The FPA’s principal consultant and sprinkler expert Dale Kinnersley outlines the dangers of cutting costs with sprinklers.
The Fire Protection Association (FPA) is one of the leading experts for sprinkler system inspections, head, pipework, and water mist testing. Alongside other industry bodies, the organisation has been vocal in lobbying government, emphasising the importance of making sprinklers compulsory by law. The FPA are authors of the LPC Rules for Automatic Sprinklers and have the facility at a purposebuilt laboratory to conduct sprinkler system tests to improve current LPC Technical Bulletins.
Every year thousands of people are injured in fires and hundreds lose their lives. It is widely acknowledged within the fire safety industry that many of these tragedies could have been avoided with sprinkler installation. Sprinklers are instrumental in minimising the risk of fire and can help save lives as well as providing property protection and business continuity. They provide protection from fire damage and give people a better chance of evacuating a building when there is a fire. Sprinklers help save money too, as their effective use reduces the scale and cost of potential fire damage, as well as limiting the potential knock-on effects for local communities. Sprinkler systems allow most fires to be controlled, with some being extinguished before fire and rescue services even arrive on the scene.
Sprinkler systems work by reacting to heat and, when activated by the high temperature caused by a fire, they will operate and discharge water directly over the fire to effectively and efficiently suppress it. A fire can spread frighteningly fast where no sprinkler system is fitted. In just three to four minutes, it can push temperatures towards 900°C and quickly spread throughout a building. Where sprinklers are installed, the sprinkler closest to the fire is activated first, when it detects the temperature reaching 68°C, and it will release water to effectively suppress the fire. Following this initial activation, additional sprinklers will only activate if the fire spreads. However, this again will be controlled by the sprinklers to provide cooling and fire control.
Across all premises, when properly maintained and installed, fire sprinkler systems are by far the most efficient and effective fire safety devices. Over the past 130 years they have had over a 99% success rate in controlling fires around the world. The installation of fire sprinklers will virtually eliminate fire deaths, reduce injuries by at least 80%, reduce property damage by 90%, and substantially reduce damage to the environment from fire (source: BAFSA). They are particularly valuable in the case of schools, care homes, and hospitals where young, sick, and vulnerable people are at risk and where the damage to the essential services such organisations provide can have a severely detrimental and far-reaching effect on the local community.
Sprinklers in schools
Schools are a vital resource which, if lost to fire, have a devastating impact not only on their pupils and staff but also on their families and wider society. Even when no one is injured, burnt-out schools and classrooms can cause a major disruption to children’s education, which could affect their future results and progression.
Pupils can experience significant emotional stress if they have lost irreplaceable and valuable coursework in a fire, and there is the additional cost and loss to the school in terms of valuable teaching resources and equipment. Many school buildings are used for external clubs and groups outside school hours — they are valuable community assets, and as such, no one can afford to cut corners when it comes to considering fire safety in schools.
Schools are considered high-risk premises when it comes to fire safety due to the typical size and complexity of the buildings, the number of people occupying them at any one time, and the potential presence of hazardous materials. Another important factor is the vulnerability of children and young people who can often be oblivious to potential dangers or, in the case of smaller children, completely unaware of fire hazards and what could happen if a fire should start. Unfortunately, schools can also be the target of arson attacks and fire starting since the buildings are usually left unoccupied for long periods during holidays.
Given their vulnerability and high risk, you would expect all schools to have sprinkler systems installed on their premises but, unfortunately, this is far from the case. A 2020 study by Zurich, a leading insurer of schools, which included personal inspections of more than 1,000 primary and secondary schools, found that English schools were ‘twice as likely’ to suffer fires than other buildings. Despite this risk, inspections found that two-thirds of schools lacked adequate fixed fire protection measures, such as sprinklers, while just under a quarter were rated ‘poor’ for fire detection. The report highlighted ‘a perfect storm’ of risky buildings and ‘poor fire detection measures’ in the UK, with the average fire risk ‘almost double that of non-residential buildings.’
Zurich’s study identified that more than 15,000 square metres of classroom space was damaged during blazes across 271 primary and 209 secondary schools during 2019. Alarmingly only 2% of the schools had sprinkler protection in place and, according to official figures, only 15% of all new schools built and opened in the UK since 2011 have been fitted with sprinklers.
