Fire Suppression System Accessories news

Fire and rescue services across the UK worked with partners to respond to the impact of COVID-19. Making a difference provides a series of short case studies to show the range of activities that services did over the last 18 months; it recognizes that the pandemic is not over and services continue to help communities in many different ways.  Phil Garrigan is the NFCC lead for the COVID-19 response. He said: “The pandemic was unlike anything else we have...

The Virginia Professional Fire Fighters Association (VPFF) endorsed Terry McAuliffe in his bid to return to the governor’s mansion, thanking him for his support for firefighters and paramedics and vowing to join him on the campaign trail. McAuliffe is running in a tight race for governor against Republican Glenn Youngkin to replace Governor Ralph Northam, whose term ends in 2022. Northam replaced McAuliffe after his first four-year term in 2018. “Thank you for all that you did for...

Henri downgraded from a tropical storm to depression once it made landfall on August 22. While there are reports of flooded streets, power outages, and fallen trees, there have been no reports of damage to IAFF member homes. As the storm continues to weaken, a comprehensive IAFF Disaster Relief operation is not expected. As the storm moved inland, flooding, wind damage, and power outages have been reported in parts of Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Massachusetts. According to local power compan...

While they all hoped 2020 would see the end of lockdowns in Australia, 2021 has brought on new pandemic-driven challenges as the COVID-19 Delta variant continues to affect the majority of states across the nation. New South Wales and Victoria are experiencing some of the harshest lockdowns Australia has seen in an effort to ‘stop the spread’ of the highly contagious Delta variant. Impact on the local businesses These frequent and prolonged lockdowns are having a significant impact...

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has approved the first UK GDPR certification scheme criteria. Recently UKAS accredited Age Check Certification Scheme (ACCS) has developed criteria for two schemes relating to age assurance and children’s online privacy. This is a great example of UKAS working with regulators to bring important improvements in safety and child protection in innovative emerging sectors.

Climate change is a crisis the UK is unable to ignore. In recent years, the impact of construction on climate change has affected atmospheric temperatures, increased the risk of flooding, and caused the destruction of natural habitat areas through the consumption of resources, poor design, and land degradation. Currently, the housing crisis present in the UK urges the need for new build homes due to the increasing human population, with hundreds of new construction projects scattered across the...

South Yorkshire’s firefighters have responded to less deliberate fires so far this summer than in recent years, according to figures released by the county’s fire service. South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue (SYFR) says it has attended 997 deliberate fire incidents across May, June, and July this year–a seven percent reduction compared to the 1,073 attended during the same period last year. Against the average for May, June, and July across the last three years–which...

Stylish, compact, and very cost-effective, the new-look kit contains everything one needs to create a BS8300 clause compliant single zone emergency assistance system for any building. In addition to allowing distressed people to raise an alarm in the event of an emergency, it also includes a 'Call Accept' function to allow staff to send an intermittent call acknowledgment signal inside the WC compartment to confirm help is on the way. Encased in smaller, environmentally friendly packaging, the...

Two South Yorkshire firefighters are among a 20-strong team bidding to cycle the length of the UK to raise mental health awareness and thousands for charity. South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue’s Mark Peart and Paul Simmonite are joining firefighting colleagues from Suffolk for the 10-day, 1,000-mile ride from Lands End to John O’Groats in September. The team is aiming to raise £50,000 for The Fire Fighters Charity, which supports the mental, physical, and social needs of a...

First responders will soon have a new way to deploy industry-pioneering Opticom™ Emergency Vehicle Preemption (EVP) technology; helping them to save lives and provide better outcomes to the communities they serve. Police, fire, and EMS vehicles that use the new Whelen Cloud Platform can soon enable cloud-based, centralized Opticom™ EVP, due to a partnership between Whelen Engineering and Global Traffic Technologies, LLC (GTT), the global market pioneer in traffic signal priorit...

