Residential & Nursing Care Homes
Residential and Nursing care premises are amongst the highest level of life risk in the country, due to the dependency of residents.
From people who are totally ‘independent’, to ‘dependant’ or ‘highly dependent’ residents, have health issues and need constant support and care. Therefore this increases their vulnerability in any fire. situation that may occur, particularly where there are ‘highly dependent’ residents and during sleeping hours when staffing levels may be at there minimum.
These premises operate an evacuation system referred to as ‘phased horizontal evacuation’ (PHE). This is where, in the event of an emergency, the staff are required to evacuate sleeping areas (fire compartments), in an agreed and practised sequence away from the seat of a fire, in a maximum time, as detailed in HM Government guidance documents.
The designers of the fire strategy, usually the fire risk assessor, should be ‘competent’ and have an in-depth knowledge and possess a high level of experience when designing the buildings fire strategy, as to get this wrong would create an unacceptable level of risk to the occupants in a fire situation.
There is also a general lack of knowledge within the fire safety industry and also by premise owners and managers, when it comes to understanding fire compartment sizes and their locations. In particular, compartments directly below the roof space areas, where these compartment lines do not match with fire compartments above or below.
The second common unknown fire safety element that often gets overlooked, is smoke control through internal ventilation systems. This can lead to fire and smoke spreading undetected between fire compartments and particular where a number of bedrooms are linked with the extraction system.
At active fire safety solutions (ta premier-firesafety.co.uk), we pride ourselves on the experience and knowledge base we have gained in this sector, after working with numerous organisation both large and small, single and multi-site operations. Our years of experience to the specific requirements and knowing all of the legal requirements and in-depth knowledge, allows us to now share those experiences with our clients.
We always look to keep costs down and that these costs when necessary, are in proportion to the risks identified.
The buildings fire strategy is fundamental in ensuring buildings operate efficiently during any fire condition and helps ensure that residents, staff and visitors are safe and protected.
Our team of experts can offer help and advice on all matters relating to nursing and residential care premise.