Despite the government’s review of the Building Bulletin 100 document outlining an expectation that ‘all new schools will have sprinklers fitted’ when exceeding the 11m height threshold (which is unsatisfactory), sprinklers have still not been made compulsory for all new or major refurbished school buildings in England. This expectation is currently under consultation with the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG).
The FPA strongly advises all schools to have adequate fire safety systems in place, including sprinkler systems irrespective of height. It is, therefore, down to headteachers, governors, and those responsible for fire safety within a school building to understand the importance of sprinkler systems, how they operate, and why they must be maintained for them to work effectively and reduce the risk of fire spread from the outset.
Sprinklers in care homes and hospitals
As in the case of schools, the addition of sprinkler systems for safety is especially important in care homes and hospitals where occupants are vulnerable and may require more time and assistance in evacuating premises. Statistically speaking, vulnerable and older people are at the greatest risk of fire and a correctly specified and installed sprinkler system can significantly reduce this risk for people with limited or no mobility. Managers should be aware of how decisions over the use of sprinklers and automatic fire suppression systems could impact their service users and their patients.
Residents of care homes and hospital patients often have a slower reaction time in raising an alarm in the event of fire and a slower response to a fire warning. Sprinklers can buy staff valuable time which is critical to successful evacuation and can save lives.
Many hospitals use Progressive Horizontal Evacuation (PHE) to initially evacuate patients to a designated safer place, providing an extended evacuation period. Sprinklers can increase the time available for evacuation still further and reduce the numbers who require evacuation. In addition, sprinkler systems within residential care premises and hospitals will reduce the risk of loss or damage to the contents and fabric of the building by controlling the growth of the fire, suppressing, and even extinguishing it.
Importance of maintenance and inspection
There is no doubt that sprinklers play a critical role in terms of fire safety and that they are of even greater value in premises such as schools, care homes, and hospitals where vulnerable people are at risk. However, for sprinklers to operate efficiently in the event of a fire, they must be correctly designed, installed, serviced, and maintained. This means using a system that has been tried and tested by industry, with installation provided by approved sprinkler system contractors that hold an accreditation through a third-party certification scheme.
The people responsible for fire safety in any organisation are not expected to be experts or to know all the answers when it comes to sprinkler systems. They need to seek the appropriate support from a competent, certified third party to help them understand and follow legal standards and good practice which could be critical in the event of a fire. The FPA have recently issued a new publication, Sprinkler System Service and Maintenance (Guidance, Records, & Checklists), written with input from the leading insurer members of RISCAuthority, sprinkler experts and interested like-minded parties. This provides a fully compliant service and maintenance schedule to meet the requirements of the LPC Rules (Technical Bulletin TB203) and incorporates additional information providing practical guidance and best practice for system maintenance. This is a free-to-download document available here:
https://www.riscauthority.co.uk/public-resources/documents/resource/sprinkler-system-service-and-maintenance-746.
Getting sprinkler heads tested by an independent third party is recommended as best practice, and those responsible for fire safety within a building should be looking to engage with a third party with the knowledge and the experience required to carry out thorough inspections, as well as advise on next steps where appropriate.
Over time, sprinkler heads can become defective due to accidental damage or environmental conditions, such as the buildup of dirt or corrosion, which can impact their effectiveness in the event of a fire. It is also important to consider that, while routine maintenance and a visual inspection is essential, there are many other issues that could arise which only extensive inspection and testing can identify.
If alterations are made to a building’s layout, storage arrangements, or processes, it could have a significant impact on the current sprinkler system’s performance when tackling a fire. Independent fire sprinkler system inspections are a requirement of the LPC Rules for Automatic Sprinkler Installations 2015 incorporating BS EN 12845 and the most effective and safest way to ensure the system is ‘fit for purpose’. These should be carried out at least once a year by an independent third party. This inspection cannot be undertaken by a system owner, building occupier, system installer (or competing installer), or service and maintenance provider (or competing service and maintenance provider). It must be inspected by a qualified person who is suitably trained, competent through knowledge, and with experience of all aspects of the LPC Rules in order to assess compliance to standard and be able to perform practical tests when required.
Sprinklers have a proven track record in limiting the impact of fire. However, as they are still not a legal requirement, they are not always included where and when they should be. By taking a responsible and proactive approach to fire safety and seeking support and guidance on effective sprinkler installation and maintenance, schools, care homes, hospitals, and other organisations where vulnerable people are potentially at risk can take the lead in safeguarding their premises and, most importantly, the people who use them.
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Dale Kinnersley is Principal Consultant at the Fire Protection Association.