St Clement’s Church in the City of London, made famous by the Oranges and Lemons nursery rhyme, is just one of hundreds of historic buildings protected from fire by the expert care and attention of British Fire Consortium (BFC) engineers. BFC member, Alford based Safelincs Limited, maintains the portable fire extinguishers installed at the church, which was built in 1687 by Sir Christopher Wren.
The BFC is the UK’s largest fire trade association, comprising more than 200 independent companies. Typical of many BFC members, Safelincs offers a broad range of services including supply and maintenance of extinguishers and other fire safety equipment such as fire alarms, detectors, sprinkler systems and safety signage. An additional service offered by Safelincs and many other BFC members today is the production of fire risk assessments, now a mandatory requirement for nearly all organisations and businesses under the latest fire legislation. Many BFC members also offer staff training including full blown evacuation drills in large commercial or public premises.
BFC member companies work closely with local authorities, the fire service and private commercial clients, and much of their business is specified by fire officers and building control departments. Some members specialise in fire safety support for airfields, merchant shipping, chemical stores and catering facilities. Members often work together to provide nationwide coverage to large retail or leisure groups.
Appropriate fire safety measures for a ‘traditional’ country church need not be expensive. The main risks would normally be electrical and, following a risk assessment, a typical installation might simply be the location of a CO² extinguisher near the organ/electrical intake, and a 6Litre foam extinguisher by each of the (usually two) exits. Where there is a boiler room, often in the basement and accessed internally, a 6kg Powder extinguisher would probably be specified.
The British Standard recommends the following weekly checks by the ‘user’ for each portable fire extinguisher in a premises:
The Standard also states that extensive checks must be carried out by a ‘competent’ person as follows:
The correct annual maintenance of extinguishers in public buildings is an important responsibility. The Standard defines the competent person as someone who has been examined by a BAFE recognised body. BFC members achieve competent person status by successfully completing the BFC’s own training course and BSI/BAFE approved examination, required as part of BFC membership. Therefore clients (and their insurers) employing BFC members, can have every confidence in their levels of competence and expertise.
Many British Fire Consortium members specialise in the installation of more sophisticated fire safety measures such as alarm systems and sprinkler systems for where a higher level of risk is present. For example, a local fire brigade conducted a risk assessment at a large city centre Gospel Church hall and stipulated the installation of an alarm system. The building was Grade 11 listed and therefore the potential damage from the installation of a hard wired system was unacceptable. The Consortium member therefore suggested a ‘Detectomat’ wire free solution. The hall is used seven days a week for meetings and club activities so there was also an additional reason to avoid the disruption, mess and dust caused by the installation of a hard wired alarm system. The wire-free system comprised optical smoke and heat detectors with integral sounders and break-glass, manual call points and was installed in just three hours resulting in little disruption to the Hall’s activities. The system does not require the installation of sounder circuits because all the sounders are integrated within the detectors. In a listed building this is a huge benefit because there is no need for wiring, and the associated damage to the fabric of the building. And, because cabling was avoided, labour costs were reduced to the minimum resulting in considerable financial savings.
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