BSI publishes new fire prevention standards for businesses

BSI Business Information has recently published new UK fire standards to help businesses meet fire safety requirements.

Many fires can be avoided by taking fire precautions. If a fire does break out, the effects can be minimised by having effective controls and procedures in place. Latest figures show the cost of fire to the UK economy in 2003 to be £7.7bn.[1] The average cost of fire in a commercial building is £58,100. This includes the economic cost of injuries and fatalities.

BSI’s latest publications on fire safety are:

BS EN 12101-6:2005 Smoke and heat control systems. Specification for pressure differential systems.
This new fire standard replaces BS 5588-4:1998 and specifies pressure differential systems designed to hold back smoke at a leaky physical barrier in a building, such as a door (either open or closed), or other similar openings. It describes relevant and critical features of installation and commissioning procedures needed to implement the calculated design in a building.

It also covers systems intended to protect means of escape, such as stairwells, corridors and lobbies and systems intended to provide a firefighting bridgehead for the fire services. 

Price £148, £74 BSI Subscribing Members

BS EN 54-13:2005 Fire detection and fire alarm systems. Compatibility assessment of system components
This publication states the requirements for compatibility and connectability assessment of system components that either comply with the requirements of BS EN 54 ‘Fire detection and fire alarm systems’ or with a manufacturer's specification, where BS EN 54 does not apply.

This document specifies requirements:

- For the integrity of the fire detection and fire alarm system when connected to other systems

- Related to compatibility and connectability assessment methods 

- Tests for the system components

- For ensuring that components are compatible/connectable

- Related to performance

It does not, however, specify the manner in which the system is designed, installed and used in any particular application.

Price £92, £46 BSI Subscribing Members

BS 4422:2005 Fire. Vocabulary
This definitive standard brings together, in one document, terms and definitions relating to safety from fire in existing codes and standards, government legislation, regulations and guidance documents, and documents published by other leading organisations.

The purpose of this standard is to provide a unifying document so that terms and their definitions can be used throughout the fields of fire and fire safety, so that, as far as possible, a given term will always have the same meaning and that a given concept is always expressed by the same term.

This revision of BS 4422 will eliminate the inconsistencies between standards, and other fire related codes and guidance documents, in a rapidly evolving area of technology that is related to safety from fire.

Price £140, £70 BSI Subscribing Members

For more information see http://www.bsi-global.com/FireSafety/index.xalter

•Date: 20th May 2005 • Region: UK • Type: Article •Topic: BC general
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