02 July 2008 00:00am

New CPD on Fire Cuts through Confusion

Arson, CPD, Company News, Fire Engineering, Fire Safety, LPS1181, Non-combustible core, RIBA

Potentially misleading labelling of some composite panel systems as 'fire safe' has caused widespread confusion in the market. To set the record straight Eurobond has launched a new RIBA approved CPD seminar that focuses on the true fire performance of composite panel systems.

The seminar highlights the issues facing the construction industry and provides guidance and information to allow architects to make informed decisions when seeking to specify truly non combustible cored composite panels.

In 2002, there were in fact, 43,000 commercial fires involving schools, commercial buildings and public buildings. Out of these commercial fires, there were 3,300 injuries and 181 deaths (Perry, 2003). Last year, there were three major fires involving either PIR or PUR panels, including Atherstone where four fire fighters tragically lost their lives. In 1993, 2 fire-fighters were killed in a fire which echoed the recent fire and tragic loss of life at Atherstone on Stour, at Sun Valley, Hereford.

In addition to these statistics, 45% of school fires are started deliberately, with this figure rising to 80% for ‘major school fires’ (Arson Prevention Bureau). The cost of all arson in the UK was £350million pounds in 2004. That’s nearly £1million a day (Zurich Municipal, Fighting the Fire, 2005).

The Eurobond CPD seminar is offered through the RIBA CPD Providers Network, which means it has been rigorously assessed as being of the highest standard to meet the RIBA CPD requirements and will also earn double-weighted CPD points. The Eurobond CPD seminar fits into the RIBA core curriculum under Construction skills and Professional Context. It covers subjects such as specification writing and choosing materials, architecture design and sustainable architecture.

The CPD Fire seminar looks at some of the above issues as well as recent regulatory and legislative changes, giving an overview of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, Part B of the Building Regulations 2005 and the CDM Regulations 2007. It goes on to explain how these changes affect the specification process with relation to fire engineering design and testing, with the aim of allowing designers to make better informed decisions with regards to the specification of architectural composite panel systems.

The CPD seminar also provides an introduction to LPS 1181, the Loss Prevention Certification Board standard for fire protection and looks at whether this alone is an adequate guarantee for the prevention of fire spread and fire performance.

Independent research commissioned by Eurobond in December 2007, highlighted a worrying lack of understanding amongst architects as to the respective levels of fire performance provided by non combustible stone wool core and so called ‘firesafe’ PIR composite panels.

Of equal concern was the apparent lack of knowledge relating to LPS1181 and the two different grades of fire performance achievable, namely Ext grade A and Ext grade B. This is significant in as much as only ext grade-A approved materials, such as those supplied by Eurobond offer an improved level of fire resistance.

“With almost 80% of architects surveyed stating that they’re required to source highly fire resistant steel faced composite panels, this lack of understanding is alarming,” says Richard Wigley, Marketing Manager at Eurobond. "The Fire CPD seminar has been launched to provide clear guidance in order that specifiers can be sure of making an informed choice.”