Jane Embury, director of advanced glazing company Wrightstyle, welcomes a CIOB initiative.
Fire safety has never been far from the news in recent years.
It’s gratifying that the government has introduced new regulations, with real teeth. It’s also paying for the removal of potentially dangerous cladding.
As a company involved in mitigating against fire risk, with our internal and external advanced glazing systems, anything to make buildings safer can only be a good thing.
We’ve already welcomed the draft Building Safety Bill. A key provision in the Bill is to establish a new Building Safety Regulator.
So it’s also good to see that the Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB) is launching a Certificate in Fire Safety for Construction.
Fire safety
This course, which begins this month, is designed to provide an overview of fire safety.
The objective is to give those involved in building construction a broader knowledge to better manage fire safety in buildings.
The course has come about following recommendations in Dame Judith Hackitt’s Independent Review of Building Regulations and Fire Safety.
That report outlined improvements that the sector should make to prevent serious fires.
The CIOB’s initiative is welcome because too many people nominally responsible for fire safety have too little knowledge.
Risk
The course is aimed at improving fire safety awareness for managers in the construction industry.
It looks at current and future legislation, building design and building construction, as well as fire risk assessments and human behaviour.
As we’ve written in the past, human behaviour can play a crucial part in evacuating a building. Simply, in many cases, people think that the fire alarm is a test or a false alarm.
Others, not smelling smoke or seeing fire, will continue to finish the task they’re doing, and only then seeking guidance from colleagues or superiors.
It’s a course that is being launched at a perfect time, because government is introducing the concept of “duty holders” responsible for managing a building’s safety from commissioning through to delivery.
It means that everyone involved in building safety will have nowhere to hide if things go wrong. The CIOB’s course is, perhaps a good place for them to start.
