Fire Safety Testing - News

Shoes are a necessity. They have a very important purpose to serve in daily life: provide comfort to feet, while protecting them from outside elements, especially while working amidst hazardous working conditions. And those flashy sports shoes or the casual pair of short or long boots can’t offer the required features.  Safety shoes Safety shoes are specially designed to protect the wearer’s feet from all kinds of workplace hazards '25% of disability applications worldwide a...

Online supermarket - Ocado has suffered another robot fire at one of its fulfilment centers, impacting deliveries across south east England. The fire on 16 July was caused by three robots colliding on the grid that controls the fulfilment of shopping orders at the technology firm. Fifteen fire engines The fulfilment centre processes over 150,000 orders a week for the joint venture between Ocado and Marks and Spencer. More than 1,000 robots move around the grid, collecting food from crates and...

As much as Hollywood makes out how dangerous working on an oil rig can be, it’s surprisingly true. Major Hollywood films, such as Deepwater Horizon, tell the events of the dangers that can happen while working on oil rigs, which are situated in the middle of the ocean. Furthermore, without the correct training provided or the workwear, many oil rig workers’ lives can be at risk, when carrying out their tasks. In this article, Granite Workwear looks at the type of workwear that is re...

The Texas A&M Engineering Extension Service (TEEX) Annual Municipal Fire school has been happening for 92 years. Ninety-two years of training firefighters across the state on the largest live-burn fire props in the world. But why would students want to come to this facility in the heat of Texas in the middle of July? And why come not just to this one week but also to an Industrial Fire School that has taken place for 59 years? Fire service knowledge Donny Boggs, a 30-year veteran instruct...

Fire and rescue services received money from the Housing Ministry to pay for work to review risks on residential buildings higher than 18 meters. The £6 million grant helped services like South Yorkshire to employ specialist staff to identify and review buildings in their area. South Yorkshire received £126,000 from the grant as part of the Building Risk Review program. Initially, fire and rescue services focused on identifying buildings with ACM cladding. The current phase of work...

After a few years of painstaking R&D, Jo Bird announces the launch of the first IP66 rated cabinet. The Firebird range was already setting the standard with the excellent IP56 rating but following the principles of Kaizen, the R&D team was not prepared to rest on their laurels. The prototype cabinets have gone through extensive testing for both dust and water ingress which was carried out by the TUV Sud testing house. JB80 fire hose cabinet The JB80 fire hose cabinet is designed to co...

High-rise buildings on an inspection list are not inherently unsafe say fire officers, as they report good progress in their mission to visit every high-rise residential block in South Yorkshire. South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue (SYFR) has published the list of high-rise residential buildings forming part of its ‘Building Risk Review’ project.  The list includes buildings identified by the central government plus extra buildings identified by the SYFR- which made the deci...

A natural part of business is allocating and reallocating investments and resources into various areas. And, often, each department is asked to achieve more with less, pioneering to difficult decisions in order to achieve business goals. One key area where there can’t be any compromise is protecting workers from accidents, injuries, and illnesses while they’re on the job. When creating a safety plan for lone workers, companies often need to broaden their definition of what a lone wo...

The Welsh Government announced it will fund fire safety surveys for residential buildings over 11 meters to identify fire safety defects and measures to make them safe. building remediation Minister for Climate Change, Julie James confirmed the costs would come from the Welsh Building Safety Fund. She said, “It is critically important that we are able to understand the true scale of the problem in order to properly address it.” Leaseholders have not borne the costs of remediating...

Merseyside Fire & Rescue Authority (MFRA), part of the Merseyside Fire & Rescue Service (MFRS), has begun a 12-week consultation on proposed changes, to emergency response cover in Aintree and Croxteth, following initial approval to create a new superstation and training center. The consultation will run from 15th July to 7th October 2021. Integrated Risk Management Plan The plans were outlined in a recent consultation on the innovative Integrated Risk Management Plan (IRMP) for 2021-2...

In focus contains contributions from the four existing Police Fire and Crime Commissioners and two PCC candidates looking to take on fire. Since the PCC elections in May this year, the number of Conservative PCCs has expanded to 30 and they are now far in the majority across England. Prior to the May elections, the Home Office published the first part of a review into PCCs and made it clear they wanted to expand the model across the country. The much-trailed Fire White Paper will cont...

UL is investing in the installation of fire-resistance test furnaces at the FPA’s test laboratory. As part of the collaboration, tests for fire resistance, which form the basis of UK Regulations and support third-party product certification, will be processed quickly and effectively.  Negotiations and construction planning for the new laboratory facility have commenced, with the new lab due to open in early 2022. Author's quote FPA Managing Director, Jonathan O’Neill OBE said...

Johnson Controls, the globally renowned company for smart, healthy and sustainable building solutions, has launched the Johnson Controls Community College Partnership Program. As part of the program, Johnson Controls will give US$ 15 million, over the next five years, to support academic scholarships at non-profit community colleges. community college Program Starting in the 2021‒2022 academic year, Johnson Controls’ program will endow a total of US$ 1 million to ten community colleges a...

The latest innovation from Label brings to the UK an automatic door operator so small that it has reset the bar in aesthetic and design engineering for door automation. Label NEXT range of operators are only 6 cm high, giving a new, extra compact solution for automation for interior swing doors, including commercial fire doors. Installation and commissioning service At Boss Door Controls, they specialize in providing swing door automation through a network of distributors. By partnering with...

The UK’s national fire safety organization, the Fire Protection Association (FPA), is further developing its collaboration with UL, a global pioneer in safety science, to support fire testing in the UK by expanding testing and laboratory capacities at the FPA’s test laboratory in Blockley, Gloucestershire. UL is investing in the installation of fire-resistance test furnaces at the FPA’s test laboratory. As part of the collaboration, tests for fire resistance, which form the ba...

