Following an intense focus on fire safety legislation, with the Building Safety Act coming into force so closely after the Fire Safety Act 2024 has been cited as the time for action, fresh responsibilities and new milestones await, with a close focus on fire safety.
Long overdue changes to increase the safety of high-rise residential buildings are finally in place, but the impact of these on an operational level is yet to be fully seen and arguably understood.
Already raised as potentially being the end of design and build, the new expectations emphasise more detailed specifications of products and applications to become increasingly important from an early stage, where plans need to stipulate safety provisions.
For fire protection, these anticipated changes in fire safety legislation are an ideal solution. The initial technical design and risk assessments ensure the right product is required for the building and delivered to the correct timeline. It allows any issues and concerns to be identified long before installation takes place.
It takes into account new ways to manage the issues of stretched resources and limited budgets, especially when it comes to trying to reduce reliance on waking watch facilities, where we know the latest wireless and cloud-based technology presenting remote monitoring capability are ideal solutions.
Education and Awareness
Competence continues to be a concern, and we, as an industry, need to ensure that life-critical products are manufactured, specified and installed to the highest standards, ensuring total protection.
Along with a laser focus on fire safety, we hope to see education and information prioritised across all sectors involved in the building process.
Within the industry, the spotlight will be on skills and awareness of the latest opportunities. Here, everyone involved in fire protection needs to take responsibility. The FIA has continued to lead in training, with the continued presence of its attention on IoT and the impact it can make on the industry.
Remaining Proactive
Amthal is working to support the accurate specification, design and installation of smart fire safety solutions, building our team to support design, installation, maintenance and monitoring. We look forward to welcoming more partners across the coming year to achieve this objective.
While conditions have been challenging, there are signs of step changes to help transform the focus on fire safety in the built environment. The need to ‘raise safety standards and performance,’ is clear, especially in the number of enquiries coming from the public sector in response to the change in legislation.
We have a duty of care to extend this work across all sectors and alongside Facility, Site and Security Managers to keep proactively promoting the need for fire safety; ensuring it is encompassed in every aspect of building design and any programme of works from design, installation through to maintenance and monitoring.
The coming year will be a time of action. Within this, there are changes that we need to see – and that are long overdue in line with the expectations of new legislation. Buildings should be made with fire safety in mind first and foremost, and we at Amthal will do all we can to support that.
Ensuring Complete and Compliant Fire Protection
With over 20 years of providing expert fire protection and security compliance, at Amthal we have a wealth of experience supporting our partners across the Property Management and Block & Facilities Management sectors. Contact us for further guidance and to learn how we can take the stress out of legal compliance. We’re happy to discuss your requirements in whatever way suits you best.