AEI Cables is supporting the campaign for increased use of sprinkler systems, as new research reveals the benefits they offer to human safety and protection of property.
Research carried out by the National Fire Chiefs’ Council and the National Fire Sprinkler Network has revealed that the danger to life and damage to buildings is “significantly reduced” when sprinkler systems are fitted.
The NFCC has called on the government to make sprinklers a statutory requirement in all new high-rise residential structures higher than 18 metres on a risk assessment basis.
Cabling, which ensures continuous power to these systems, is a key component of improving fire safety in the wake of disasters including Grenfell Tower and fires in high-rise tower blocks elsewhere in the UK, says Graham Turner of AEI Cables: “The fire safety industry is committed to sprinkler systems as a way forward to improve protection of lives and property in the event of a fire, but the quality of cabling supplying power to these systems is critical.
“If the power fails for whatever reason, these systems, however efficient they are, simply won’t work and the results can be catastrophic.”
The Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) and the Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB) have made calls to make the installation of sprinklers mandatory in all residential buildings, hotels, hospitals, schools and care homes taller than 11 metres. The same organisations have also called for sprinklers to be retrofitted where possible.
Turner added that buildings such as tower blocks, hospitals, schools, shopping malls, airports and those areas with large numbers of people moving about need cabling which will continue to operate in a fire and provide power for the highest fire protection of 120 minutes.
