The Building Research Establishment (BRE) & The Fire Industry Association (FIA) have two research projects in progress investigating the performance of contaminated heat sensors. One for heat detectors (connected to a fire panel) and another for heat alarms (self-contained devices for domestic applications).
Starting in October, the London Fire Brigade (LFB) will no longer respond to automatic fire alarms in non-residential buildings during the day. Many leading insurance companies are urging businesses and commercial locations to update their fire risk assessments and staff training to adapt to this significant change.
Discover the essentials of the dielectric test in BS EN 3-7, a critical safety measure for water-based fire extinguishers used on live electrical equipment. This Fact File breaks down the steps, importance, and implications for achieving an F Class rating, crucial for handling cooking oil fires.
In Spring 2024, BT announced that it will withdraw Redcare operations on August 1, 2025. This unexpected decision has significant implications for the commercial alarm industry. While monitoring operations will continue for the next 18 months, existing customers should understand the importance of this announcement.
Navigating fire safety for historic sites involves unique challenges and scenarios that may not apply to modern buildings and structures. Heritage buildings, often constructed long before modern fire safety regulations existed, present unique challenges due to their use of materials now considered outdated and vulnerable to fire.
Seven people were hospitalised following a construction site fire in Canning Town, Newham, on June 4, 2024. The London Fire Brigade (LFB) received approximately 30 calls about the fire, which started shortly after 8 am. Ten fire engines and 70 firefighters from Plaistow, Poplar, East Ham, and nearby stations responded to the scene, where they found a ground-floor commercial unit of a 10-storey building under construction engulfed in flames.
In the early hours of the morning, residents were compelled to evacuate their flats as fire crews responded to a blaze in an underground car park in Nottingham. A few weeks ago, Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service (NFRS) swiftly reacted to reports of a fire erupting in the underground car park of the Litmus Building in Nottingham.
We are pleased to announce that we have taken the decision to switch our current operational management software to Uptick. The team at Uptick are passionate about improving the safety of the buildings that we all live and work within, and believe that there is a better way to maintain building safety, and we at SS Systems share that same passion.
CROSS UK, an essential platform for collaborative reporting on fire and structural safety issues, has drawn attention to concerning incidents within care homes across the UK. These incidents point to a worrying lack of competence among maintenance staff, particularly in areas crucial for fire safety, such as fire door maintenance and the role of fire risk assessors.
Recent data from the Home Office's Incident Recording System (IRS) sheds light on fire and rescue operations throughout 2023. Spanning the last decade, these figures delve into response times, fatalities, and casualties. For the year concluding in December 2023, there were 269 fire-related deaths stemming from 250 fatal fires, a slight uptick from the preceding year's 257 fatalities in 238 fatal fires.
