Fire Safety Management - Case Studies

A QuickZone conventional fire alarm system from UK manufacturer, Advanced, has been installed at BlocHaus Climbing, Manchester’s newest bouldering wall. Newly opened, BlocHaus Climbing boasts an array of facilities at its East Manchester site, including 130 climbable boulders, a routing roof, and an on-site café. As part of the active fire protection for the site, the 4-zone QuickZone conventional fire panel from Advanced has been installed alongside Hochiki conventional heat/smoke...

At 1:50 am on Friday, 5 March, RBFRS received reports of a fire at a warehouse on Headley Road East, Woodley. In total, more than 50 firefighters were sent to the incident, along with specialist equipment, such as the Aerial Ladder Platform from Whitley Wood Fire Station and the Incident Command Unit from Maidenhead Fire Station. Fortunately, no injuries were sustained. Preventing fire spread Crews on scene were met with heavy smoke logging from the building and on entering the warehouse, dis...

A successful prosecution was brought by Royal Berkshire Fire Authority against a restaurant in Cookham, which resulted in an £85,000 fine following a number of serious fire safety breaches under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005. Beta UK Limited was sentenced for fire safety breaches found by Fire Safety Inspecting Officers following an incident at Malik’s Restaurant, Cookham in Maidenhead. Fire safety deficiencies On 23 October 2020, Reading Magistrates’ Court...

Located in the picturesque village of Borghetto di Valeggio sul Mincio, Italy, the Corte Regia Relais and Spa overlooks the river Mincio, with views across to the imposing Scaliger Castle and the Visconteo Bridge, and a short journey to Lake Garda. For its guests, this hotel is an escape from the outside world and is famed for providing a relaxing experience. Corte Regia Relais and Spa hotel In 2020, the Corte Regia Relais and Spa hotel underwent a massive transformation, with the renovation o...

Located in the picturesque village of Borghetto di Valeggio sul Mincio, Italy, the Corte Regia Relais and Spa overlooks the river Mincio, with views across to the imposing Scaliger Castle and the Visconteo Bridge and a short journey to Lake Garda. For its guests, this hotel is an escape from the outside world and is famed for providing a relaxing experience. Renovation project In 2020 the hotel underwent a massive transformation with the renovation of historical barns originally built in ci...

A youth rugby team in South Wales, United Kingdom (UK), has been scoring tries in style this season, thanks to a brand new kit. This season, players from Croesyceiliog Rugby Football Club (Croesyceiliog RFC), based in Gwent, Wales have looked the part in their new team strips, bearing the club’s crest. New kit for Croesyceiliog RFC team The new kit was funded by Asset VRS and Hardstaff Barriers, the globally renowned manufacturers and suppliers of roadside safety barriers and perimeter s...

Residential high-rise buildings in Thanet have become the first in Kent, United Kingdom (UK) to be fitted with new information plates to help navigate firefighters in an emergency.  Information initiative  Invicta House in Margate, and Trove Court and Kennedy House in Ramsgate have external plaques featuring key information about the premises, such as the number of floors, flats, and lifts, as well as the location of water supplies, which could be vital in the event of a fire. ...

Vimpex Fire-Cryer Voice Enhanced Sounders have been installed on link bridges between buildings at Swansea University, to increase the protection of staff and students should there be a fire alarm, by delivering clear messages and ensure a fast, efficient evacuation. Swansea University has eight colleges spread across its two campuses which are located on the coastline of Swansea Bay. It currently has 20,375 undergraduate and postgraduate students who come from over 130 different countries. Vo...

  The Canton of Basel-Stadt’s fire department has ordered four all-electric firefighting vehicles from Rosenbauer’s 'Revolutionary Technology' (RT) model series. The pioneer in firefighting equipment has thus received the first fleet order for the innovative municipal firefighting vehicle following its sales launch in September of the previous year. The Group currently has a total of 19 firm vehicle orders and over 20 reservations. Initial customer feedback Thanks to its...