The UK’s national fire safety organization, the Fire Protection Association (FPA), is further developing its collaboration with UL, a global leader in safety science, to support fire testing in the UK by expanding testing and laboratory capacities at the FPA’s test laboratory in Blockley, Gloucestershire. UL is investing in the installation of fire-resistance test furnaces at the FPA’s test laboratory. As part of the collaboration, tests for fire resistance, which form the bas...

The FPA has published a technical questionnaire developed by RISCAuthority to be completed at the design stage of building planning. The questionnaire is designed to elicit technical information around quality assurance where Modular Building methods have been used, to assist insurers with understanding the building design and construction system. The key challenges addressed are the insurance perils of fire and water exposure. Technical Checklist for England Modules are large and heavy compo...

Ministers have approved a new apprenticeship scheme for fire engineers but without an end-point assessment body in place, universities won’t be able to offer it in the autumn. This new qualification route for fire engineers comes at a time when demand for this expertise is on the rise. Planning Gateway 1 requires a Fire Statement to be produced. When this first stage of the ‘golden thread’ for buildings comes into force on 1 August, fire engineers will be needed to help comple...

Verint Systems (Verint), the globally renowned customer engagement company, has announced that it has been recognized as a market share leader in DMG Consulting LLC’s latest Contact Center Workforce Optimization Market Share Report.  According to the report, Verint’s five-year compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) between 2016 and 2020 for sales of contact center WFO solutions is strong, particularly given the amount of revenue Verint earned in this sector. Verint moved into fir...

Bullard has announced kicking off the Bullard Emergency Responder Series Webinar 2021, the virtual knowledge and experience sharing session, which will feature key industrial experts. The webinar aims to provide the latest information on emerging technologies and upcoming cutting-edge products from the market-renowned manufacturers for a safer future. Bullard Webinar The Bullard Emergency Responder Series Webinar 2021: ‘Beyond the Smoke: Using Gas Detectors and Thermal Cameras to Save L...

One of UKAS’ current Strategic Priorities is to develop a secure, online and free-to-use database of certifications that have been issued by the accredited Certification Bodies. This database will present information on each organization holding accredited certification from a UKAS-accredited Certification Body, including details of the organization, scope and the awarding Certification Body.  As such, the database will allow organizations, public bodies and Government agencies that...

While other industries are struggling to survive, let alone grow, demand for security services continues at a pace. Given this relatively healthy state of affairs, the fact that the industry has a skills shortage is, on the face of it, baffling. However, scratch the surface and the reasons for the current situation become apparent. Time For Action The hard truth is that when a young person is choosing a career, the security industry isn’t usually on their list, which makes attracting the...

Paul Gibson, International Sales Manager for MSA Bristol, a pioneer of cutting-edge firefighter protection, talks to Matt Campbell, Emergency Services Principal at Rio Tinto in Australia, about the role of Emergency Responders in the mining industry and their specific PPE requirements. In an industry such as mining, health and safety is absolutely paramount. By the nature of the job, workers tend to deal with heavy machinery, often in hostile conditions, and frequently operate in remote areas w...

In the upcoming weeks, further restrictions regarding COVID safety may be reduced or completely removed following assessments by Governments across the nation. This poses important steps for fire safety service providers/contractors, including reviewing their own COVID-19 safety policies in the interest of employee and client safety.  BAFE would like to offer the following guidance considering the removal or reduction of restrictions: Continue to exercise a risk-based approach prior to...

With the travel and social contact restrictions imposed around the world as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic, accreditation and conformity assessment bodies turned to technology in order to continue their work remotely. Remote Audit/Assessment Survey A survey is now being run jointly by IAF, ILAC and ISO to better understand the views of the conformity assessment community and those that rely on the results of conformity assessment, on the use of remote techniques for audit/assessment/ev...

In the upcoming weeks, further restrictions regarding COVID safety may be reduced or completely removed following assessments by Governments across the nation. This poses important steps for fire safety service providers/contractors, including reviewing their own COVID-19 safety policies in the interest of employee and client safety.  BAFE would like to offer the following guidance considering the removal or reduction of restrictions: Continue to exercise a risk-based approach prior to...

Since 2015, the United States has averaged 100 more large wildfires every year than the year before, creating conditions in which wildfires overwhelm response capabilities. wildfire management  On June 30, 2021, the White House released a statement summarizing the actions it is already taking, and those it intends to take once the FY2022 budget is passed, to address the growing wildfire threat. The statement acknowledges that the management of wildfires is a multi-agency effort,...

UKAS has welcomed the introduction of the Building Safety Bill in Parliament this week and in particular the role that accreditation is expected to play in ensuring the competence of certain key duty-holder roles. In an accompanying Factsheet to the Bill, the government has said: “The industry should continue to develop sector-specific competence frameworks which can be used to assess the competence of individuals. Organizations wishing to assess individuals against these frameworks...

On Monday 5th July 2021, the Building Safety Bill was published. In their press release, the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government, Lord Stephen Greenhalgh, and The Rt Hon Robert Jenrick MP state this “will create lasting generational change and set out a clear pathway for the future on how residential buildings should be constructed and maintained.” Building Safety Regulator The newly established Building Safety Regulator “will oversee the new regime and w...

A massive fire service recruitment drive aims to boost its work enforcing safety laws. South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue has (Wednesday 7 July) launched a major new campaign calling on people to consider a role within its business fire safety team. The team is responsible for everything from inspecting businesses and licensing fireworks retailers to checking high-rise buildings – work which has increased significantly following the Grenfell Tower disaster. fire safety officers Area...