Background & Brief
Fire Response (UK) Ltd were already engaged to service and maintain the fire systems at the 3M building in Bedford, so when 3M decided to close this facility and it was bought by a company looking to develop the land to build new units on the extensive grounds that 3M occupied, Fire Response was allowed to pitch ideas to the new owners.
The distribution centre sat on a large plot, which the new owners were keen to sell to developers to build other units on. One of the major obstacles they faced was the huge million-gallon tanks in the grounds used to support the site’s fire sprinkler system. It was clear that if they wanted to develop this land, then these tanks would have to be demolished. Being an important asset, the client had a fire risk assessment commissioned to see if anything could be done to protect the building without using these tanks.
The risk assessment concluded that, as this building would no longer be used for storage of highly flammable chemicals, some of the fire protection assets could be relaxed, but in exchange, some had to be heavily updated.
The main areas of particular concern were that there was no automatic fire alarm detection in the large warehouse halls, as these areas relied on the sprinkler system. There was also an exceptionally long set of offices on the first floor, meaning the travel distance to an exit stairwell was unusually long (as this was originally built to older 1970s standards). Other areas highlighted in the risk assessment, although not as significant, also had to be addressed to bring this building up to current standards.
Design, scope & Process
Once again, a lengthy consultation process was initiated to see what could be bolstered with the various fire systems to compensate the lack of a sprinkler system and satisfy the fire risk assessor.
The Fire Response Proposal recommended 4 main areas to address:
- Replacement of the old conventional fire alarm system with an addressable system, with networked panels in both the reception and the warehouse areas.
- Installation of an aspiration smoke detection system in all the warehouse spaces (commonly referred to as a VESDA or FAAST system).
- Installation of a Public Address Voice Alarm (PAVA) in the office areas to speed up evacuation.
- The installation of disabled refuge communications systems at the head of each stairwell.
Why was Fire Response chosen?
Of the other fire companies consulted, Fire Response offered a multifaceted solution to the problems and these plans were subsequently approved by the fire risk assessor as a suitable level of protection for a building without a sprinkler system.
Fire Response was the only company that could install a Networked fire alarm system, a public address voice alarm system and an aspiration system all in-house without subbing out to specialist companies. This also gave us the advantage of being the most cost-effective contractor to do the work.
The Result
All assets were installed in an individual manner to keep and maintain the fire alarm system operational throughout the works. Only when every individual element was installed did the work begin to add them to the new addressable fire system and effectively joining all the systems together.
The voice alarm now gives clear instructions to evacuate the area, encouraging people to leave quicker than they would if a normal fire alarm were employed.
The Aspiration system monitors the air through its pipework to act as an early warning of smoke presence, better than a traditional detector would work at this height.
The addressable fire system gives pinpoint information on faults or activations, rather than the previous system, which would only identify the zone a device was in. It was also considered to be a benefit to have more than one fire panel on a site of this size due to the potential travel time back to the old reception panel. On this basis, a networked fire alarm system was employed, where a panel with addressable information could be retained in the reception area, but now there would also be addressable panels in the warehouse area, so warehouse staff could see and identify the issue, without returning to reception.
The net result of all of this work allowed developers to build on the land around the main building as planned.