Saab (Saab AB) has shipped its third aft airframe section for use in the T-7A Red Hawk flight test program for the United States Air Force. The shipment on September 10, 2021 was from Saab’s Linköping site in Sweden to Boeing, in St. Louis, Missouri, USA and arrived there a few days later. The production and shipment of this aft airframe section is the latest milestone in Saab’s contribution to the Engineering and Manufacturing Development (EMD) phase of the T-7A Red Hawk train...

The Ponchartrain Hotel in Detroit, Michigan, named for the original title given to the area by French settlers, was erected in 1965. After going through many ownership changes, name changes, and eventually closing in 2009, the 25 story tall, 367 room luxury hotel was resurrected in 2012 by Crowne Plaza Hotels and Resorts. The Crowne Plaza Ponchartrain Detroit was officially opened for business on July 17, 2013. Just as the once distinguished Ponchartrain Hotel had succumb to years of neglect, s...

Premier Inn is the biggest chain of hotels in the UK, featuring in many towns and cities making up a network of over 800 hotels nationwide. With the continued popularity in air travel, Premier Inn decided to construct a hotel at Heathrow Airport Terminal 4. The construction of the hotel was an eight-storey, 613-bedroom hotel offering various size bedroom suites along with customer lounge and restaurant. Protec were employed to design, supply, install and commission both fire alarm and emergency...

The construction of Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham, which is one of the UK’s super hospitals and at the time of creation was the largest project of its kind in the country outside of the Olympics development. The steel and glass towers of the hospital now dominate the city’s skyline. The facility has the largest single-floor critical care unit in the world, with 100 beds. Service personnel are treated in single rooms or four-bed bays in a 30-bed military section located in the...

2020 saw the United Kingdom hit with a worldwide pandemic of a respiratory disease called COVID-19. It saw thousands of people hospitalized and cause a severe strain on the country’s NHS services. The UK government decided to combat the COVID-19 pandemic and assist the under-pressure NHS, by building seven new temporary hospitals, located around the United Kingdom. The seven hospitals were to re-purpose existing, multi-function public buildings, such as London’s ExCel, Birmingham&rs...

The Laurus Trust is a Multi-Academy Trust predominantly based within the Greater Manchester area. The trust consists of seven schools which are: Cheadle Hulme High School, Laurus Cheadle Hulme, Laurus Ryecroft, Didsbury High School, Hazel Grove High School, Gorsey Bank Primary School and Cheadle Hulme Primary School. In 2017, The Laurus Trust, along with the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA), selected BAM Construction Northwest, based in Salford, to deliver the Laurus Cheadle Hulme, Ch...

Hardstaff Barriers has installed more than three miles of its popular MASS barrier in Birmingham, United Kingdom (UK), as part of an exciting project to create a priority bus route for the 2022 Commonwealth Games. The globally renowned Vehicle Restraint System (VRS) manufacturer and supplier has installed 5,000 meters of the red and white steel barrier – its largest-ever MASS installation – on the A45 between Heybarnes Circus and Bordesley Circus, while widening work is carried out....

Licking County, Ohio was formed in 1808, with its county seat located in Newark, which is 33 miles northeast of Columbus, Ohio. At the center of town, sits the Licking County Courthouse. The courthouse was constructed in 1878, and remains one of the town’s most prized historical possessions. In recent years, it became evident that updates to the building’s fire security facilities were necessary. The previous system was an all-in-one fire and security system, which didn’t leav...

According to Henry Shuler, Owner and Consulting Engineer for Shuler Consulting Company, one of the biggest issues with the old station was its location, which was in a tiny city lot crammed into a corner between the road and a commercial business. In addition, the lift station was at limited capacity, as it only had four pumps. “When you have that much sewage going into a very small wet well, corrosion becomes an issue. Odor was also a problem,” said Shuler. “So beyond just th...

The Media City in Salford Quays is the UK’s first purpose-built media hub built on the banks of the Manchester Ship Canal. Construction started in 2007 with the site owner, Peel Group as the developer and Bovis Lend Lease as the main contractor for the 200-acre site which was opened by the Queen in March 2012. The principal tenant, the BBC moved five London-based departments to the NW development – with as many as 1,600 jobs re-located from London, as well as several major BBC depar...

