Last year Euralarm’s Task Group Domestic Life Safety was reactivated and started its work on the issue of fire safety in the domestic environment. We hear more from Euralarm about why this initiative was brought back.
The Task Group resumed its work as in addition to ‘5,000 deaths per year’ due to residential fires, ‘more than 2.7 million’ people end up in emergency rooms where fire is the cause. Apart from fires, people are also exposed to other risks in their homes. Carbon monoxide poisoning from malfunctioning burners in boilers is one example.
Also, in recent years homes are increasingly becoming ‘intelligent’ due to the emergence of new technology. They have become homes in which fires are ‘spreading ever faster’.
According to Euralarm, research has shown that three decades ago, residents had 17 minutes to escape their homes in the event of a fire. Because today’s homes and the furniture in them burn faster, that escape time is now only a few minutes. The theme of this month’s European Fire Safety Week was the ‘Renovation Wave’ to realise a climate-neutral building stock, and it’s of ‘utmost importance’ for Euralarm that fire safety measures are integrated within the directives guiding the Renovation Wave.
To properly ensure the domestic life safety, be it fire safety or protection against CO poisoning, it is necessary to have a good overview of all related standards. Thorsten Teichert, chair of the Task Group said: “Over the past year we have fully updated the database with information about standards, legislation, national application guidelines and statistical data about residential buildings. The database now covers all EU member states as well as the EEA states (Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway) and other affiliated or associated states, like Switzerland and the UK. The database is not only targeted at smoke alarm but also on CO alarms. That makes it more difficult because quite some countries don’t have data available on this. There are even data available on the causes of domestic fires in the Nordic countries. These data could also become part of the database but that would require an extension of the database. A decision on whether or how intensively we will look at the statistics on fires and fire injuries and fire deaths in 2023 has not yet been made.”
The major challenge now is the diversity of the available data, Teichert continued: “One year ago, we started with gathering data and updating the database. Thanks to the work that everybody has done and the collaboration between all group members, we have succeeded in that. We now have to decide what our next steps will be and if we are able to make that step considering the time that our members have available.”
After supporting the European Fire Safety Week, Teichert added: “Both the European Fire Safety Alliance and the Task Group Domestic Life Safety are involved in raising the awareness on the topic of fire safety and influencing stakeholders to make the right decisions when it comes to legislation.”
EBOOK: Lessons from FIREX 2023 – Emerging challenges in fire safety
Read our FREE eBook, which provides a summary of the key debates and presentations that took place at FIREX 2023 in May, alongside additional exclusive content for readers.
Chapters cover new fire safety construction guidance, how to mitigate the risk of lithium-ion battery fires, and evacuation planning. There's also exclusive insight into the resident's view of the building safety crisis, and how the fire safety and sustainability agendas can work together.
