Improving Safety by Installing Sprinklers in High-Rise Housing

 

 

 

It has long been the view of many fire safety professionals that automatic fire suppression systems could be used to supplement existing fire safety provision and compensate in locations where this might not be adequate. This opinion was not shared at the time by the DCLG’s Chief Fire & Rescue Advisor who reported to the Secretary of State following the Lakanal House fire that: “it is not considered practical or economically viable to make a requirement for the retrospective fitting of fire suppression systems to all current high-rise residential buildings”.

 

However, a forthcoming report challenges this view and details the success of a pilot project, sponsored by the Sprinkler Coordination Group and funded by the British Automatic Fire Sprinkler Association was undertaken in September 2011. The project involved the retrofitting of a fully comprehensive sprinkler system in a 1960’s high-rise block of flats and demonstrates the benefits of retrofitted sprinkler installations in existing unprotected high-rise blocks of flats.