(Image: Creative Britain)
Inside Housing recently reported that 50 cross-party MPs had sent a letter to Javid criticising plans to revise Approved Document B, which they claimed would create more latitude for using desktop studies in assessing the fire resistance of building materials.
But Javid said the document – the principal document outlining building regulations – does not rule out the practice in its current form anyway. The applicability of desktop studies, he insisted, was simply being clarified.
But Inside Housing noted that 2016 guidance on regulations by cladding manufacturer Booth Muirie said desktop studies were “not supported by [Approved Document] B”.
Implied in its name, a desktop study does not involve testing materials for fire resistance under lab conditions. Instead, the material’s fire resistance is gauged by extrapolating data from previous tests of similar materials or the same material under similar conditions.
Find out more on Inside Housing
An investigation by consumer body Which? has concluded that 250 fridges and freezers available in major retailers are “potentially unsafe”.
The consumer body found that the backing material on the fridges, freezers and fridge-freezers in question – almost half of the total products tested – was made of an unsafe plastic that posed a fire risk.
The organisation demanded that retailers immediately stop selling the models in question.
Which? said “a lack of government action” had prompted it to release the findings now.
A Sussex hospice has been handed a £250,000 fine after pleading guilty to fire safety breaches.
The breaches were uncovered following a fire at St Michael’s Hospice in Hastings in 2015.
The deaths of three people who died in the days following the fire will be investigated by a pre-inquest review scheduled for May.
A terminally ill patient from the hospice was charged with arson but died days before the case was due to start.
Read more on the Eastbourne Herald
Three people – including a child – were hospitalised following a blaze at a block of flats in Leeds.
The fire broke out on Tuesday on the eighth floor of Poplar Court flats in Bramley.
A spokesperson for Leeds City Council, which runs the block, said: “As with the national fire strategy for high rise blocks, in Leeds we have standalone alarms in each flat to allow for fires to be contained in the most efficient and safest way possible – as can be demonstrated by the outcome of today. We want to reassure people living in high rise blocks across the city that we have the relevant fire safety mechanisms and checks in place and will monitor and check buildings regularly.”
Find out more on the Yorkshire Evening Post
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.
