FD&A Infographic -why we made this effort?

You have a fire alarm system in your building and every so often a chap comes in with a pole and wanders round your building “servicing” your fire alarm system, job done, or is it?

Did you know that you have your own responsibilities with regard to the maintenance of your fire alarm system? These responsibilities are written down in the British Standard for fire alarm systems BS 5839-1 and it very clearly in “standards speak” tells you what you have to do. Legally under the fire safety order you need to ensure that your system is maintained and complying with the standard is the best way of doing this. BS 5839-1 is about 170 pages long, costs nearly £300 and you the bits you need to know are on pages 120 and 121.

FD&A Infographic

To make your life much easier FIA have produced a single page infographic that highlights what you as the owner of the fire alarm system should be doing to ensure your system is working properly and comply with the recommendations of the British Standard.

This inforgraphic is the first in a series that will assist owners and end-users meet their responsibilities regard the maintenance of their active fire protection products and systems.

So if you don’t want to miss them, watch out our news or better sign up to our news letter as the next infographics are coming soon!

 

By Robert Thilthorpe, FIA Technical Manager

50 Shades of …

Given that the average fire person I meet is male, 50+ and technically qualified it’s likely that they may not have come across the 50 Shades of Grey phenomenon – so to avoid the crowds they’d better stay away from the cinema as the movie opens on 13 February. And if they need to visit a hardware store this weekend they might be crowded – but more off that later!

So what is 50 Shades of Grey – well Wikiwotsit describes it thus:

“50 Shades of Grey is a 2011 erotic romance novel by British author E. L. James. It is the first instalment in the Fifty Shades trilogy that traces the deepening relationship between a college graduate, Anastasia Steele, and a young business magnate, Christian Grey.”

But wait it gets better as Wotsitpedia goes on to say:

“It is notable for its explicitly erotic scenes featuring elements of sexual practices involving bondage/discipline, dominance/submission, and sadism/masochism (BDSM).”

So if you’ve read this far the blog now gets more boring – no special rope knots, code words or Marquis de Sade references (must take that book back to the library!) but a veritable Kama Sutra (that one’s due back as well…) list of fire connections!

But these fire connections are not to be confused with that well know best seller “46 Shades of Red” – the English Fire Service Guide for Fire Authorities that still have some money to buy a fire engine or “60 Ladder Types” the annex to the former about the number of ladders needed.

The fire connection that I liked best came from Plymouth firefighters who are urging people to practice safe sex this weekend – by remembering where they put the keys to their handcuffs! And it’s not just Cornwall as those West Country people also have advice from Devon and Somerset FRS who say that “the key is to make sure you have an escape plan” – Is that the same key as for the handcuffs?

So I’m dusting down my passport and making sure that the Bristol customs don’t find the cable ties and rope I’ve got in the car for a trip to the saucy West Country this weekend  and believe it or not my car is Steel Grey in colour so I must be in with a chance of some fun that is if I don’t get tied-up (gedddit) in a jam on the M5. If I drove further north I could use the M50 (again geddidit!) but that could be a bit crowded with people heading to B&Q who have allegedly provided their staff with copies of Fifty Shades of Grey (the libraries will be quiet…) to prepare for an increased demand for ropes and duct tape after the film’s release.  (For those male, 50+ and technically qualified this is the hardware store reference…)

Should of course English fire and rescue services visit B&Q they could be in for a disappointment as the store only stocks about 15 shades of red paint and most of them aren’t suitable for a fire engine!

 

Graham Ellicott, FIA CEO

 

 

 

 

By Graham Ellicott, FIA CEO

The Transfer Window Has Now Closed…

As a West Ham fan of over 50 years standing I sat up the other night hoping for some incoming transfers to provide cover at centre half plus the likelihood of a new striker and just possibly a holding midfielder. As it turned out there were no signings at all allegedly in part due to a lack of co-operation from other clubs. In view of this I was wondering why I’d wasted all of the time associated with this matter. And then I saw the similarity with the fire sector where on many occasions the inability of organisations to co-operate has meant that the greater good has suffered and a lot of time has been frittered away. My mind then wandered across to the possibility of a transfer window for the fire sector and who would we like to sign – below I give you my abstract thoughts …

