FIA's First Annual Conference Provides Food for Thought
The FIA’s first Annual Conference and Dinner took place on 26 and 27 March, with a busy programme and a wide range of topics covered over the two half day sessions.
Staged a year on from the formation of the FIA, the conference took place at the Ardencote Manor Hotel & Country Club in Warwick. FIA Chairman Martin Harvey opened the conference, welcoming delegates and using three recent major fires – the warehouse fire in Atherstone on Stour and the two hotel fires in Cornwall and Pembrokeshire - to illustrate that complacency in fire protection is certainly not an option.
One of the main aims of the conference was to present a range of perspectives. Brian Martin of BRE (Building Research Establishment) presented the first paper under the heading ‘Bringing Real Life Experience to Fire Protection’. He spoke of actual fire incidents, examining the lessons that can be learned and stressing that technology always has to interface with the human element of the equation and that we ”…may have the correct systems but we sometimes expect too much of human beings”. The insurers’ perspective was given by Chris Hanks, General Manager of Allianz Cornhill. He focused on large loss fires, demonstrating that although there is a downward trend in terms of loss of life, large commercial losses have steadily increased. He recognised that industries such as petro-chemical and oil were rightly perceived as high risk and insured accordingly but cited food processing as an example of how industries that had previously been seen as relatively low risk were no longer so with the ever increasing size of warehouses.
The ‘Balanced Option’ was the subject of Peter Jackman of International Fire Consultants. He saw “Ignition prevention as the prime objective”, recognising that it is a mix of different technologies that have to be considered when designing fire safety for a building. He also looked beyond the confines of fire, stating that “72% of all fires are now arson generated so we need to look sideways and also consider security.”
Paul Everall, CBE, CEO of Local Authority Building Control (District Surveyors Association) spoke of the LABC’s ongoing discussions with government regarding a more risk based approach to Building Control and enforcement of the Building Regulations. He argued that current statutory powers were inadequate and that “…most enforcement is currently done by persuasion.”
Jonathan Herrick, a Fire Engineer with the West Midlands Fire & Rescue Service, provided a fascinating insight into the Fire Safety Order, opening up the floor to questions from the outset and outlining how the fire brigades are dealing with enforcement of the Order. The first day of the conference was completed with a presentation from Mike Wood of Pilkington plc in which he argued for the industry to work collectively and “…get rid of sectional interests”.
Following an excellent dinner, the conference re-opened on 27 March with two separate sessions: one on Fire Detection & Alarms and one on Fire Extinguishing Systems.
Delegates then reconvened for a combined closing session which saw presentations from Wilf Butcher on developments within the Export Council, David Simmonds on a new FIA mediation service and David Bartlett on Training, Apprenticeships and NVQs.