James Hall founded in 1863 in Southport, Lancashire is a wholesaler, manufacturer and distributor of goods to around 640 SPAR shops in the north of England. With over 150 years of experience in the food retail and wholesale industry, James Hall has acquired a range of businesses to help support their SPAR brand. James Hall owns multiple warehouses and distribution centers within the north of England. One being their primary purpose-built distribution center first constructed in 2010. The distri...

The London Aquatics Centre is located in Stratford, on the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park complex and is designed by renowned architect, Zaha Hadrid. Constructed by Balfour Beatty in 2008 and completed in July 2011, well in time ready to feature in the 2012 Summer Olympics and Paralympics events. London Aquatics Centre The London Aquatics Centre is home to a 50-meter competition swimming pool, a 25-meter competition diving pool and a 50-meter warm-up pool, with all of them featuring a movable fl...

To address the growing population and projected water demand over the next 30 Years, HCWA recently completed a master plan update that includes two booster pump stations – the Fairview booster pump station and the Southeastern booster pump station. Due to the elevation, part of the area near the Fairview booster pump station was being fed from another county. The water treatment plants are in the southern portion of the county, so it would take 30 to 40 miles of transmission to get to the...

Progress Energy’s Lee Plant, located in Goldsboro, N.C., originally enlisted nine vertical pumps within the plant as yard drain pumps – pumps that have motors that are located above the pump and a line shaft that extends down into the length of the sump – whereas the pump is actually at the bottom of the sump. The pumps were enlisted to remove excess water that accumulates from rainfall and storm drains, equipment wash down and general water overflow – all of which are p...

Located in the southeastern corner of Pennsylvania serving a population of less than 20,000, the Newtown Township Municipal Authority’s sewer system needed three new pumping stations and rehabilitation for two existing stations. Two and a half years into the project, four stations are up and running, with the remaining station set to be live in summer 2021. The stations are Newtown Hunt, Goshen Road, Old Masters, Camelot and Springton Pointe. There was a significant community need for the...

Founded in 1925, the Western Carolina Regional Sewer Authority (WCRSA) is a special purpose district of South Carolina, located in northwestern South Carolina. The organization serves over 400,000 customers in Greenville County and parts of Anderson, Spartanburg and Laurens Counties, covering a total of 296 square miles. WCRSA maintains 300 miles of major sewer trunk lines and conducts operations through nine major wastewater treatment facilities located on three river basins; the Enoree, Reedy...

The fleet service company, BwFuhrparkService GmbH is procuring 76 forest firefighting vehicles (FlKfz WBBk) from Rosenbauer, on behalf of the German Armed Forces. The decisive factor in the award of the contract for the procurement of forest firefighting vehicles to Rosenbauer Germany was the most economical offer in the tender. Robust off-road chassis and extinguishing technology These vehicles are built according to the tactical needs of the fire services and equipped with the latest techno...

A housing association has been fined £40,000 and ordered to pay £23,407 prosecution costs for breaking fire safety laws following a fatal fire in a tower block. Lewisham Homes was sentenced at Woolwich Crown Court on Friday, January 29, after pleading guilty at an earlier hearing to failing to properly maintain fire doors at the block in Deptford and failing to review an existing fire risk assessment which was carried out in 2008. The prosecution was brought by the London Fire Brig...

The Gare de Lyon in Paris, France, one of the most important and beautiful railway stations in Europe, is now protected with high pressure water mist (HPWM) system from AQUASYS. The HPWM system was installed together with local and long-term partner - Uxello Risque Spéciaux and has now been officially approved. High pressure water mist system The installation of the high pressure water mist (HPWM) system in the main hall of the station started back in 2016 and was carried out in severa...

There are often vehicles in a fire department’s fleet that are highly specialized and unique. Firefighters have fond memories of these vehicles and cherish the missions on which the devices provided critical assistance. The volunteer fire department in Windischgarsten, Upper Austria, has one such unique small firefighting vehicle in service. It is built on a very special chassis – a Pinzgauer – from Austria. New Or Old Vehicle Since a replacement for the Pinzgauer was schedu...

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...