Fire Safety rules, and intumescent coatings

Colin Clark of Copon E Wood, takes a timely look at the implications of the recent fire safety legislation changes and calls for a responsible attitude in the steel intumescent coating industry

In order to maximise public safety, the Government has introduced new far-reaching fire safety legislation to cover non-residential buildings in England and Wales.

In a separate move (but acting from very similar motives) the UK intumescent coatings industry has introduced new more demanding assessment procedures and an Industry Guidance Document for Thin Film Intumescent Coatings.

Colin Clark of the Queen's Award winning coatings company, Copon E Wood, takes a timely look at the implications of these recent changes and calls for a responsible attitude in the steel coating and protection industry.

On 1 October 2006, the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 came into force, marking the biggest overhaul of fire legislation in decades.

Some seventy separate pieces of legislation became defunct, replaced by a new regime imposing duties upon all those responsible for any premises where people gather.

Factories, shops, schools, theatres and transport facilities are all included.

In fact the legislation extends to cover most types of building, except private homes and individual flats (although communal areas in multi-occupancy residential properties are covered).

The responsibility for fire safety now lies with employers, self-employed people (with business premises), voluntary organisations, those responsible for buildings with public access, and importantly, any contractor who exercises a degree of control over any premises, including the installation of any fire safety products.

It also covers any person or organisation offering advice on fire safety matters.

The net has widened significantly.

It is now the legal duty of these 'responsible persons' to take all reasonable steps to reduce the risk from fire and make sure people can safely escape if a fire occurs on the premises.

This means carrying out regular fire safety risk assessments - indeed every building should have already been assessed prior to October 1st.

Without doubt the legal responsibilities (and therefore liabilities) will be weighing heavily on many people who have never been personally responsible for fire safety before.

In the event of a fire, those in control of the premises will be deemed culpable until they can prove their innocence, as is the case with Health and Safety legislation.

Many will therefore be asking themselves what might happen in a court of law if they are held responsible for a fire occurring.

The answer is that any court will want to know about their decision-making processes and the steps taken to comply with the law.

The court will want to see that the most up to date, relevant and complete information has been used as a basis for action and that statutory regulations and industry codes of practice have been adhered to.

Perhaps more than anything else the court will be interested in the extent to which long-term public safety might have been compromised by short-term commercial gain.

This point emphasises the need to be alert to changes in the market for fire safety products and takes us to the matter of the new protocols now in place covering the testing, assessment, specification and application of intumescent coatings, specifically with respect to the protection of structural steel.

All specifiers, design and build organisations, steel erectors and fabricators, consulting engineers and their clients need to be aware of the new 'Industry Guidance Document' and should be adopting its requirements.

The Guidance Document is the result of 3 years of painstaking work by the Intumescent Coatings Forum (ICF) - a voluntary initiative, comprising senior executives from across the UK intumescent coatings industry - fully supported by BRE, Warringtonfire, the British Coatings Federation and the Association of Specialist Fire Protection.

The ICF aim is to guarantee a consistent standard of quality and professionalism throughout the manufacture, supply and application of thin film intumescent coatings.

The ICF has embraced more conservative fire safety standards, and is moving towards European harmonisation.

The new protocols do not have British Standard status, but they are enshrined in the newly published ASPF Yellow Book which is universally acknowledged to be the 'industry Bible'.

It has been agreed that every product offering intumescent protection for structural steel must now be reviewed by BRE or Warringtonfire to ensure that its assessment meets the new 'Criteria for Acceptability' detailed within the Industry Guidance Document.

These objective numerical criteria eliminate the subjectivity that has been present in previous regimes and ensure a totally consistent basis of assessment for all products.

It is an inevitable consequence of these moves that members of the ICF are now either having to enhance the intrinsic performance attributes of their intumescent products or increase the film thicknesses recommended to satisfy fire resistance requirements for a given period.

The ICF members have unanimously agreed to adopt this approach and only to publish product loading data which meets with the new criteria for acceptability.

The ICF has also agreed that intumescent coatings should only be applied by contractors who have a thorough understanding of the special requirements of the product, and who possess the skills to ensure they are applied in the correct manner to provide the desired fire protection.

As a responsible manufacturer at the forefront of the specialist coatings industry, Copon E Wood has been a prime mover in the development and adoption of the new Guidance Document and fully endorses and supports this initiative.

Copon E Wood was the first coating manufacturer to have all its fire test data reviewed and assessed in line with new tougher standards and we did not hesitate to publish our new dry film loadings for 30, 60 and 90 minute periods of fire resistance for Copon Pyrotech SPX Thin Film Waterborne Intumescent Coating.

In the interests of public safety we have made strenuous efforts to inform our contractors and their clients of the need to increase loadings and have explained why changes are being made.

We are also fully supportive of all moves to increase the professionalism and skill levels of the contractors who apply our products and we are making applicator training available to any contracting organisation that needs assistance.

This training can be carried out on site or at fully equipped training facilities at our HQ in Northallerton.

All deadlines for submitting products to BRE or Warringtonfire for review have passed, yet there are still intumescent coatings on the market that have not been re-assessed and reviewed.

In addition, some contractors are apparently being provided with out-of-date product loading data to work to and are therefore failing to give their clients the level of fire protection that is now required.

This situation cannot be allowed to continue.

We are calling for everyone in the industry to be responsible and move forward together.

The Industry Guidance Document has been published for all to see.

Transition periods have ended.

There are no valid excuses left.

All clients and contractors should now insist on seeing the results of product assessments against the criteria for acceptability in the guidance document, before any product is applied.

Products failing to meet the criteria should be rejected.

Those who think they can ignore Best Practice and continue to put financial gain before public safety should remember the main thrust of the Government's new Fire Safety legislation.

Clients are not the only people who have to worry about fire risks in their buildings.

Everyone who installs, applies or gives any advice on the use of fire protection measures may be deemed culpable in the event of a tragedy.

Copon E Wood is a Queen's Award winning manufacturer of specialist coatings.

In the fire protection arena the company's expertise in polymer technology has led to a unique range of protective coatings incorporating highly effective intumescence, nil flame spread and reduced levels of heat, smoke and toxic fume emissions.

The company is a member of the Intumescent Coatings Forum responsible for the development of the Industry Guidance Document published by the ASF.

Back to top