The LWF Blog

Fire Safety for Facilities Management Personnel – Human Behaviour – Part 274

October 14, 2024 10:57 am

Lawrence 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 273, LWF began to look at how physical fire protection measures have been changed due to experiences of real fire situations. In part 274, we continue to discuss how real life fire situations have affected fire safety product design.

In 1987, a serious fire occurred at King’s Cross St Pancras tube station in London. 31 people died and many more were injured. One of the most important fire safety measures that was pinpointed as having failed was the manual sprinkler system under the escalator, below which the fire started. It was not operated and subsequently, the Fire Precautions (Sub-surface Railway Stations) Regulations of 1989 required escalators in underground stations be protected by an automatic fire extinguishing system. That legislation has been updated to the Fire Precautions (Sub-surface Railway Stations) Regulations 2009 and is supported by guidance, the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 Guidance Note 3: Fire safety on sub-surface railway stations.

While some advances in fire safety measures are taken because of a direct cause/effect after a disaster, some other changes are slower to be made, because the implications are not necessarily acknowledged immediately.

One such issue is that of the natural reaction of parents in a fire situation, when their children are on site. In 1973, there was a fire at Summerland, a leisure centre in Douglas on the Isle of Man. 50 people were killed and many more seriously injured. It was acknowledged at the time that an issue was present when family groups were separated to pursue different activities in the same building.

The lesson that parents who find themselves in a fire situation when their children are on site will go to look for the children, rather than evacuate, was not fully realised until 1990, after yet another serious fire. The implications were finally translated into positive and practical measures to be incorporated into the practices of places of entertainment with separate accommodation or activities for children.

In part 275 of this series, LWF will continue to discuss human behaviour in fire situations and how this can impact the resulting evacuation. 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.