The Sixth Edition and its Effective Provision
For these reasons the Construction Confederation and Fire Prevention Association drew up a joint code of practice: Fire Prevention on Construction Sites, with the support of the Association of British Insurers, the Chief Fire Officer's Association and the London Fire Brigade.
Fire, health and safety planning is essential to the efficient running on construction projects. The scope of the code extends to contracts with an original value of £2.5 million plus and may form part of the insurance contract.
The code highlights the importance of various working and reference documents, including the initial fire risk assessment during the design phase in line with current CDM regulations ? this will no doubt make reference to the pre-tender health and safety plan which provides important information such as the history of the site.
The Site Fire Safety Plan (forming part of the CDM construction phase health and safety plan), includes a number of minimum requirements/ procedures and details fire brigade access, facilities and co-ordination. For Health & Safety professionals, the information is extremely valuable.
"Rarely are two buildings identical. Construction sites vary and the fire risk differs according to each site" according to Vic Lander, CFIOSH, F.I.Const M, Chartered Health and Safety Practitioner. Having formerly worked for 24 years in the Health & Safety Directorate of the Construction Federation and its predecessor, he has been involved in incidents previously where "serious consequences may well have been avoided had information been readily available to the attending fire crews."
Indeed the sixth edition of the code published in January 2006 now incorporates a new Section 7 highlighting the need for liaison with the Emergency Services. It specifies the provision of an initial plan with updated plans being made available on site for the Fire Brigade. The plan should detail specific information, including:
With the collation of the fire safety information on site, an effective route is needed to make it readily available.
The need for this effective route was recognised by London Fire Brigade Engineering dept, who have recently developed the Premises Information Box system (PIB)® (Left) working in partnership with a security manufacturer - providing immediate access to site specific information for the attending fire crew at the point of delivery.
Designed to fire fighters' requirements and adopted by organisations over the UK, the PIB is based on innovative technology, is secure and not reliant on the presence of staff or electrical power. It is to be sited in an agreed location with the Fire Brigade. In the event that the Fire Safety Co-ordinator is unavailable, be it in or out of hours, the provision of plans and information to the Fire and Rescue Service is still straight-forward.
Allister Smith, Property Risk Manager for Norwich Union, advises that the PIB lends itself very well to this effective provision. He underlines the fact that construction sites can change daily - up until the point of completion there may be limited passive and active protection in place - the fire brigade needs to know precisely what protections / hazards are on site before committing crews. For example - is there any compartmentation? Where are the gas cylinders located for hot work? Allister Smith maintains: "The PIB provides an invaluable focal point for the Fire & Rescue Services to access up-to-date information at all times."
Vic Lander affirms: "The sixth edition of the joint code of practice with the new section 7 requiring information and plans to be in place for the Emergency Services is necessary to minimise the risk of fire, life safety; injury, damage to construction, equipment and materials and the cost of delays. An effective route for the immediate secure provision of these details is a very welcome solution."
Details on the Joint Code of Practice can be found at http://www.thefpa.co.uk/
Details on the Premises Information Box System (PIB)® can be found at http://www.premisesinfobox.info/
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