Alan Cox visits the flagship library that just opened in Birmingham, and he is surprised to find a range of fire safety defects.
I visited the new Library of Birmingham on the 6th September 2013 as a member of the public to have a look around the building, which I found to be very impressive.
As a fire and safety consultant, I was also interested in what standard of fire safety protection had been installed in the new GB pound 189 million building. The library was opened on 3rd September amid excitement and scepticism over whether the building was worth the price tag. I was somewhat surprised then at some of the things that I observed, which included:
- Fire doors not closing effectively and some wedged open
- Fire extinguishers poorly sited and holding fire doors open
- Doors opening in the wrong direction
- Final fire exits not indicated
- Misleading and poorly sited fire exit signs
- Fire exits marked “staff only”
- No fire escape graphic plans
- Fire exits controlled by electronic locks without a local release
- Automatic fire doors not closing fully
- Fire Action Notices not completed
Obviously, I am not aware of the fire strategy that was adopted for the building. It is obvious that the building is sprinklered and has automatic fire detection and other measures, but I am a little surprised at these defects. The building has been open for only a few weeks.
Even though I appreciate that this was a major project for the City of Birmingham, I do feel that there has been very little attention given to some of the more fundamental aspects of the scheme. If staff members are having to wedge fire doors open now, and automatic fire doors are not closing correctly, this does not bode well for the future.
In a building like this, I think that understanding and knowing the action to take in the event of a fire or other emergency is critical. When I asked some of the staff about the fire procedure, all they could say was that there was three minutes allowed for the staff to investigate the fire and decide if they needed to evacuate. When I asked where the Fire Action Notices were, they did not know, and they pointed to the Fire Exit Directional signs. When I informed them that this was not what I meant, they gave me a comment card and stated, “Good suggestion.”
Whilst I appreciate that there will have been many authorities involved in this project, I am surprised that it was allowed to open to the public without these items being rectified.
Library of Birmingham Response
The Library of Birmingham have issued a response, as such:
Mr Cox acknowledges in his report that he is not aware of the fire strategy that was adopted for the building.
Both the fire strategy and works on site have been approved by Birmingham City Council’s Building Control team and by West Midlands Fire Service and are designed around a fire engineering approach.
This means that due to the high level of public supervision by library staff it has not been necessary to incorporate some of the fire safety solutions that Mr Cox refers to that might otherwise be required.
Our number one focus is always public safety – at no point have any member of the public been placed at risk, and many of the issues raised by Mr Cox were known and identified, with fire mitigation measures put in place in response.
During our opening week an average of 12,000 people a day visited to the Library. We accept that our implementation may not have been perfect during this exceptionally busy period as in their willingness to allow the public move around the building freely staff allowed a small number of fire doors to be propped open. We recognise that we need to be more diligent in the future, and a communication has been sent to staff reminding them to cease this practice.
We are in the process of applying detailed finishing touches to the signage in some areas and will be improving other signage to incorporate some of the suggestions made in Mr Cox’s report.
2023 Fire Safety eBook – Grab your free copy!
Download the Fire Safety in 2023 eBook, keeping you up to date with the biggest news and prosecution stories from around the industry. Chapters include important updates such as the Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 and an overview of the new British Standard for the digital management of fire safety information.
Plus, we explore the growing risks of lithium-ion battery fires and hear from experts in disability evacuation and social housing.