At centre half how about Dante Alighieri (no he’s not from Lazio or Juventus!) but rather he’s the guy from Inferno (part of the Divine Comedy) and his influence in the dressing room could be great as anybody that can find their way through hell should have no problem with the fire sector and indeed his knowledge of fire systems should be immense. Also he’s associated with the immortal phrase  “Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch’intrate”  (not the Roma equivalent of “I’m Forever Bowing Bubbles”!)  which I now know translates into  “Abandon all hope, ye who enter here” – I’m sure I’ve seen this chiselled into the wall outside of most of the fire meetings that I’ve participated in over the last decade or so – if only my Latin had been better all those years ago I could have saved a lot of time…

Moving on to a striker for the fire world somebody that can bang in the goals is sorely needed – a single minded individual who can rise above the political quagmire and drive home that ball. Looking around I don’t see any possibilities here currently  in the real world and thus perhaps we should head for Melchester and sign up Roy Race – that’s right Roy of the Rovers!  Melchester didn’t suffer mid table obscurity and life was always exciting for their fans – we certainly need some extra colour and verve in the fire world and some new blood could bring this even if we have to use artistic licence to sign it up!

For anybody that has ever dealt with a Government Department then they’ll know that they’re the best place to find a holding midfielder – some of the stuff that we talk to them about now has been ongoing for years and their ability to hold the ball and then kick it into the long grass has to be seen to be believed!  This means that serious problems that require a remedy never get dealt with – so much so that the European Government equivalent of UEFA sometimes has to get involved to help find the ball!

But what about outgoing transfers and the reasoning behind them? Well apart from the long overdue departure of myself from the this fascinating game we call the fire sector – in my opinion there’s a whole load of people that would be better off hanging up their boots or heading for the lower leagues. But to go further could be libellous …

And for those of you that want to enter the fire sector you might want to remember Dante’s phrase namely “Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch’intrate”  before you consider your options prior to the opening of the next Transfer Window!

 

By Graham Ellicott, FIA CEO

This year’s AGM & Lunch was the best one so far!

Without having seen the official feedback results yet, the people I have spoken to so far have said this year’s AGM & Lunch was possibly the best one so far !

We have stuck to an event formula which is tried and trusted. We have a two hour AGM followed by a drinks reception and a then a lunch which includes a few awards and an after lunch speaker. We have learnt that the speaker is the most important part for a successful event and that they need to be funny !

Christine Hamilton brought her husband Neil (the man who lost the 5th safest seat in the land !) as support as she was recovering from ankle surgery and it was interesting to see his face as she laid into him with some of her jokes. Whilst not up to Charles Brandreth standard the ‘wife from hell’ gave an interesting insight into life behind the scenes. I think Christine was a bit like Christmas, the build-up and intrigue are probably the best bit, whilst the day itself is good but does not quite live up to the hype.

Phil Toase our ‘Maurice Bean Memorial, Life Time Achievement within the Fire Safety profession’ award winner graciously accepted his award and told us that now he is fully retired he could tell exactly what he thinks, and that fire brigades should not be charging and trading and that third party certification is the way forward. This is just what we wanted to hear and we didn’t even need to twist his arm. Whilst Bob Choppen’s honorary membership award will be presented at next year’s event as our award winner was unable to bet here on the day, we were delighted to recognise Frank Fitch’s contribution as one of UK’s leading foam experts, with honorary membership. Frank whilst almost fully retired still represents the UK on CEN (European) standards committee.

Phil Toase

The venue is one of the things in the formula that we like to change but we have now exhausted the locations that are affordable and can house the large number for a drinks reception and lunch and accommodate the AGM for approximately 120. We have been at 8 Northumberland before. It is the most central London venue of its type and therefore works well for travel but it is tight to fit us all in. Next year we are at the much larger ‘Brewery’, another venue we have been to before.

We used a lot of info graphics in both the Annual report and the AGM presentations this year. They also seem to have gone down well and are great to use as slides rather than getting stuck with text, and for the second year running we used video interviews to break up the format. It was strange to have Colin Todd sat next to me whilst we sat watching him on the big screen. To be fair Colin is great at presenting, being interviewed live or via video but at least by video I can keep him to time !

Our Chairman, Mr Harvey, does a very good job at hosting and is so easy going that I tend to forgive him when he goes off script. A script that is very carefully worded and has many hours spent on it !  He makes the interviews run smoothly and we were bang on time this year.

 

There were some major constitutional changes agreed. We introduced a new affiliate membership which we will roll out in the new year. This aims to bring us closer with some of the key stakeholders by bringing them into the fold. We split membership categories ‘C’ and ‘E1’ to help level out the turnover banding which relates to turnover and clarified what turnover is counted. Those that are affected by the changes in category will see a saving whilst all others stay at the same rate that was set in 2007. The Chairman also announced that we plan to hold the subscription rates for another 5 years, barring the usual caveats and massive inflation !