A draft of PAS 8673 is available for public comment and contains competence requirements for the new role of Building Safety Manager. This PAS is based on the recommendations and core competence criteria set out in BSI Flex 8670. It supports the introduction of the Building Safety Manager that is contained in the Building Safety Bill currently going through Parliament. PAS 8673 The BSI has facilitated the development of PAS 8673 and it is sponsored by MHCLG. Brian Atkin is cited as the techni...

FireQual, the specialist Awarding Body for the fire protection industry has qualifications that act as eligibility criteria for the FESS (Fire, Emergency and Security Systems) Systems Operative Card in Fire as part of the ECS Card Scheme. Electrotechnical Certification Scheme (ECS) The Electrotechnical Certification Scheme (ECS), administered by the Joint Industry Board for the Electrotechnical Industry, is a CSCS Partner Scheme covering the electrotechnical sector and includes more than 175,0...

Comelit’s Atena fire detection panels have been installed at an award-winning new eight-form entry secondary school and sixth form academy, designed as part of a £100m development in Broxbourne, Hertfordshire. Designed by architects Bond Bryan and built by Chase Homes, Broxbourne School offers multiple educational buildings, including a new indoor sports hall, 3G football pitch, a multi-use games area for sports such as netball and tennis, together with The Broxbourne Music Cen...

Apollo is dedicated to keeping people safe from fire and that’s why it offers free ongoing advice to building managers, housing associations, and others on choosing appropriate fire protection for buildings with fire safety concerns such as flammable cladding or compartmentation. Apollo works closely with its partners across the country who are doing a tremendous job at installing fire detection and alarm systems into the affected buildings. Apollo’s partner Pacific Fire and Securit...

Holding accreditation provides many benefits to a wide range of organizations. In addition to demonstrating technical competence to the local market, it can also provide confidence to overseas markets through multilateral agreements (MLAs) whereby the reports and certificates issued by bodies accredited by signatories of these accreditation agreements receive global recognition. This benefit is essential to UKAS customers operating on the global market, so it is vital that UKAS retains its EA,...

The value of the contract currently published on Contracts Finder is between £9 and 12 million over five years. The council is looking to install new fire sprinkler systems (and associated works) in 30 of its two and three-storey supported housing blocks as well as 102 blocks of general needs residential accommodation. The closing date for suppliers to respond is 10 September 2021. Retrofit sprinkler systems This comes after the council worked with Hampshire and Isle of W...

Hardstaff Barriers is playing a major role in a two-year motorway bridge reconstruction project in Leeds which aims to improve safety and maintain traffic flow. The A64 (M) Regent Street flyover, in the city center, is undergoing a £30m upgrade program which is expected to be completed in spring 2022. As a UK manufacturer and supplier of vehicle restraint systems (VRS), Hardstaff Barriers was appointed to install various temporary safety barriers and security fencing along the road during...

UKAS is pleased to report that the UKAS IAF Multilateral Recognition Arrangement (MLA) scope has recently been extended in the area of management systems certification, with two food/feed schemes being added at Levels 4 and 5: FSSC 22000 is a Food Safety Management System sector scheme that builds upon ISO 22000. UKAS currently accredits 10 Certification Bodies to provide this service. FAMI-QS is a proprietary management system standard in its own right for the specialty feed ingre...

Following the withdrawal of the UK from the EU, the Government introduced the UK Conformity Assessed (UKCA) regime, as part of the domestic legal framework introduced for goods being placed on the GB market. Review of the UKAS publication GEN 5 As the UKCA regime has developed, a review of the UKAS publication GEN 5 has been undertaken, leading to some updates to the latest edition of this document. Changes include updated names and contact details of the Competent Authorities and the expansi...

Fire Brigades Union general secretary Matt Wrack has responded to the UN’s latest major report on climate change, which was published recently. He said that “Firefighters here and across the world are on the front line of the climate crisis. We see the effects of climate change every time we fight wildfires and save people from floods, and we will fight as hard as we can for politicians to wake up and take notice. As a humanitarian service, we cannot stand by and watch this happen.&...

