The next generation of tall buildings being constructed around the world will require new ways of fire-fighting, an expert has warned. Speaking at FIREX International 2019, the Chief Executive of Tall Building Fire Safety, Russ Timpson, said the fire safety community has to “get on board” with all the technological
Introducing a lively debate on Building a Safer Future at the Firex International event held on June 18, 2019 in the ExCel centre in London Michael Harper, who became the Federation’s chairman last year, welcomed the progress made whilst expressing the frustration professionals and residents have concerning the lack of
The Wellington Orbit centre has been completely transformed with the help of Ferco Seating. The site now provides an arthouse cinema, eatery and arts centre for the whole community. Wellington Town Council chose to use its £150,000 Telford 50 Legacy Fund grant to support this worthy project. Work began in
The next generation of tall buildings being constructed around the world will require new ways of fire-fighting, an expert has warned. Speaking at FIREX International 2019, the Chief Executive of Tall Building Fire Safety, Russ Timpson, said the fire safety community has to “get on board” with all the technological changes that are happening around the construction of tall buildings. Mr Timpson said that around 541 new tall buildings, over 20 floors high are going up in London over the next five years alone. “We are going to see significantly more tall buildings,” he told delegates. “They will be taller, more complex and vertical villages. They won’t be single use anymore. “They will have offices, apartments and viewing galleries all in the same building.” He also quoted the example of the proposed Sky City building in the Chinese city of Changsha, which has been designed to stand 838 metres tall with 202 floors and house 30,000 residents. “A planet with 10 billion people living on it means we’re going to have to live in much denser environments” “The architect said you can be born, grow up, meet your partner and get a job all without having to leave the building,” said Mr Timpson. “If we are going to talk about a planet with 10 billion people living on it, we are going to have to live in much more dense environments.” But he added that new materials, like timber will be used in the construction of tall buildings in the future, particularly as nations look to reduce their carbon footprints. Timber buildings “We are going to build tall buildings out of timber,” he insisted. “It’s going to happen. It’s a natural material, but the challenge is we have to do it safely. “The fire safety community has to get onboard and you will see a tall timber building coming to a city near you very soon, and it will probably have lots of greenery on the outside.” He also raised the idea of having a fire safety rating system for buildings, similar to the ones already in place for energy and sustainability. And he warned that construction fire safety in the UK is “very poor”. “I spend a lot of my professional time going around doing fire safety audits on tall building sites, and it’s very poor here in the UK and we are lagging behind other countries. “I strongly feel we will have a tall building construction fire here in the UK and construction workers could be killed. “Only the other day, I was on a building on the 30th floor, and when I asked ‘where is the wet riser?’, they ‘said there is no wet riser on this building, there is only a dry riser, but it finishes on the 20th floor’. How the hell do you expect fire fighters to fight fires on construction sites when they have no access to water? ‘If we have 541 tall buildings being built [in London], then we better have a serious look at construction fire safety.’ He also added that architects need to do away with assembly points outside buildings, because they are dangerous. “In a world of new dimension risks, I think they are a terrorist target. We all have to move to a philosophy of evacuate and disperse,” he explained. “When you leave the building, you should signify you are doing that via your smart phone and disperse. We need to move and embrace technology.” And Mr Timpson also predicted that drones will play a much larger role in fire safety in the future. “I can see high value tall buildings having a drone built into the building itself. It will be activated by the alarm system, go and find where the fire is. We are probably not far away from that and it could be part of a standard fit for tall buildings going forward.” For more information please visit https://www.firex.co.uk/
