...]
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Sawdust in workplaces
Posted on December 18, 2011 by bill in NewsFeedSawdust 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. [...]
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Fire exits
Posted on December 18, 2011 by bill in NewsFeedIf 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 [...]
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