Organizations have long understood the many potential business benefits of holding certification to an international management system, such as the widely recognized ISO 9001 quality, ISO 14001 environmental, and ISO 45001 occupational health and safety standards. More than being a certificate to hang on the wall, certification is a powerful business tool, providing a degree of certainty in uncertain times. Externally, certification offers the potential to lower barriers to trade by opening doo...

Airbus Defense and Space, the German prime for the tri-national Future Combat Air System Program (FCAS), has contracted Fraunhofer FKIE and DMI Solutions to develop an Explainable AI (XAI) demonstrator. The project is realized jointly with the FCAS Expert Commission on the responsible use of new technologies. Airbus Defense and Space, the German prime for the tri-national Future Combat Air System Program (FCAS), has contracted Fraunhofer FKIE and DMI Solutions to develop an Explainable AI (XAI)...

With its range of road safety and hostile vehicle mitigation systems, Hardstaff Barriers is proud to be playing an important role in the fight against UK road deaths.  The company is a manufacturer and supplier of life-saving vehicle restraint systems (VRS), which are designed to protect road workers and road users from collisions. National Road Victim Month But despite the hard work of road safety professionals and the UK’s impressive road safety record, five people are killed eve...

Hundreds of IAFF members continue to fight a Northern California wildfire, the second-largest wildfire in state history. Known as the Dixie fire, it has burned more than 482,000 acres and more than 800 structures. Only the August Complex Fire of August 2020, which consumed more than 1 million acres, was bigger. Four CAL FIRE Local 2881 members, who are part of the department’s 18-person Butte unit, were injured when a large tree burned and fell on them. All four were transported to the ho...

Buying a beanie hat will be the last thing on most people’s minds in the middle of summer, but sales of the limited edition, 25th anniversary of Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service branded, beanie hats have already raised £500 for The Fire Fighters Charity. Watch Manager Adrian Davies is the architect of the scheme and is ready to take further orders for the winter ahead. Designing beanie hats  “As Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service is celebrating it...

Mecklenburg County, NC Local 5326 is one of the newest IAFF affiliates to organize in the southeastern United States. Mecklenburg County is in the southwestern part of the state and is the second-most populated county in the state. Several Mecklenburg County fire departments are beginning to shift from combination fire departments to career departments. To ensure they would have a seat at the table as decisions are being made about the future of these departments, 33...

Merseyside firefighters are among those rescue personnel, who are being deployed to help Greece fight wildfires that continue to devastate parts of the country. The team is made up of firefighters from Merseyside, Lancashire, London, South Wales, West Midlands, and NRAT (National Resilience Assurance Team) officers. They will be flying to Athens, the capital of Greece, to help with the firefighting task. National Resilience Assurance Team The team deployment comes, following a formal request...

The high-pressure Water Mist Sprinkler System is designed, installed and commissioned in accordance with the relevant sections of CEN/TS 14972 – Fixed Fire Fighting Systems – Water Mist Systems – Design and Installation – Light Hazard Occupancy. The extensive renovation and remodeling of the Goethe-Institut’s Irish headquarters included the construction of a new 1,100 sq m mews to the rear of the original building. Design activation temperature The high-pressure...

Danone is a global pioneer in dairy, water and baby nutrition products, with well-known brands including Actimel, Evian and Cow & Gate. They are delighted to have completed a number of Sprinkler and Fire Alarm & Detection installations for Danone over the last ten years in their various Manufacturing Facilities. In Macroom, where they produce infant and follow-on formula, they designed, supplied and retro-fitted a Sprinkler System to FM Global standards into an existing Powder Milk Prod...

Firefighters across the Yorkshire and Humber region have revealed new, advanced fire kits following a joint procurement deal. As part of a tri-service agreement, all firefighters in South Yorkshire, West Yorkshire, and the Humberside region will begin wearing new fire tunics and trousers. For crews in South Yorkshire and Humberside, the personal protective equipment (PPE) revamp will also feature a pioneering, multi-function rescue jacket to reflect the changing role of the modern firefighter....