Southern Region : Jacobs; Central London 14.06.23

On June 14 the Southern Region held a Regional Conference in Central London. The event was free to attend and was supported and held in the offices of Jacobs, a company which is actively involved in specialist engineering, technical support services. Together these impact global solutions to create a more connected, sustainable world — from intelligence to infrastructure, cybersecurity to space exploration.

The opening presentation was offered by Gary Daniels,  Senior Associate within the Jacobs Fire Engineering team. Gary's presentation reviewed the statistics around fire incidents which showed that the majority of fires occurred within family homes. He made mention of how UK fire safety regulations with regards to furniture and furnishing was different to that in Europe to the extent that furniture in the UK needs to be fire rated. In a 2009 report it estimated that The Furniture and Furnishings (Fire) (Safety) Regulations 1988 saved 54 lives, prevented 800 injuries in over 1000 fires.

The presentation also covered white goods and electrical bike/scooters which have led to an increase in fires. A question was posed as to whether household appliances should fall under the remit of the new Building Safety Regulator or that Trading Standards should be given more powers to enforce. Issues around poor workmanship and management were covered and Gary finished with a view on Artificial Intelligence and how it could slowly creep into fire safety design.

Following Gary's presentation Richard Harral, Technical Director at CABE offered an updated position on the new competency requirements and the progress made to date. This was followed by Ken Hannah, an Associate Director at Potter Raper as well as a Southern Regional committee member, who offered a refresher on Asbestos and the importance to understand and identify the material on construction sites. Delegates were informed of the different types of asbestos and their likely locations within various types of building. Ken also touched upon the pieces of legislation which related to asbestos removal.

Mark Wilson, HSE Operational Lead - Planning Gateway One, offered a presentation on fire safety matters relevant to the planning stage at Gateway One. Mark explained the process and the type of advice which is offered to local planning authorities. He highlighted the usefulness of "performance-based design" which should complement a proposal where the design team have a complex scheme. Mark was able to offer some examples of poor design schemes as well as some which were considered acceptable.

The last speaker for the conference was Kabbe Njie, a Fire Engineer Consultant, who offer his presentation on the Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022, which came into effect in  January 2023. Kabbe, ran through the various aspects of the legislation and clarified the importance of  obtaining all the relevant fire safety information and ensuring that this information is issued to building owners, tenants and clearly made available for the Fire Authority via their data portal as within the Fire Premises Boxes on site.

Michael Wadood BSc(Hons), PPCABE, FCABE, FRICS, MCIOB

Chairman of Southern Region