Dwelling
risk review report
Business Sector Risk Review Reports are created for each
and every occupancy category held within the FPA/
RISCAuthority Large Loss Fire database where sufficient
records exist for meaningful analysis and are updated
annually. They are designed to highlight the loss history in
each business sector to help inform insurance and risk control
choices, and provide brief bespoke best-practice guidance.
This data is best appreciated in association with local
information on F&RS response, AFA policy, and firefighting
water availability data which is available to RISCAuthority
members via the website (www.RISCAuthority.co.uk). The
data presented here spans the two years January 2012 to
December 2013; the complete database and analytical tools
may be accessed by members via the RISCAuthority website.
Tenement Buildings
Sub category
Dwelling fires account for 18.4% of all large loss fires.
Fires involving Tenement Buildings account for 1.2% of all large loss fires and 6.4% of all Dwelling fires.
Accidental
61%
55%
Causation
Dwelling
Tenement Buildings
Dwelling
Tenement Buildings
Time of fire
Deliberate
17%
16%
Unknown
22%
29%
Midnight - 6am 6am - midday Midday - 6pm 6pm - midnight
17%
26%
29%
28%
23%
10%
30%
37%
Impedances
Dwelling
Tenement Buildings
Access
Acetylene
73%
100%
1%
Inadequate
water supply
16%
Resources
10%
67 Dwelling fires of 514 had impedances, 3 of these had more than one impedance.
6 Tenement Buildings fires of 33 had impedances, 0 of these had more than one impedance.
Cost of fire
Dwelling fires account for 9% of all large loss financial loss, with a mean average cost of £370,459 per fire.
Tenement Buildings fires account for 7% of all Dwelling loss, with a mean average cost of £372,893 per fire.
Insurance component
Dwelling
Tenement Buildings
Material
damage
84%
89%
Business
Contents
interruption
1%
5%
2%
Resources
7%
9%
Machine
and plant
0%
Stock
Other
0%
3%
0%
These statistics are based upon information supplied by loss adjusters to the FPA on a voluntary basis and not all insurers conducting
business in the UK contribute to this dataset. They represent only sums paid out where the total loss is in excess of £100K and are deficient
of losses under £100K, deductibles, under-insurance, uninsured, self-insured and captively insured components, which may be significant.
In a year, total losses captured typically account for 50% of the ABI declared annual fire loss figure - which is similarly deficient of the same
components (except the £100K threshold).
THE UK's NATIONAL FIRE SAFETY ORGANISATION
Protecting people, property, business and the environment
FPA BUSINESS SECTOR RISK REVIEW REPORT FOR DWELLING – TENEMENT BUILDINGS
Fire safety legislation
Although private dwellings are not subject to fire safety
legislation, a fire risk assessment should be undertaken
for the common areas of premises comprising flats,
maisonettes and similar properties in compliance with the
Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 (or equivalent
legislation in Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Fire hazards
There are a number of significant fire hazards associated
with the common areas of tenement buildings; these
include:
• Electrical fire hazards from poorly sited consumer units
and poorly maintained installations.
• Space heaters.
• Deliberate fire raising.
• Breaches of the fire compartmentation of the building
by contractors and others.
• Residents changing their front doors for non-fire rated
products.
• Residents interfering with smoke detectors and other
fire safety provisions.
• Furniture, artificial flowers, artwork, children’s toys
and other combustible materials introduced onto the
escape routes.
• The accumulation of mail and flyers inside the building.
• Rubbish bins and accumulated waste materials in close
proximity to the building.
• Unprotected letter slots in front doors.
• Poorly parked vehicles outside obstructing hydrants
and access for firefighting vehicles.
Risk control recommendations
The following risk mitigation measures should be
considered to eliminate or reduce the risk of fire in the
common areas of tenement buildings:
• Give careful consideration to the likelihood of deliberate
fire raising at the time of the fire risk assessment.