Introducing a lively debate on Building a Safer Future at the Firex International event held on June 18, 2019 in the ExCel centre in London Michael Harper, who became the Federation’s chairman last year, welcomed the progress made whilst expressing the frustration professionals and residents have concerning the lack of positive actions taken to stop another catastrophic fire. He told the audience of well over 100 that the Fire Sector Federation (FSF) along with many others inside and outside government had been trying to address the myriad of issues in a building system that so clearly failed while also trying to identify the products that can and cannot be used in circumstances like high-rise or high risk buildings. Observing “this has not been an easy or indeed fast task, and in fact it has at times been frustrating and painfully slow”, he added the caveat that “it does of course have to be thorough and meticulous”. Part recalling Churchill’s ‘this may be the end of the beginning’ Michael Harper also emphasised the clear wish to see the public inquiry move quickly into its investigative second phase and for the government’s current building safety consultation to bring into fruition the “bedrock change” of a better building control system. One that “chased down the whole culture and competency of a construction industry that had somehow become complacent if not, in some cases, positively indifferent about fire safety”. Outlining that the Federation had joined with many others to implement 100% of Dame Judith Hackitt’s final report to stop cherry picking or conversely avoid the “too difficult” issues and very recently had also backed the Inside Building campaign to have public finance allocated to assist private tenants remove the cladding from their buildings, Michael pointed out this was no sudden call to action. Indeed, for a number of years FSF members had, he said, argued for a review of building regulations; pressed the case for defining competency; suggested strongly that third party installers offer assured quality; promoted sprinklers and alarms to protect the vulnerable; and argued for better building protection. And this was not because of vested commercial interest but because all FSF members share a common commitment to improve fire safety in the UK. Organisations like FSF often had a difficult task in bringing the diverse views of their members together but he closed his comments by saying he was pleased that on many issues that common commitment had allowed FSF to agree “a common denominator” position in a number of fire safety concerns. Immediately after the introduction to Building a Safer Future a panel of FSF lead officers addressed issues relating to fire strategy, competency, active and passive fire protection. The concern that two years after Grenfell little change had actually happened in regulation, products and practices was raised and debated. The underlying belief that few people really understood fire from a risk perspective, knew how to recognise companies and people who were competent and third party assured, and were unprepared to support a socially responsible industry simply because it cost more to have that quality, were all explored by the panel and their questioners.
The Wellington Orbit centre has been completely transformed with the help of Ferco Seating. The site now provides an arthouse cinema, eatery and arts centre for the whole community. Wellington Town Council chose to use its £150,000 Telford 50 Legacy Fund grant to support this worthy project. Work began in 2018, with local building firm McPhillips taking on the two phase project. The first phase created the cinema and eatery on the ground floor and phase two will add an art gallery space, a dance/drama studio and meeting rooms for events and art courses on the upper floors. Following a piece in the Shropshire Star featuring their latest seating projects, Ferco was engaged to design, manufacture and install 63 new seats in the cinema. “This is perhaps the most exciting community led project in Wellington’s recent history and will benefit generations to come – a great legacy of Telford’s 50th anniversary,” commented Councillor Cindy Mason-Morris, mayor of Wellington. Ferco’s Managing Director, Michael Burnett remarked that the Atcham based company is “delighted to be involved in another Shropshire-based project”. He added: “We are used to providing luxury seating for iconic buildings all over the world but there is something really special about getting involved in a project in your own community.” The Wellington Orbit project leaders chose the versatile 588 from Ferco’s Paragon range. Supremely comfortable, with bespoke stitching, it has a drinks table on each armrest perfect for a glass of prosecco or a cup of tea served from the café, which is licensed. Ferco also provided seating for Shrewsbury’s Theatre Severn, Wrekin College, RAF Cosford and last summer installed the popular RailSeat in Shrewsbury Town’s ‘safe standing’ area. Moreover, the company has provided seats for projects as diverse as the London 2012 Olympic Aquatic Centre, all seating at Arsenal’s Emirates stadium, VIP seats at Headingley Cricket Ground, theatres in the Marina Bay Sands hotel in Singapore, corporate auditoriums at the headquarters of IBM and Lenovo and lecture theatres in high profile Universities all over the world. Ferco Seating designs, manufactures and installs bespoke fixed seating solutions for cinemas, auditoriums, stadiums and arenas and educational institutions.
