While getting ready for CE marking in the UK is not top of everyone's list of priorities, many in the fire safety industry, such as the Association for Specialist Fire Protection, have been preparing for it. As Bill Parlor sets out, the organisation made a strategic decision several years ago to review and extend all the guidance it makes freely available.

Risk assessment under the Regulatory Reform (Fire safety) Order 2005 is not just for the building owner and the responsible person – it's much wider than that. This is because it's inextricably linked to other legislation, not just ‘design' issues under Construction Design & Management 2007 Regulations, but maybe more importantly under the rather innocuously named Building Regulation 16B. This particular regulation found its way into Approved Document B 2006 in a rather unheralded way – a bit like ‘jack in the box' – and we may soon find out if it packs a much bigger punch!

A particular duty
Regulation 16B is about providing fire safety information to those who make and maintain risk assessments alongside a general ‘duty of care'. It might just be beginning to dawn on some, especially those who have noted recent heavy fines or prison sentences,  that the duty might also apply to all who participate in the construction process!  If you don't know how a building is built, how can you pretend to make the risk assessment? Effective fire protection means doing it properly first time around, and making records of what has been done. After all we could, overnight, be asked to provide the evidence to prove ourselves innocent. That's right, under the current fire legislation you would have to justify your own actions and show that you acted reasonably under the circumstances and in terms of evolving standards and practice.

Unfamiliar ground
In spite of the economic downturn, changes continue to be made. That's where the ASFP comes in for its members and for the wider fire safety industry – it provides up to date guidance and an industry appreciation of the changes still to come. Many  informed observers have become regular visitors to the ASFP website, and with good reason.

If you want to show your competency, following an industry code of practice might be one way to demonstrate it. The ASFP recognised that it had a duty to get industry agreement on just what this meant. So new codes of practice have been published for the on-site protection of steelwork, for each of the following fire protection products: 

• TGD 11: The specification and installation of intumescent coatings for fire protection of structural steelwork
• TGD 14: The installation and inspection of board systems for the fire protection of structural steelwork
• TGD 15: The installation and inspection of sprayed non-reactive coatings for the fire protection of structural steelwork

In the event of related work on site, where refurbishment or ‘simple maintenance' is concerned, it's good to know what can be done without increasing the risks in a fire. After all, the simplest jobs are often done by a jobbing builder or the ‘maintenance department' with little or no specialist knowledge or interest in what will happen in a fire. Recent fires have begged the questions of earlier refurbishmentwork:

• Just what was done and why?
• Who requested the work?
• Who carried out the work?
• Were they competent and third party certificated?
• Were the contractors the cheapest available?
• Were proven products used?
• What was the impact on the dynamic risk assessment?
• Who updated the risk assessment and when was it last updated?

So, the ASFP has produced further codes of practice for:

• TGD 08: Junctions between different fire protection systems when applied to load bearing steel elements
• TGD 10: Refurbishment and upgrading of fire protection of structural steelwork
• TGD 13: Over-cladding reactive coatings when used as fire protection to steel structural sections

Visitors to many modern construction sites using steel framed construction may have been intrigued by the innovative use of steel beams with openings in the web of the steel. Sometimes the openings are circular, or lozenge shaped, or rectangular, or sometimes all of those shapes are used, in different sizes and with different spacing. By using such beams, the services for a building can pass through the steel web and, multiplying this up, can provide vertical space for an extra storey every 7-10 storeys of height. But have the traditional rules been broken?

They may well have been, since the shape, size, locations and symmetry of the openings and the steel beams can often reduce the critical temperature that can be resisted in fire. So more fire protection might be needed and a different way of justifying the products to be used will frequently apply. That's why the ASFP and SCI (Steel Construction Institute) produced complementary guidance on the fire protection of such steel beams. It's all contained in SCI document AD 319, and in another new published ASFP code of practice, TGD 09: The fire protection of steel beams with web openings.

Different needs
The ASFP is well aware that there are different levels of engagement with interested parties. That's why the information available is provided at one of three levels:

• Level 1 – by FAQs and listed by category on the web site at www.asfp.org.uk
• Level 2 – by codes of practice, as outlined above
• Level 3 – by well established ‘coloured books' under constant review since 1975. 

 These coloured books are being extended using focussed task groups from the industry and related parties, to include a number of new actions.

Yellow book: structural steelwork
Fire protection of structural steel, with a new Section 6 on cellular beams, wherein fire protection can only be offered by products which have been tested to produce specific multi-temperature analysis for the critical temperature concerned. Many other modifications have also been introduced as other knowledge improves. The amendment page identifies the changes made.

Red book: fire stopping
A new third edition of fire stopping using diverse techniques for linear joint seals and service penetrations will be published in October 2009, to reflect incoming European fire tests, direct and extended fields of application of test data, and European classifications. The product data sheets will be restricted to products with independent third party product certification, raising the bar from dependence on ad hoc BS fire tests and preparing the ground for CE marking, with detailed references to the more recent BS EN fire test standards.

