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The safety of warehouses in the event of fire is a subject close to the heart of the fire and rescue service. The construction and fire loading in these spaces can increase the risk to firefighters attending and in the most extreme cases, lead to loss of life. Gavin Russell comments on the measures taken in Leicestershire.
Gavin Russell of Leicestershire Fire and Rescue Service is the lead officer of the fire safety teams who are responsible for liaising with building control, architects and clients about the safety of large or complex premises – including single-storey warehouses. The county is one of the 15 or so areas in the country which has a local Act, giving authorities the power to recommend enhanced fire safety measures in such buildings.
The Leicestershire Act 1985 means that Mr Russell and his colleagues are involved in the design of new premises – ideally in the early stages of planning. The fire and rescue service becomes the lead authority, though usually through the auspices of building control. In the case of single-storey warehouses, the legislation gives his team the power to ask for additional measures, such as 2-hour compartmentation, L2 detection and alarm systems linked to a gatehouse or alarm receiving centre, and the fitting of sprinkler systems. In the area of smoke control, he has worked on several high profile projects in the county, including the striking new Highcross retail centre in Leicester, due to open this month (see FSE March 2008). There, what is said to be the first smoke control system of its kind was designed with the aid of new Computational Fluid Dynamics modelling guidelines.
Fire engineering
In spite of these increased powers, however, Mr Russell realises that there is a balance between cost and risk management, and that complex buildings need to be judged on a case-by-case basis. Trade-offs or compensatory measures are more common, and the recently published DD 9999 is a good example of the issues that fire engineers can consider. But in spite of a little unease about some aspects of fire engineered solutions, he concedes that, to date, there has been no evidence that such buildings are any less safe than those conforming to prescribed specifications. For example, he will only insist on automatically opening smoke control vents if they are necessary for life safety.
Gavin Russell agrees that the sophistication of smoke control measures is largely down to cost, so there can be discretion within the local Act. In the case of warehouse facilities used by delivery companies, for example, the fact that stock turns around very quickly combined with the higher levels of management that can be expected, may be a factor in taking a less rigid approach. In fact, it is often the smaller or older facilities where fire safety may not be up to scratch and like other fire services, Leicestershire works together with agencies such as the Health and Safety Executive and Environmental Health to enforce appropriate regulations.
What is Leicestershire Fire and Rescue’s approach to tackling warehouse fires, especially in the light of firefighter deaths and injuries? “It’s a combination of pre-planned information and pre-determined tactics, and the use of dynamic risk assessment by the incident commander,” says Mr Russell. “We will take calculated risks to save saveable lives and property but we will not compromise safety.”
So the manager on the ground is expected to know about the generic risks of, for example, large, single storey portal-style buildings with composite panels. But he or she will need to validate this knowledge with information on the ground before deciding how (or whether) to fight a fire. For example, a sprinkler system may have been fitted 20 years ago, but there’s no guarantee that it was designed with the current use of the warehouse in mind to deal with the current or future fire loading.
In the case of the large fire in 2005 at the 440,000 ft 2 Primark warehouse at the Magna Park estate in Lutterworth, a sprinkler system had been fitted but there were problems with the water main. Primark quickly relocated to a spare building on the same business park, and even fitted it out with a temporary sprinkler system and alarm until permanent systems could be designed and fitted.
On the whole, Gavin Russell concludes, firefighters should feel more confident with the knowledge that tougher measures exist in Leicestershire than in many other counties.