#EUCanBeFireSafe

Help us lobby the EU to make our buildings safer: Fire Safe Europe

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Fire Safe Europe (FSEU) is a broad and unique cross-sectorial alliance of fire experts, fire fighters, European associations, and international companies, including construction manufacturers and material suppliers of insulation, cable, concrete, ceiling, and fire protection equipment. FSEU’s mission is to improve fire safety in buildings for European citizens.
August 31, 2017

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Fire Safe Europe is urging people to sign a petition imploring the EU to take concerted action to remedy shortcomings in building regulations, their enforcement and fire safety practices.

Why is this important?

Fire kills 11 people every day in the European Union (EU). Apart from major tragedies, like the Grenfell Tower fire in London, we don’t often hear about them.

Yet there are 5,000 fire incidents each day in the EU, and they affect communities deeply. Lives are lost, people are injured, jobs, businesses, firefighters, and the environment are affected.

We assume that new buildings are more fire safe, but they are increasingly highly insulated and airtight, with more combustibles, which makes fires grow faster than ever before and become more hazardous. Whereas in the 1950s, it took about 25 minutes for a room to be engulfed in flames, now it takes 3-5 minutes.

Fires affect EU citizens, and you have an opportunity now to ask the EU to improve fire safety in buildings.

Why do we need to act now?

After the Grenfell Tower tragedy, the European Parliament has taken the initiative to start a debate on fire safety in buildings. This debate will happen on Wednesday 13 September 2017: This is your chance to ask for fire safety in buildings to be improved.

Sign today, and help us make our buildings safer for all.

A little more information

We are Fire Safe Europe, a European alliance which aims to raise the profile of fire safety in buildings and we are asking the European Institutions to:

  1. Make changes to ensure that tests to evaluate the performance of facades in a fire are based on real‐life situations where fires can be large scale.
  2. Introduce requirements to test the toxic smoke from construction products, and to label those products with their results so that builders and consumers can make informed choices.
  3. Develop a European Fire Safety Strategy: Many EU policies impact fire safety, a focussed strategy would enable the EU to have a coordinated approach to fire safety in buildings.

Building fires affect people: there are at least 5,000 fire incidents each day in the EU. Each year in Europe, approximately 70,000 people are admitted to hospitals with severe fire‐related injuries. Worldwide, children make up 30% of injuries and fatalities caused by fire. Firefighters are especially heavily impacted.

Building fires affect the environment: Fires cause massive amounts of air pollution. They deplete materials and increase carbon emissions, a major challenge for sustainable resource management.

Building fires have a cost: €126 billion is eaten up by fire damage each year. For European countries, it is 1% of their GDP. Fire can lead to major infrastructure, data and stock loss, less productivity, staff unemployment, and even bankruptcy.

About Fire Safe Europe

Fire Safe Europe (FSEU) is a broad and unique cross-sectorial alliance of fire experts, fire fighters, European associations, and international companies, including construction manufacturers and material suppliers of insulation, cable, concrete, ceiling, and fire protection equipment.

FSEU’s mission is to improve fire safety in buildings for European citizens.

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Claire Benson
Claire Benson
August 31, 2017 4:32 pm

Great to see pressure being exerted to change things for the better. I would add to the important list proposed that one of the most important ways to exert pressure is data.

London Fire Brigade are only able to be as vocal as they are on, for example, product failures because they have an excellent recording system & a data team to identify the trends and hazards to the general public. I’d like to see better data collection across Europe, leading to a louder and better evidenced collective voice for change.