In the latest episode of Assembly Point, the FPA’s podcast series, Tom Roche from insurer FM Global talks to Howard Passey about sprinklers and regulations.
Tom studied to be an engineer and has worked for insurance firm FM Global for 28 years. Through his work, he became involved with the Business Sprinkler Alliance (BSA) about ten years ago and is now Secretary. FM Global is a member of the BSA, an organisation that is promoting the use of automatic sprinklers in the industrial and commercial sector.
Howard is interested in whether height is the right metric to determine whether a building needs sprinklers. They talk about the mandatory requirement for sprinklers in all high-rise buildings over 11 metres and whether this should also extend to considerations of vulnerability and risk. Tom says 11 metres makes a lot of sense, but height is an easy thing to measure. He wonders: “What is the risk we are thinking about, what evidence do we have for focusing in on certain buildings and not others?”
Tom and Howard talk about sprinklers in schools and the current consultation on revisions to BB100, the design guide for fire safety in schools. Tom is concerned that government policy is changing direction from focusing on continuity of education provision to one where bigger compartments and less sprinklers are required. He says he can find no evidence from government about why this is a good idea.
Tom is interested in resilience and how sprinklers can assist companies wanting to protect their warehouses. He talks to Howard about the increasing demand for online commerce and the corresponding need for more warehouse space, but only those larger than 20,000 square metres are required to fit sprinklers.
The technology and processes in today’s warehouses are a far cry from what Tom experienced when he first joined the insurance profession nearly 30 years ago. “Replacing a warehouse today is not a simple thing.” He asks his clients, what is the plan if there is no active fire protection? “Resilience is a choice, but government regulation is going in the wrong direction,” he concludes.
The discussion moves on to the cost of ongoing maintenance and the ‘value proposition’ for sprinklers. Tom says that risk and consequences need to be put into perspective, and in his experience, people tend to underestimate the size of fires and the damage they cause. He tells Howard that maintenance needs to be seen in the context of the risk and what would a business do if it was realised and there was a fire. Conversations about maintenance often start with costs, but Tom argues that there are maintenance considerations for all aspects of a business, so why is it different for active fire protection choices?
They talk about attitudes to regulation. The BSA carried out a survey of small and medium sized business owners and found that more than half thought that if they followed the regulations their property would be protected against fire. This response is no surprise to Tom, but he says, “That’s not the intent of regulations.”
Howard talks about the FPA’s Know Your Building campaign and he discusses with Tom the disconnect between those who may specify the construction of the building and those who eventually occupy it and how they may not know what they are taking on.
Tom argues that businesses need to come from a position of knowledge when looking at how to manage the building that they occupy. The challenge, he says, is that the information about the building is distributed and not centralised. Businesses need to think of buildings as systems and manage changes to those buildings over time, which is in line with the findings in Dame Judith Hackitt’s report on building fire safety.
Concluding the podcast episode, Howard asks Tom what he would do if he had the chance to influence sprinkler policy and make sprinklers mandatory in high-risk buildings where occupants are vulnerable. Tom says there must be a discussion about sustainability and conserving materials for buildings from hazards like fire. “You need to think about property not just as an asset but something that is a system that offers sustainability and flexibility and to gain the benefit, we need to protect it.”
To hear the discussion, download the latest episode of Assembly Point from: https://fpa-assembly-point.captivate.fm/listen
Assembly Point is part of the FPA's Know Your Building campaign for change.