As a responsible building manager, ensuring the safety of your occupants should be your top priority. However, one crucial aspect of building safety that is often overlooked is the maintenance and repair of smoke control systems – as these systems are often hidden in walls and ductwork, they are frequently forgotten. Due to patchy record-keeping, some building managers may not even realise that they have these types of systems installed in their buildings and therefore inadvertently overlook their maintenance and repair. 

Smoke ventilation systems are installed in a wide range of building types (most typically multi-storey and large, open-plan single-storey) and are designed to protect lives and property in the event of a fire - ignoring their maintenance can lead to catastrophic consequences.

Smoke ventilation systems are used to remove heat and smoke from buildings during a fire. They keep escape routes clear for people evacuating the building and also make access routes into the building safer for the firefighting service and first responders. This enables them to reach those in need and the source of the fire more quickly.  

In this article, we'll explore the hidden dangers of neglecting smoke control system repairs and why proactive maintenance is essential for any building.

Smoke control and fire dampers are important for fire safety in buildings. Regular maintenance by a competent company is crucial. In this blog, we will explain your responsibilities for maintaining and repairing these dampers.

The recent amendments to the fire safety regulations since the Grenfell fire in 2017 have affected the responsibilities of the ‘Responsible Person’ in the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 (RRO). As of 23 January 2023, there will be additional duties that you will have to carry out if you own or manage a building with smoke control systems, particularly if it is a high risk or high rise residential building (a multi-occupied residential building at least 18 metres in height or 7 or more storeys). In this blog, we will cover what those changes specific to smoke control systems look like and how Colt can help you stay safe and legal. Changes in other aspects of fire safety also apply, but are not covered in this blog. For the full list of updates, you can find more information here: Check your fire safety responsibilities under the Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk). 

Strong winds and storms are becoming a more frequent feature of the autumn and winter weather patterns in the UK. External building features, such as brise soleil and other types of solar shading are being exposed to these more unpredictable elements - it is your duty as a building owner or operator to ensure your systems are well maintained.

An “AOV” or “Automatic Opening Vent” is a smoke or fire vent that will open and close automatically when triggered by a control system to help vent smoke or heat out of a building in the event of a fire. As such, they are considered life safety systems and form an extremely important part of a building's fire safety strategy. They are predominantly installed on the roof or side of the building to clear smoke from corridors or common areas such as lobbies and are also used to protect escape routes (such as stairwells) in residential or commercial buildings. They may also be required in buildings that feature open-plan interiors (such as atria) or in large single-storey buildings such as warehouses or factories where smoke would otherwise just build up indefinitely.

If you own or manage a building, you will know that the proper maintenance and testing of life safety systems such as smoke control is extremely important and should not be taken lightly. That is why we demand only the highest standards from our service and maintenance engineers. It is also why we are proud to announce that we have recently opened our updated Colt Service Training Centre at our manufacturing plant in Havant.

EN 12101 "Smoke and Heat Control Systems - Part 2: Specification for Natural Heat and Smoke Exhaust Ventilators" is a European test standard that all smoke ventilators need to be designed and manufactured to in order to operate effectively. Crucially, it provides a set brief for how a ventilator should perform when in operation, specifying key points like the number of lifecycles it should be tested to, snow load it should be able to lift, wind load it should withstand, aerodynamic free area it should achieve and the temperature at which it should operate, without reducing in area.

Under The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 (RRO), the “Responsible Person” (typically a building owner and/or operator) must ensure their smoke control systems are maintained in an efficient state, are in efficient working order and in good repair at all times. If this is you, it is your responsibility to check that contractors have the qualifications, accreditations and training to work in accordance with the latest regulations. The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) suggests that the “smoke control system should be maintained by a competent person who is familiar with the fire engineering performance specifications of that specific system”.

Shopping centres are some of the most complex retail structures and as such, the Building Regulations have a strong emphasis on the provision of life safety systems such as smoke control in them. A well-designed smoke control system can play a big part in helping people escape quickly and should be able to maintain smoke-free escape conditions at low level to allow the building to be evacuated with minimum risk of smoke inhalation, injury or death.

To get started on this topic, let’s first explore what a fire curtain is and how it helps keep buildings safe. A fire curtain is a flexible fire-rated barrier that is held out of sight in a headbox until needed. When activated by a fire alarm system, a fire curtain automatically drops down, between guide channels to seal the space where a wall and door would normally have been.

We frequently write about why it is important to maintain your building’s smoke control systems properly, but less so about what might cause a smoke control system to fail or not function properly when needed if proper maintenance is not upheld. In this blog, we aim to give building owners and operators a better understanding of common issues they should look out for and how they can help keep buildings safe.

We have come a long way with Covid-19 since 2020 and now, almost two years on, it feels like we are finally at a stage where we can live with the virus and return to our usual work and social routines. The last time we wrote about the maintenance of smoke control with regards to the pandemic was in March of 2020, when the first lockdowns had just been announced. In that blog, we reminded people that the testing and maintenance of life safety installations in buildings is mandatory under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order. Therefore, regardless of whether the buildings you managed would be in constant use or mostly empty, it remains imperative that a regular maintenance programme is adhered to in buildings of all types, be they commercial, industrial or residential.

As you will be aware, there has been an intense focus on building and fire safety following the Grenfell Tower fire in 2017. In response to this Dame Judith Hackitt chaired an independent review of building regulations and fire safety which has led to the new Building Safety Bill being put forward.

If you own or manage a commercial or residential property, you are ultimately responsible for the safety of the building's occupants and providing fire safety systems that are properly maintained and functioning.

According to the *latest government statistics (published Feb 2021), there have been 790 car park fires between 2010 and 2020, with 90 of those attributed to the 2019/2020 period. The data also shows a concerning jump in fires from 2016 onwards, which has stayed consistent (fires in 2015: 77; fires from 2016 onwards, between 98 - 90 per year). It could be argued that the increase in electric charging points in car parks might be driving this increase, but there is currently no reliable data to support this theory. 
We might not be able to conclusively prove why car park fires appear to be on the up, but everyone can agree that if this is what the data seems to suggest then the best thing building managers can do to keep occupants and stock safe is to have fully functioning and compliant fire safety systems (including smoke control) in their car parks. Providing regular, expert maintenance is one of the best ways to achieve this.