Fire Safety in Residential & Nursing Care Premises
Residential and nursing care Premises are amongst the highest level of life risk in the country due to the type of residents. From people who are totally ‘independent’, to ‘dependant’ or ‘highly dependent’ residents, a lot have health issues and need constant support and care. Therefore this increases their vulnerability in any fire occur, particularly where there are ‘highly dependent’ residents and during early hours when staffing levels may be at there minimum. The majority operate an evacuation system referred to as ‘phased horizontal evacuation’ (PHE), this is where, in the event of an emergency, the staff are required to evacuate sleeping area ‘fire compartments’, in an agreed and practised sequence away from the seat of a fire, in a maximum time, as detailed in HM Government guidance documents.
The designers of the fire strategy, usually the fire risk assessor, should be ‘competent’ and have in-depth knowledge and experience when designing the buildings strategy, as to get this wrong would create an unacceptable level of risk in any fire situation.
There is also a general lack of knowledge within the fire safety industry and also by premise owners and managers when it comes to understanding fire compartment sizes and their locations. In particularly compartments directly below the roof space where they do not fall in line with fire compartments lines above or below.
The second common unknown fire safety element that often gets overlooked, is smoke control through internal ventilation systems. This can lead to fire and smoke spreading undetected between fire compartments and particular where a number of bedrooms are linked.
At active fire safety solutions, we pride ourselves on the experience and knowledge base we have gained in this sector, after working with numerous organisation both large and small, single and multi-site operations. Our years of exposure to the specific requirements and knowing all of the legal requirements and in-depth knowledge allow us to now share those experiences with our clients. We always look to keep costs down and that these costs when necessary are in proportion to the risks identified.
The buildings fire strategy is a key fundamental in ensuring your building operates efficiently during any fire condition and helps ensure that residents, staff and visitors are safe and protected.
Our team of experts can offer help and advice on all matters relating to nursing and care Premise fire safety standards.