We introduced a ‘suggestion box’ on the dining tables this year and promised a bottle of champagne for the best suggestion. With 31 entries which is 8.6% of those attending it was worth doing and we now have a selection headache. The first review of the suggestions was interesting with many relating to activities or positions we have or are currently working on. This tells us we need to communicate more and we may drip feed these into focus messages over the coming months. Some of the suggestions included an FIA mascot (a man sized costumed version that the General Manager has to wear on stage) and releasing an FIA single, a cover of YMCA ‘it’s fun to work at the F – F I A. Let’s just say, those two suggest that the writer probably does not need the bubbly !

Roll on 11^th November 2015 when we will do it all over again.

 

By Martin Duggan, FIA General Manager

Scottish Parliament Debates Fire Risk Assessment

Michael McMahon, Labour MSP for Uddingston and Bellshill launched a debate in the Scottish Parliament on Wednesday 29 October 2014 on the topic of Fire Risk Assessment. See Scottish Parliament

Michael led by discussing the Rosepark Care Home fire in 2004 and went on to consider fire safety in all non-domestic premises. FIA fully support Michael’s key points:

• The Scottish Government must lead and co-ordinate an awareness campaign among businesses about the requirement to have a fire risk assessment.
• The Scottish Government must embrace and advocate Third Party Certification.
• Scottish ministers should consult industry and stakeholders on making Third Party Certification mandatory for commercial fire risk assessors.

MichaelMcMahon

Several speakers contributed to the debate but all concentrated on care homes and failed to recognise Michael’s broader points.

Roseanna Cunningham, SNP MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife mentioned ‘The regulatory review group’, an independent group that advises the Scottish Government on business regulatory matters, was looking at non-domestic fire safety legislation and was due to report in spring 2015. She undertook to write to the group after the debate and ask it to look specifically at the issue of the competency of risk assessors as part of its review.

FIA is delighted with this move and would be pleased to assist the group’s deliberations.

 

By Phil Martin, FIA Technical Manager

The Conclusion from the Latest FIA Market Conditions Review – Join Us and Get More Orders!

Growth in the fire sector continues with more survey respondents continuing to report increases in invitations to tender and enquires. Over the last six months, tender prices in general have stayed at the same level as before, whereas supplier prices have continued to rise, thus gross profit are continuing to fall.

Market Condition Review

Some of the growth being experienced is being met by new companies coming into the fire sector, eg. from the security industry.

It’s heartening to see Third Party Certification still high on the agenda; this is down to the hard work of the trade associations in fire (including the FIA) plus that of the certification companies and organisations.

It’s also very encouraging to see that in the six months since the last Market Conditions Review that FIA member companies received nearly 40% more orders that non-members companies.

To people reading this blog I’d like to finish by saying join the FIA! We’ve trebled in size since our formation in 2007 so you’d be among good company!

Download Market Condition Review>>

By Graham Ellicott, FIA CEO

So Where is the Government Going With Fire?

A better question to ask might be which Government Department will have the most impact on the future of fire?  The answer should be simple as the Department for Communities and Local Government has the remit for the English Fire and Rescue Services with the other devolved administrations looking after their own Fire and Rescue Services.

However in addition to DCLG the Home Office via the Home Secretary is also seemingly beginning to offer a view on the future of the Fire and Rescue Service. In particular Theresa May commented in September that the need for further spending cuts will necessitate the future integration of the police, fire and ambulance emergency services.

And it’s not just the Home Office that has a view on fire; the Cabinet Office has also had its input here via its Mutual’s Initiative. Indeed the Cabinet Office has ‘put its money where its mouth is’ by  providing Cleveland Fire Brigade with £95,000 backing from the £10 million Mutual Support Programme so that it can get “specialist business expertise to move the plan for Britain’s first ‘John Lewis style’ Fire Brigade a step closer to reality.”

Moving right along there’s yet another Government Department that has a say in fire and that’s the Department for Business Innovation and Skills who are responsible for Primary Authority Schemes that now include fire. These schemes were designed to create business investment in growth by developing confidence that regulators in different local authority areas would not place competing demands on a business which in turn could impose extra financial burdens on it.

The question I keep asking myself is do all these different Departments need to be involved, indeed do they talk to each other – joined up Government?

