We were delighted to be able to present a webinar to our customers which introduced the new BS 9251: 2014 fire sprinkler systems for domestic and residential occupancies – code of practice in which over a hundred people participated, we thought we would like to share our thoughts with a wide audience.

CEN has published the draft standard pr EN 16925 fixed firefighting systems – automatic residential sprinkler systems – design, installation and maintenance it’s a long title and a long document at around 70 pages.  The standard covers residential and domestic dwellings from a house, blocks of flats, student accommodation and care homes it also covers small hotels which are up to 4 stories in height.  Is not appear to be any other limit to the size of the building so the standard can be useful flats to any height even though they only require a single water supply.

I have been delighted to see so many fires have been stopped by sprinkler installations in domestic and residential premises this clearly shows how effective they have been in saving both life and property.

In a recent incident, an elderly gentleman whilst in his flat at 4 pm had his life saved by recently installed fire sprinkler installation in his flat.  Whilst he was asleep in his bedroom a fire started in his kitchen originating from a toaster despite developed quite quickly and the sprinklers activated and extinguished the fire whilst also raising the alarm which allowed the gentleman to be evacuated from his flat.

We have just received our first full version of Microsoft Windows 10 which unlike some other Microsoft upgrades went seamlessly although you do have to allow over an hour for the full install.  We are pleased to say that our FHC (hydraulic calculation software) and Hcalc (hydraulic calculator) performs seamlessly on this new operating system.  We had previously tested our software on the Windows 10 technical preview before the launch date so we were confident that this would be the case but it's reassuring to have it successfully working on the production release.

It was really good to see that a coroner has once again called for all new houses to be fitted with domestic fire sprinkler systems to be fitted to new homes after the death of the person on their 80th birthday after suffering from severe burns.  Any death is distressing but once which are preventable are even more so, it is such a shame and we have the technology to prevent deaths from fires in domestic dwellings but we do use the technology we have to protect the elderly and vulnerable who are most at risk from death from fire.

Water mist systems are becoming increasingly more popular as an alternative to traditional fire sprinkler systems but like any new technology we need to carefully understand its benefits and limitations and this is also true when we look at hydraulic calculations for such systems.

This sad statistic was published during care is week 2015 which showed out of 30 people who died in fires in London 13 were receiving care at home or were in residential care this is an increase of the 11% from the previous year.  What makes the statistics even worse is that fire sprinklers could have saved most of these lives. 

Legislation in Scotland and Wales both require residential care homes to be fitted with automatic fire sprinkler systems and Wales will soon be going further and requiring all new domestic properties to also be fitted with sprinklers, is it only England where we cannot see the benefit or do not care about the consequences

In the first 5 months of this year, there have been 28 fire deaths in Scotland this is a considerable increase in deaths due to fire in Scotland from the previous year.  We already know those who are at greatest risk from death by fire, those who live alone, persons with physical or mental health conditions or have issues with alcohol and drugs. Last week saw the chief fire offices in Scotland making a public appeal for the public to put them in touch with those who are most at risk surely this can only be a short-term solution.

Scotland already has significantly better legislative requirements for fire sprinklers to be installed than we do in England. They already require sprinkler systems in residential care homes and sheltered housing and this was brought about after a change in the Scottish building regulations after a serious fire in a care home that costs the lives of many.

Yesterday we held one of our FHC training days in association with Xact and were delighted to have 10 delegates, 2 of which travelled from South Africa to be with us.  What’s encouraging is that all the delegates take away useful techniques to help them use our software to its fullest extent, from complete beginners to those who have been using the software for many years.