SCEME’s summer meeting and AGM took place on Wednesday 8 June in London. Following the AGM there were five technical presentations on the topic of engineering fire protection in schools.
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Greg Keeling, Immediate Past President and Environmental Performance and Technical Standards Manager at Essex County Council gave a brief overview of SCEME members’ views on methods of Engineering Fire Protection in schools.
This was followed by Larry Stokes of Zurich Municipal Property who presented on the insurance industry perspective of sprinkler systems and insurance premiums. The discussion also included the wider consequences of fires in educational establishments, not just in terms of educational disruption but included effects on the wider community.
Lee Bailey of Fire and Rescue in Herts, added his perspectives from the view point of a fire risk assessor, as well from an operational fire fighter of many years standing. Lee’s presentation prompted some lively discussion around the requirements of British Standards and whether some hybrid systems could be designed for use as a first line of defence prior to the arrival of the Fire Services.
Jeremy Fraser-Mitchell and Richard Daniels gave a joint presentation on the application of Risk Assessment and Cost Benefit of Sprinkler System tools as used for compliance with BB100. A worked example showing how to apply the various criteria required for each of the tools was given, and explanations given of how these would impact on the subsequent risk analysis and cost benefit calculations.
The final presentation of the day was Steve Cooper of Cundell who opened his presentation with the question “Are sprinklers the only real solution for schools?” The presentation discussed how designers should also consider other means of fire suppression/prevention, including a range of fire engineering methods such as smoke ventilation, fire compartmentation and designing out weaknesses in order to reduce the incidence of Arson.
The conclusion of Steve’s presentation was that any solution must be
• Cost effective
• Reasonably Practicable
• Not disproportionate
Backgound to the day can be found in two recent articles written by Greg Keeling, SCEME President for SCALAnews SCEME’s views on installing sprinklers in schools.