The next election is looming and once the result is known there could be even more changes, my bet is even more Departments will become involved and I’m polishing up my John Lewis Card just in case the commercial sector takes over – free coffee every time I cycle to a Waitrose could become call by your fire station for burger and chips…

Graham Ellicott, FIA CEO

 

 

 By Graham Ellicott, FIA CEO

Everything you wanted to know about CIE and VAD but were afraid to ask

Preparing for the seminar at FIA FIM Expo in the Titanic Centre, Belfast and looking at the empty seats I’m getting that sinking feeling (sorry I couldn’t resist J).

But soon the seminar area is bustling, all the chairs are taken and people are standing round the edges, we have a keen attentive audience. Which is just as well because the subject is rather dry and sometimes controversial!

The intension was to share some of the FIA guidance on two tricky issues; better understanding of “options with requirements”, (OwR) as required under EN 54-2, the harmonised standard for control and indicating equipment, (CIE). We also covered the need for visual alarm devices, (VAD) to meet EN 54-23 and when such devices should be specified.

The FIA already have available several documents that cover these topics and these can be found along with a copy of my presentation on the FIA web site.

After explaining the meaning of some of the TLA’s we looked at the matrix of legislation, standards and proof of compliance. An important point here is that is not possible for a manufacturer to demonstrate compliance with the system installation standard BS 5839-1, test bodies are only able to test products to show conformance with the applicable product standard.

We looked at an example of a manufacturers Declaration of Performance, (DoP) and discussed that the manufacturers product manual may be the best source for determining which OwR a particular product is able to provide. But first a specifier must know which OwR are applicable to a particular project. So we then looked at the selection of OwR in EN 54-2 and I explained how some of these options are only required in other European countries and are not utilised in the UK.

I also explained which OwR are required to fulfil some of the recommendations of BS 5839-1. What is actually required for a particular site will depend on the fire risk assessment and the emergency evacuation procedures for the building. BS 5839-1 also includes some particular requirements for products and these were further explained.

Finally we moved onto a discussion of VAD’s. If the need for a VAD is identified in the fire risk assessment for a building then those devices must comply with EN 54-23. BS 5839-1 clearly calls for VAD’s when there is a noisy environment and people may be wearing ear defenders. But the fire risk assessment must define a strategy to ensure deaf & hard of hearing will be notified of a fire alarm. VAD are one tool to achieve this but tactile devices or LF sound may also be used.

 

There were 87 delegates and 17 exhibitors at the event. There was a lively debate with plenty of questions from both manufacturers and installers but I think that we all enjoyed the interaction and the chance to clarify some of the issues. Some questions raised will be fed back into our work groups and the FIA will continue to work to improve standards and regulations to improve the effectiveness of fire detection and alarm systems.

So if you regret missing this opportunity and would like to keep informed on the FIM Expo what kind of seminar we will be providing, why not follow us on twitter @FIM_Expo

 

By Graham Simons, FIA Technical Manager

7 Digital Tools to Help Every Business

The whole digital marketing/social media/measurement thing takes time if you’re going to do them right – it’s one of the biggest things I hear people complaining about. But there are some excellent tools out there to make it a bit easier and also some quick wins you can do to increase your business exposure to customers.

So here’s a few digital marketer secrets!

Google is your friend – sign up for a Google account and you can set up the following:

1. Google Analytics
http://www.google.com/analytics

If you have a website you should be monitoring it; you can learn a lot about what marketing is working and who your customers are. All open source website platforms have some analytics offering but Google is king. Set it up right and you can monitor what channels are generating your web visits (social media, email, online adverts etc.)

You can also see what pages people are looking at, how long they stay, whether they’re on mobile, tablet or desktop. And all this can inform the rest of your marketing/digital strategy.

2. Google My Business
http://www.google.co.uk/business

What was called Google Places has been rebranded as Google My Business. You know when you search for something on Google and businesses in the area are shown on a map in your search results? That’s Google My Business. Sign up (it’s free) and you have an instant online sign post!

3. Google AdWords
http://www.google.com/adwords

There are two elements to search engine (Google, Yahoo, Bing etc.) marketing – search engine optimisation (getting your site on page one of the main area of search results), and paid search (the adverts that appear at the top and on the right in Google).

Google AdWords is Google’s paid search facility (Yahoo and Bing both have their own also). You can spend as little or as much as you want – that’s the beauty for small businesses. You set the budget! You may also hear this called Pay Per Click (PPC) – it’s the same thing.

