nEw Buildings, nEw opportunitiEs why thE Eu must rEmEmBEr FirE sAFEty

We expect the buildings in which we spend so much of our time to reflect our desired quality of life. We want our schools to provide a safe environment for our children, and our hospitals to protect the vulnerable. We want our offices and apartments to be comfortable and safe. Increasingly, Europeans also want their building stock to be energy efficient and not to burden the world with unnecessary greenhouse gas emissions.

But whilst comfort, security and environmental awareness have all been given their rightful position high up the list of priorities for the EU, too often we give an alarming low level of attention to one of the oldest and most menacing threats to any building: FIRE.

Bringing Fire safety to the Fore in new BuildingsPoor fire safety is a problem for the whole EU. Some statistics show that every year, around 70,0001 people end up in hospital in Europe because of injuries caused by fire and smoke, while fire damage eats up about 1% of Europes GDP2. The effect big fires can have on our society, our environment and our economies needs to be taken more seriously and tackled with real urgency.

Not only do we still see major impacts from fires in buildings but arguably the situation is getting worse. The time it takes for a fire in a building to turn into a full blaze has reduced substantially; going from 25 minutes in the 1950s to about 3 minutes today3. The main driver behind this is understood to be the

increased amount of combustible material in our homes and buildings. That is why it is important to know that safe and appropriate standards have been used during the construction of a new building and that these standards are keeping pace with developments in buildings construction.

In terms of ensuring that safe construction methods are used, the situation across Europe is far from acceptable. There is currently a patchwork of regulations across Europe, with major differences in the level of fire safety given building occupants. At the same time, standards that were developed for earlier construction methods have not been adequately updated to maintain equal levels of safety.

A decision not to act today, is a decision to continue putting lives at risk.

www.firesafeeurope.eu1 NIBRA2 Geneva Association3 SRSA

ISSUES BRIEF #1

cAsE in point: FiEry EuropEAn pAtchwork

Fire safety - very much a European issueWhen we travel, study, work or live abroad, as Europeans we find ourselves using the local built environment. Students on exchange study in local schools, travellers stay in hotels. Workers find themselves in high rise buildings, and more and more of those constructing buildings are themselves

migrant workers. It seems therefore appropriate, that, as with energy efficiency, Europe ensures that all countries strive for a common level of ambition in terms of fire safety in buildings. It is only correct that a parent in one country can expect that their child is as safe when taking part in European supported exchange programmes as they are at home. Unfortunately today that expectation is not being met.

Europe can take pride in the diversity of its national cuisines, its music, or its landscape. However, when it comes to fire safety regulations, the differences between national definitions of building types, escape routes and building heights are a real challenge to establishing a harmonised level of fire safety across the EU.

In Germany, for instance, buildings fall into one of six categories, whilst in Switzerland there are just two categories. Spain and Germany have five classifications of escape routes, but Belgium has only one. Spain has two building height classifications, and Finland has none. In some areas, diversity is nothing to celebrate...

Dave Berry, Former Advisor to UK

Government on Fire Safety Engineering and

the Fire Service

www.firesafeeurope.eu

cAsE study: whEn Building plAns ForgEt ABout FirE

On 23 September 2012 in Portugal, a fire which started in a corner of a retail park destroyed all the shops on the site in a matter of hours.

153 firemen and 60 fire trucks were needed to put out the blaze. Luckily, the fire began at 2.30h in the morning, meaning that staff and shoppers were not exposed to the flames, but elderly people were moved from a nearby home due to the risk of smoke inhalation. 300 workers were left wondering if they could keep their jobs.

The District Commander for fire relief perations reported that the structure of the modern site, as well as the type of goods being sold in the shops, encouraged the fire to spread. A major operational difficulty faced by the fire brigade was that the metal structure of the building collapsed. This trapped the fire and made it difficult for fire workers to reach the inferno underneath, blocking off the water sprayed by the fire services. One witness said that once the buildings collapsed, only a pile of metal rubble could be seen.

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cAsE in point: sAmE product, diFFErEnt plAcE

Sandwich panels have been used for many years to insulate warehouses and other industrial buildings: buildings that typically have few occupants. These panels consist of thin steel sheets around a layer of insulating material. They are easy to install and provide a good level of insulation in many cases.

Current European testing methods, unfortunately, are not able to adequately differentiate between the fire performance of different panels, leading to a situation where the market has poor guidance on which panels to use to ensure a high level of fire safety. With these panels now becoming a popular choice not just for warehouses but also for schools, hospitals and apartments: it is critical that new testing methods are adopted to provide the right guidance.

www.firesafeeurope.eu

Asking EuropE to protEct its citizEns

Fire Safe Europe is calling for a new EU Fire Safety in Buildings Strategy to be launched without delay.

This action programme would ensure that harmonized EU-wide rules are put in place to make sure that construction products and practices consistently meet appropriate, higher and more rigorously enforced fire safety standards.

The strategys development should be led by the European Commission and based on an analysis of fire safety data collected from all across Europe.

A model for action already exists in the form of the EUs Road Safety Strategy. This is a European Commission initiative, which aims to cut EU road deaths and accidents by 50 percent by 2020, compared with 2003 levels. By 2010 a 33 percent reduction had already been achieved. Fire safety deserves the same priority attention from EU policy makers today.

It must ensure that:

1. Appropriate performance standards are developed for composite materials and building systems so that construction materials can reach high levels of performance even when faced with a big fire in a modern building.

The European Commission should lead the development of these standards, mandating their revision by CEN, the European Committee for Standardisation.

2. Tighter controls on the installation and use of combustible products are put in place across the EU and rules on the use of these materials in EU buildings are reviewed and tightened.

3. Working practices during construction are reviewed and tightened to protect onsite workers.

4. All future energy efficiency and sustainable construction policies explicitly to take account of the need for fire safety planning in their texts.

We also urgently need to gather, analyse and share data and lessons from across the EU, to improve our understanding of fire safety trends in modern construction. National authorities, industry, builders and fire fighters all possess knowledge and experience which, if shared and acted on, can help to spread best practices in this field and save lives.

Creating a new building is an exciting event - by building sustainably, its benefits can be enjoyed for years to come.

www.firesafeeurope.eu