Costs of Installing or Neglecting Passive Fire Protection to Form Focus of BRE Research Project

The Association for Specialist Fire Protection (ASFP) is supporting research into the contribution of various types of passive fire protection systems to a building’s overall resilience in the event of a fire.

The project, which will be conducted in collaboration with built-environment education charity BRE Trust, is a response to numerous calls from fire protection professionals for greater recognition of the benefits offered by BREEAM assessment schemes.

A range of factors will be examined, including the cost of installation of fire protection systems in commercial buildings and the overall costs resulting from fires within such buildings, including those arising from environmental impacts, societal impacts, property damage and business interruption.

Data will be collated on the risk of fire specific to different building types and information gathered on the fire protection measures in place in these scenarios.

Here’s a summary of the research project’s key components:

• Types of passive fire protection in widespread use and analysis the different types of product
• Embodied energy, costs etc in producing, delivering, installing and maintaining particular product types
• Environmental impact of fire in terms of damage, carbon dioxide, water run-off/pollution and resulting repair costs
• Social costs such as unemployment, relocation, displacement, family stress
• Fire impact on the product – reinstatement, replacement, demolition etc
• Cost of rebuilding compared with reinstatement, including timescales
• Examples where effective passive fire protection has prevented significant fire spread within a building and to others
• Lifecycle costs of passive fire protection, including realistic life of PFP

The ASFP welcomes contributions to this research project.  For further information about how to contribute, please email ASFP CEO Wilf Butcher on [email protected] before 30 January 2016. 

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