Suitable security measures should be implemented that
are proportionate to the risk and based on the findings
of the risk assessment. These measures may include
providing locks complying with BS 3621 and installing
security lighting.
• Review the fire risk assessment periodically, when
refurbishment is planned or whenever there are
significant changes to the potential sources of ignition,
combustible materials present or the abilities of the
residents (for example restricted mobility or impaired
hearing).
• Ensure that escape routes are kept free from
obstructions and combustible materials. Furniture,
artificial flowers, artwork, children’s toys and other
personal effects should not be stored on the escape
routes, which should, as far as practicable, be free from
combustible materials and potential sources of ignition.
• Display prominent notices indicating that the lift(s) should
not be used in the event of fire where appropriate.
• Unless there is sufficient borrowed light, emergency
lighting should be provided; it should be designed,
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
installed, commissioned and maintained in accordance
with BS 5266 by an electrician with third party
certification.
Ensure that fire doors are maintained and identified
by suitable signs; they should normally be kept shut
to minimise the spread of fire. Where fire doors are
designed to close automatically on actuation of the fire
detection and alarm system, this function should be
tested weekly.
Ensure that front doors to flats are not changed
without the permission of the owner or managing
agent as they normally form a vital element of the fire
compartmentation of the building.
Keep all plant rooms and service ducts locked shut.
When designing new premises avoid the need to
introduce letter slots in fire doors. Rather than having
a letter slot for each flat it is preferable to provide letter
boxes in the lobby or outside the building. The latter
also provides for greater security for the premises and
prevents uncollected or unwanted mail and flyers from
accumulating inside.
Where letter slots are provided in the front doors to flats,
they should be protected (for example by intumescent
materials), to provide the same degree of fire resistance
as the door in which they are located.
Maintain the installed heating in accordance with
the manufacturer’s instructions. Prohibit the use of
unauthorised portable heaters in common areas.
Eliminate hot work wherever possible, including the
use of hot air guns for the stripping of paintwork during
redecoration. When hot work cannot be avoided,
minimise the time that gas cylinders are in the premises.
Ensure that the work is controlled by use of a hot work
permit system in accordance with RISCAuthority
Recommendation RC7.
Ensure that electrical installations are designed, installed
and periodically tested by a competent electrician in
accordance with the current edition of BS 7671 (the
IET Wiring Regulations). Inspections should be carried
out on a risk assessed basis as recommended in the
Periodic Inspection Report.
Arrange for any portable electrical equipment (such as
vacuum cleaners) that are to be used in the common
areas by cleaners and other staff to be inspected and
tested at least in accordance with HSG 107 and/or
the IET Code of practice for in-service inspection and
testing of electrical equipment. The period between
tests should be determined by risk assessment.
Ensure that electrical and gas installations (such as
meters and electrical consumer units) are separated
from common areas by a form of construction that
provides at least 30 minutes’ fire resistance.
Minimise the spread of fire by effective fire
compartmentation within the building. Maintain the
compartmentation by ensuring that contractors provide
suitable fire stopping, in accordance with the FPA
Design guide, around pipes and services that pass
through fire compartment walls, floors and ceilings.
Maintain the effectiveness of cavity barriers in ceilings
and roof voids.
• Provide written information for the residents indicating
the steps that they should take in the event of fire. It
should be made clear whether there is a full evacuation
or ‘stay put’ policy and how the residents should call
the fire and rescue service. Residents should also be
made aware of heat or smoke detectors in their flats
and how they should be tested and maintained.
• Where there is a full evacuation policy, residents need
to be warned of a fire in the premises thus a suitable
automatic fire detection and alarm system should be
installed. The system should have third party certification
by a UKAS accredited certification body and be to a
recognised category of installation in accordance with
BS 5839-6.
• Give serious consideration at the design stage to the
installation of an automatic fire suppression system,
such as water sprinklers, which should be installed
in compliance with the Sprinkler Rules incorporating
BS EN 12845.