The other good thing is that you can connect your AdWords to your Analytics account and see what keywords are most effective at driving customers to your site.

4. Google URL Builder
https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/1033867

If you do any online advertising (AdWords aside) you should be making sure the URL that accompanies the adverts can be tracked by Google Analytics – that way you can see how successful the advert is at driving traffic to your website and whether you should continue doing it, do less or do more.

This cool tool creates the unique URL for you.

Non-Google offerings include:
5. Hootsuite
http://www.hootsuite.com

Struggling to manage your various social media accounts? Hootsuite is one of a number of social media management platforms that can help.

You can create dashboards for each platform (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, WordPress etc.) and set up ‘streams’ for all the things you want to see for each of those platforms. For example new followers, mentions, comments, replies, mentions of keywords.

You can also schedule tweets so you don’t have to always be at the computer or on your mobile when you want to send the tweet. Cool huh.

6. Klout
http://www.klout.com

If you ‘do’ social media you want to understand if all the effort is worth it. But how do you measure it? One way is with Klout, which measure your social media influence. You can link various platforms to it and track how your score goes up when people interact with you. It also goes down when you go on holiday without scheduling tweets!

7. Qwitter
http://www.useqwitter.com

Why would you want to know who’d unfollowed you on Twitter? Because it can give you an insight into who is finding you interesting (or not) and help you tailor what you say. If you post something and a load of people instantly unfollow, you know you’ve said something wrong!

It can also reveal people who have only followed you to get you to follow them (which is Twitter etiquette). If you keep an eye on this you can unfollow them if they are not appropriate to your business.

 

By Becky Reid, FIA Marketing Manager

Sam’s Job Could Be Under Threat!

For those sad enough amongst you to have read my ‘witterings’ in the past you may remember my daughter, she of the vegetarian lifestyle –  as a student she was known to be able to spear a spring roll or to bring down a falafel burger that was in full flight across the veldt of the Junior Common Room. Well she’s now grown up – well as grown-up as any Ellicott ever gets to be. In my opinion being an adult isn’t all it’s ‘cracked-up’ to be with mortgages, jobs and the like, far better to be a child out riding a mountain bike than a harassed middle manager any day!

But I digress so back to my daughter with being grown up comes an important job (well she’s a teacher which is far more important for the wellbeing of mankind than anything I’ve ever done) and with that comes a salary. Her earnings aren’t as high as they should be in my opinion especially as she’s moulding the future resource of the UK namely the people! But this salary means access to the consumer society especially the purchase of clothes and shoes online. This fuelling of the UK’s economy has opened my eyes to a whole new gamut of people and jobs. In particular all of the boxes of shoes ‘won’ from internet have to be distributed and that means eventual delivery to Ellicott Towers. And now I’ve made a whole new load of friends and one of them is Sam who drives a van that delivers for Asos as well as for several other suppliers of apparel. Sam’s ‘colleagues’ send me an e-mail telling me when he’s likely to appear and there’s also an App which shows me where he is prior to his visit to ET. He seems to have the best part of a hundred deliveries a day to make – yes I know that’s lot of shoes but there seems to be an endless need for them as I don’t think that people clean them anymore let alone get them repaired… I remember Kiwi shoe polish!

 

But Sam’s future is now in doubt due to a fire at Asos’s warehouse in Barnsley where about 20% of its stock was destroyed. The fire broke out at about 10pm last Friday and this meant that Asos stopped taking orders over the weekend. The police have stated that the incident is being treated as arson and the fire service had more than 60 firefighters to tackle the blaze which led to approximately 500 people being evacuated from the five-storey building.

 

This graphic illustration of the effects of fire on business and its knock on downstream should serve as a wake-up call to all those businesses that don’t take fire seriously. In Asos’s case the fire also caused their share price to drop initially by nearly 1% so not only was stock destroyed, a building damaged but the company’s balance sheet also took an initial hit. And looking further downstream people like Sam have had their livelihoods put at stake.

 

So there’s a simple question to ask yourselves if you run a business and that is ‘When did you last consider the threat of fire?’ Well if you haven’t asked it recently then you should revisit all of your fire precautions immediately!

 

It’s now five minutes before Sam is due so I need to put the kettle on and get out the Club biscuits to make sure that he’s got enough stamina to deliver the rest of the vanload of shoes, but there’s no peace for the wicked as Jane who delivers all things Next for my wife is due in forty five minutes and she’s a Wagon Wheel and coffee person…

 

 By Graham Ellicott, FIA CEO