ASFP to host Fire Protection Roundtable in support of Fire Door Safety Week

The Association for Specialist Fire Protection (ASFP) is to host a Fire Protection Roundtable on 28 September in support of Fire Door Safety Week.

The event, which will bring together a panel of key experts from across the entire construction process, aims  to develop solutions to key issues affecting fire safety in the built environment and to offer best practice advice to all involved in the construction process.

The Roundtable session, which will be held at the offices of UBM EMEA in London, follows on from an interactive question time event which the ASFP held on 22 June during UBM’s Firex International exhibition. The Question of Safety session, chaired by ASFP CEO Wilf Butcher, allowed visitors to pose questions to a panel of specialists; each representing a different industry discipline.

Panellists ranged from an architect through to the building owner including; a criminal regulatory lawyer, a fire engineer, a Tier 1 contractor and specialist subcontractor, as well as passive fire protection manufacturers, an insurer, and representatives from building control, the fire service and a test house/certification body.

The wide ranging discussions that ensued highlighted a number of key issues affecting fire safety in the built environment, which will now be taken forward for further discussion by the panellists. These include:

• fragmentation within the construction design and build process;
• the need to ensure adequate understanding and training for specifiers;
• improving standards of fire protection installation;
• ensuring competency in fire risk assessment; and
• improving building resilience.

With fragmentation within the construction industry a key concern, often leading to the incorrect specification and installation of fire protection materials and systems, finding a means of improving interaction between all construction industry disciplines will be a significant focus for the Roundtable discussions. The aim will be to develop structures, processes and best practice guidance to enable the development of multi-disciplinary teams which will offer earlier engagement of fire safety professionals in the construction, design and build process and better communication across the industry. 

The Firex question time event drew agreement from all the assembled experts that collaborative working across the whole design and build process is of vital importance if improvements are to be made. Furthermore, whilst recognising that there are existing regulations, guidance and tools in place which aim to encourage communication at every stage, it was agreed that working together to promote ,such guidance was seen as key to improving the quality and safety of the modern built environment. 

For a full report of the Firex question time event and for further information and guidance on passive fire protection, visit http://asfp.org.uk/webdocs/News_Firex_Questiontime.php

Published August 2016