Construction Fires - Time To Act Before It Is Too Late!
Last year saw a revolution in the way we provide life safety throughout the built environment. This came about with the introduction of the Regulatory Reform Order (RRO) 1st October 2006, whereby we now require Risk Assessments to be carried out on all buildings except dwellings to ensure that they are fire safe. If this approach is the correct approach for the 'built' environment why should it not be applied to the 'being-built' environment which is potentially even more vulnerable than the finished building? One can only imagine that the frequency and seriousness of fires during construction have not, until the last 12 months, been of a magnitude to warrant further consideration.
Perhaps one of the defining fires in the UK was the Colindale fire, when 3No. six storey apartment blocks of timber-frame construction caught fire and burned to the ground in allegedly less than an hour. This fire, being in timber, demonstrated clearly that some building forms are more vulnerable to fire attack than others and timber, being wholly combustible, is vulnerable, as are many of the 'large sheds' which are formed from composite panels. Fires in fully closed-off and lined-out timber frame constructions, e.g. finished homes, have shown themselves to be no worse in fire than in any other construction form. Indeed, there have been a number of fires where serious damage has occurred to a number of adjacent properties even when they have been built of other traditional materials. The problem is simply the disproportionate damage that combustible constructions can suffer when they are exposed to fire during construction. There are a number of risks; smoking, hot working, and inevitably malicious arson, and an open 'timber-frame' is susceptible to all of these. There is nothing wrong with timber, in fact it is not even easily ignitable, but it is paramount that during the vulnerable, 'open' stage the risk of fire is addressed.
How does one do that? IFC Certification Ltd (IFCC), is helping the timber industry to build timber-frames in a safer manner by developing a Certification Scheme for the construction of timber-frames. This is an overarching scheme which first considers the local propensity for malicious arson by reviewing socio-economic conditions that are used to define the risk for all aspects of the construction. Items such as the level of security, surveillance, and storage are all risk-assessed and criteria are given for grading the risk. Following this, design recommendations are made taking into account the complexity of the building which allow the footprint of the building and its height to be sub-divided by fire barriers that are installed early in the construction process thereby limiting the amount of fire spread that can occur. This also considers the risk of fire by-passing the barriers by window to window and door to door spread. In its third aspect, that of inspection during the construction phase, the Scheme attempts to be as non-intrusive as possible and has three levels of operation; daily vigilance inspection by a nominated person in the construction team, random Third Party inspections at a frequency designated by the risk, and finally, auditing of the independent inspections by the Certification Body, again at intervals dictated by the risk. IFC Certification is backing the inspections with 21st century communication tools such as digital imaging to provide an audit process that is supported by excellent factual records.
Whilst this Scheme was introduced to assist timber-frame to overcome some quite obvious criticisms it is equally appropriate to a high rise building in Dubai as it is to a 3-storey timber frame in Surrey. The IFC Certification Scheme puts in place technical improvements as well as an inspection regime that ensures that bad practices do not develop which could jeopardise the building and those working in it. In addition the IFC Group provides a specialist technical support team through the design and construction process so that issues can be dealt with ongoing.
For more information about this scheme please contact IFC Certification on timberframe@ifccertification.com
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