Orange book: fire retardant coatings
Recent bad advice on TV property programmes could have been mitigated, or avoided, if the limitations of adding ‘coatings' over diverse substrates had been better considered. The previously published ASFP Orange Book provides detailed advice on how to consider the use of fire retardant coatings when applied to different substrates, and also provides a keen insight into European BS EN test methods for determining the reaction to fire classification of construction products

Purple book: partitions
The ASFP produced an early version of its document Fire Rated Non Load-bearing Partitions some years ago. A new second edition will be released in October 2009 entitled Fire resisting partitions – a guide to internally framed non load-bearing partitions. The new document will include many new useful features and introduce European test methods, impact issues, and problems of part or total service penetrations in fire resisting partitions

Grey book: fire dampers
The ASFP has joined forces with HEVAC (Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning Manufacturers Association) and HVCA (Heating and Ventilation Contractors Association) to produce new guidance on the use of fire resisting dampers. The harmonised European standards currently include eight new BS EN documents, which will demand a new focus when such products are used in the UK. This is partly because of new fire test methods but more especially because of a clear differentiation between the functions of different fire damper types.

Before the end of 2009, ASFP will publish Volume 1: Fire dampers (European standards) – for E (integrity) & ES (integrity and leakage) classified fire dampers – as the first part of a two volume second edition. The first volume will provide guidance on application, BS EN fire testing, classification, and installation of fire dampers, when used in ventilation systems to maintain fire compartments and/or to protect the means of escape from buildings.

The second volume will provide guidance on the use of smoke control dampers in combination with ductwork, which are governed by different BS EN fire test and classifications. UK guidance may need to be revised to get the best benefits available from the new European standards.

Blue book: fire resisting ducts
As in case of fire dampers, a new suite of eight European BS EN fire test and classification documents will bring significant change to the perceived use of fire protected ductwork in buildings. There are very few permitted cases of un-insulated ductwork classifications available for regulatory use, so that a widespread ‘UK disease' may be halted where un-insulated fire resisting ductwork is excessively accepted in buildings today. The basis of this uncertain acceptance is less clear, but it could be one more example of lowest bidders causing distortions, both of the market and of the fire safety expectations of people in buildings. In most cases, the deficit will only become evident when a real fire breaks out.

Final reminder
All ASFP specialist contractors have to be members of independent third party installer certification schemes as a basic requirement for membership. It's understandable then that they get a bit annoyed when specialist fire safety tasks are awarded to the lowest bidder with the lowest level of experience or training.

The main contractor gets exactly what he paid for, but does the client appreciate that when the risk assessment is drawn up? For these reasons, the ASFP along with LABC (Local Authority Building Control), HEVAC  and HVCA have all signed up to a ‘Liability Statement' (see separate panel). It does not pretend to tell readers what to do next, but does remind them to carefully think about their duties.

Bill Parlor is technical officer at the Association of Specialist Fire Protection.

Note:
The ASFP, LABC (Local Authority Building Control), HEVAC (Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning Manufacturers Association) and HVCA (Heating and Ventilation Contractors Association) have all signed up to the following ‘Liability Statement' to remind everyone in the construction process to carefully think about their duties:

FIRE AND YOUR LEGAL LIABILITY
2008 produced the highest UK peacetime fire losses of all time, rising over the previous year by 16% to a record £1.3bn. That's why we must all play our part.

Why is this of relevance to me!
If you are involved in provision of a fire protection package, at any level, then you share liability for its usefulness and its operation when it's needed in fire, and that liability will still be there in the event of a court case.

I place the order; it is not my responsibility to install the works!
If it is your responsibility to specify the materials and/or appoint the installation contractor, it is also your responsibility to ensure that they can prove competency for the fire protection materials used, or the works to be carried out. It's no longer simply a duty of care or voluntary – it's a legal obligation.

If you knowingly ignore advice that leads to a failure in the fire performance of any element of installed fire protection within a building, then you are likely to be found to be just as culpable as the deficient installer.

You share liability for the provision of information required under Building Regulation 16B that tells the user of the building about the fire prevention measures provided in the building. Otherwise, the user cannot make an effective risk assessment under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005.

What is expected of me?
In the event of fire, and deaths, a court will want to know how every fire protection system was selected; the basis for selection of the installer, whether adequate time was provided for its installation, and whether there was adequate liaison between the different parties to ensure it was installed correctly. No ifs, no buts – it's all contained in the Construction, Design and Management Regulations 2007.

The CDM 2007 regulations, enforced by Health and Safety Executive, concentrate on managing the risk, and the health and safety of all those who build, those that use the building, those who maintain it and those that demolish it – cradle to grave.

Be aware – the time to consider the above is before the event, not after it!

Bill Parlor is technical officer of the Association of Specialist Fire Protection