Businesses are to be formally praised for steps taken to fight fire in local communities, fire minister and MP for Dewsbury, Shahid Malik has said.

A new standard for the fire testing, performance and classification of modern building systems has been launched by LPCB.

The National Portrait Gallery, London, which is famous for its extensive collection of art, has installed a fire prevention system.

IT experts at Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service have been working with the Service’s incident command team to create a fully-automated system using electronic tags to help keep track of firefighters, vehicles and equipment.

A company that owned a London hotel has been ordered to pay more than £21,000 in fines and costs after pleading guilty to six offences under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005.

The Dutch media reports that a female student has died in a fire in a student house in Groningen, in the north of The Netherlands. The fire service was called at about 07:30 but it was not until midday that fire-fighters could enter the building, which was completely burnt out.

The 19 year old student and six other students were in the building. Two of the six students were taken to hospital. The student house in the Oude Ebbingestraat was a former shop and an historical building near the market square in the town centre.

Spanish media reports that seven people have died in a fire in the Aurora care home in Seville. The fire brigade was called just after midnight on the morning of 9th February. Investigators have established that it was caused by an electrical fault in a bed designed for the disabled. Four more of the 19 residents remain in hospital suffering from smoke inhalation.

Seville City Hall has declared three days of morning. According to news bulletins on Spanish television the home was new and met all the fire safety regulations. Sprinklers are not required in care homes in Spain but after this fire the evening news programmes discussed the benefits of sprinklers, with an interview of Emilio Rodriguez, owner of the sprinkler contractor Pacisa.

The British Automatic Fire Sprinkler Association (BAFSA) requested BRE Global carry out a test to investigate the effect of a sprinkler system on the growth and spread of a fire in and between cars in a car park stacking system. This request followed the Communities and Local Government (CLG) Sustainable Buildings Division research programme titled Fire Spread in Car Parks. BAFSA wished to carry out an additional test using the CLG Car Stacker Rig in order to demonstrate the effect that a sprinkler system would have on the fire.

The test was designed to replicate the test carried out under the CLG program of research, but with the addition of a sprinkler system, designed and installed by BAFSA.

It is BRE Global's understanding that the system was designed by the client to be as consistent as possible with the prescriptive guidance given in BS EN 12845, LPC Sprinkler Rules. However, sprinkler protection of real car stackers will require the installation of a sprinkler system on a number of levels depending on the height of the storage. It was therefore considered appropriate by BAFSA to trial a number of hydraulic designs and sprinkler heads prior to the fire test.

Ian Gough, BAFSA commented “Fire sprinklers have been successfully protecting lives and property, including car parks, for many years; however, hazards and risks can quickly change. It is important that the fire sprinkler industry recognises such changes and is confident that the sprinklers systems installed always provide effective and efficient protection. This work carried out by BRE Global provides valuable information for sprinkler contractors, specifiers and others with an interest in these new and innovative parking systems.”

See the full report at PDF Report

The Welsh Assembly Members voted unanimously today voted in support of Ann Jones AM’s bid to make the installation of sprinkler systems mandatory in Wales’s new homes.

The Vale of Clwyd AM’s proposal has been described as historic by Chief Fire Officers across Wales and numerous organisations in the Fire Safety field including the National Fire Sprinkler Network.

Since introducing the Assembly’s first ever backbench Legislative Competence Order (LCO), Ann Jones has won the full support of amongst others, the Welsh Assembly Government, Wales’ 3 Fire Services and the FBU.

With overwhelming supportive evidence from the expert and industry community, Mrs Jones’s LCO successfully received approval from cross party Committees in both Wales and Westminster.

Read more at www.bafsa.org.uk

It has been repoted by the Dutch press that a 32-year-old man in a detention centre for illegal immigrants set fire to his cell. The detention centre was fitted with sprinklers and two sprinkler operated and extinguished the fire. 44 prisoners and staff were evacuated and 16 people were treated at the scene for the effects of minor smoke inhalation. Nobody was seriously injured and the damage was limited.