• Provide a suitable number of appropriate fire
extinguishers in any common area such as a laundrette
or room for charging mobility scooters; portable
fire extinguishers are not required in escape routes.
Extinguishers should be approved and certificated by
an independent, third party certification body, installed
in accordance with BS 5306-8 and inspected and
maintained in compliance with BS 5306-3.
• Minimise the storage of combustible waste materials
(including unwanted furniture and recycling containers)
within 10m of the premises. Where appropriate, provide
bollards or kerbs to prevent wheeled bins being located
against external cladding or beneath windows.
• Liaise with the fire and rescue service where car parking
in the neighbourhood may prevent speedy access by
firefighting appliances.
• Have an effective emergency plan in place to ensure the
resilience of the premises and welfare of the residents
in the event of a fire. One way of approaching this is
to complete the ROBUST business continuity and
incident management planning software available free
from https://robust.riscauthority.co.uk/
Further information
1. Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, SI 2005
No 1541, TSO.
2. The Fire (Scotland) Act 2005, asp 5, TSO.
3. Fire Safety (Scotland) Regulations 2006, Scottish SI
2006 No 456, TSO.
4.Fire and Rescue Services (Northern Ireland) Order
2006, SI 2006 No 1254 (NI9), TSO.
5.Fire Safety Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2010, SI
2010 No 325 (NI), TSO.
6. BS 3621: 2007 + A2: 2012, Thief resistant lock
assembly. Key egress, BSI.
7. BS 5266-1:2011: Emergency lighting. Code of
practice for the emergency escape lighting of
premises, BSI.
Case history
1.
Councillors have ordered the owners of a
fire-damaged tenement to replace its lost roof. They
agreed to have a work notice served on the premises
despite a claim from a developer that the move
was unnecessary and ‘vigorously opposed’ by the
owners. The tenement remained empty two years
after the blaze. The project manager told the housing
committee he represented nine of the 10 owners.
He disagreed with the council’s contention that a
new roof was needed to prevent further damage to
the building and to the adjacent property and took
issue with the suggested £180,000 cost. He said:
‘The majority of the owners of 14 Garland Place are
fully committed to having the building restored and
have repeatedly requested meetings with the council
to have pre-building warrant application talks but the
council have refused to agree to a meeting.’
8. BS 5306-3: 2009: Fire extinguishing installations
and equipment on premises. Commissioning and
maintenance of portable fire extinguishers. Code of
practice, BSI.
9. BS 5306-8: 2012: Fire extinguishing installations and
equipment on premises. Selection and positioning of
portable fire extinguishers. Code of practice, BSI.
10.BS 5839-6: 2013: Fire detection and fire alarm
systems for buildings. Code of practice for the
design, installation, commissioning and maintenance
of fire detection and fire alarm systems in domestic
premises, BSI.
11.BS 7671: 2008 +A1: 2011 + A2: 2013: Requirements
for electrical installations (IET Wiring Regulations), BSI.
12.LPC Rules for automatic sprinkler installations
incorporating BS EN 12845: (Fixed firefighting
systems. Automatic sprinkler systems. Design,
installation and maintenance, BSI), 2009, FPA.
13.RC7: Recommendations for hot work, 2012, FPA.
14.Business resilience: A guide to protecting your
business and its people, 2005, FPA.
15.ROBUST software (Resilient Business Software
Toolkit): https://robust.riscauthority.co.uk
16.FPA Design guide: The protection of buildings: Core
document: Protection of openings and service
penetrations from fire, 2005, FPA.
17.HSG 107: Maintaining portable and transportable
electrical equipment, 2013, HSE.
18.Code of practice for in-service inspection and testing
of electrical equipment, 2012, Institution of Engineering
and Technology (IET).
19.Fire safety risk assessment: Sleeping accommodation,
2006, DCLG.
20.Fire safety in purpose-built blocks of flats, 2011, Local
Government Group.