National Fire Chiefs Call For New Law

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There is no requirement in England for residential buildings of more than seven storeys or over 18 meters, to have additional staircases. Fire chiefs are endeavouring to change the situation, by urging the government to bring in new laws to address this. In addition, they want to see existing buildings above a certain height, retrofitted with sprinklers and the replacement of lifts.

Chair of the National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC) protection and business safety scrutiny committee, Gavin Tomlinson said: “We are calling on the government to ensure that all new high rise residential buildings over 18 metres, or seven storeys, have more than one fire escape staircase. In the event of a fire, a correctly designed second staircase removes the risk of a single point of failure, buying critical time for firefighting activities, and providing residents with multiple escape routes.”

According to the NFCC, evacuation is not always necessary, as sometimes it’s safe for residents to stay put in the event of a fire. Although, Incident Recording System data on mass evacuations states that in the 3 years between 1st April 2019 and 31st March 2022, the London Fire Brigade reported 154 cases where 10 or more people evacuated from a block of flats of at least six storeys. So almost 8,500 residents chose to evacuate buildings rather than stay in them, before, during, or after the fire and rescue service arrived. Australia, Canada and the USA have height limits for buildings with a single staircase, as do Scotland.

Mark Hardingham, chair of NFCC, added: “The government should be commended on the improvements it has made, such as banning combustible cladding and requiring sprinklers at 11 metres. However, we urge the government to now publish an updated workplan for the review of Approved Document B to give regulators, the public, and the wider fire safety industry confidence that the government is still committed to reform.”

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