The LWF Blog
Fire Safety for Facilities Management Personnel – Fixed Fire-fighting Systems – Part 229
November 27, 2023 12:26 pmLawrence Webster Forrest (LWF) is a specialist fire engineering and fire risk management consultancy whose aim is to give information on best practice in fire safety for facilities management personnel through this blog series. In part 228, LWF began to discuss fixed fire-fighting systems installed in a building. In part 229, we talk about automatic sprinkler systems.
Of the various types of fixed fire-fighting systems available, the most often-seen and used type is an automatic sprinkler system.
Automatic sprinkler systems are commonly found in industrial and commercial buildings, such as factories, warehouses and offices, to provide general protection throughout against fire.
They are normally used to detect and control a fire, which they do through suppression of the fire which limits fire size until it can be extinguished by the Fire Service. Commonly, the system simply extinguishes the fire in its early stages, but the Fire Service should be summoned for every fire and will check the fire is properly extinguished.
In the UK, sprinkler systems have usually been installed as a property protection measure, rather than for life safety purposes. However, in recent years, sprinkler systems have been used as a life safety measure and worldwide, loss of life in premises protected by a sprinkler system has been extremely rare.
Indoor shopping centres (the type called malls in the US) are one situation where sprinkler protection has been provided for life safety purposes on a regular basis. The role of the sprinkler system in this environment is to keep the fire development to a size where smoke-control systems can cope with the output. This means that visibility and breathability of air is maintained for long enough to fully evacuate the premises and for the Fire Service to attend.
Sprinklers are also used in order to deviate from standard permitted compartment sizes in many different types of premises. Building regulations and some local legislation may support the use of sprinklers in high buildings, large warehouses or factories.
One example is that in high buildings, phased evacuation may be used and therefore, sprinkler protection of the building is an important measure to ensure fire development is controlled and does not spread between storeys. This means that the storey of fire origin will be evacuated immediately, perhaps with the floors above and below, but the remainder of the building occupancy may be able to remain in place throughout, provided the Fire Service are able to attend in order to verify the fire is out and the building is safe.
Sprinkler systems would certainly suppress a fire for long enough for phased evacuation to be effectively used.
In part 230 of this series, LWF will continue to talk about the need for and usage of sprinkler systems. In the meantime, if you have any queries about your own facilities or wish to discuss this blog series, please contact LWF on freephone 0800 410 1130.
Lawrence Webster Forrest is a fire engineering consultancy based in Surrey with over 35 years’ experience, which provides a wide range of consultancy services to professionals involved in the design, development and construction and operation of buildings.
While care has been taken to ensure that information contained in LWF’s publications is true and correct at the time of publication, changes in circumstances after the time of publication may impact on the accuracy of this information