Latest Housing safety Guidance on Fire & CO

A comprehensive new Guide has just been published by Kidde Fyrnetics to help all those involved with housing to understand the latest responsibilities and requirements for protecting occupants from fire or carbon monoxide poisoning. In both areas, there are complex and confusing combinations of standards and national Regulations – sometimes conflicting – which the Guide helps to clarify.

The new 8-page document offers detailed guidance on all aspects of smoke, heat and carbon monoxide alarms, making sense of differing national Building Regulations around the UK and Ireland, British Standard Codes of Practice, the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) and Decent Homes, as well as civil law responsibilities. Intended for all those involved with housing – including RSLs and private landlords, house-builders, developers, architects, surveyors, building control and environmental health officers, and electrical contractors - the Guide is clearly set-out so that the reader can easily identify the various different requirements that apply to particular localities and types of housing.

It also highlights conflicts between different requirements and problems of interpretation. In the case of fire safety, while national building regulations are in place generally claiming to be based on the latest BS Code of Practice, there are major differences in some cases – notably the absence of heat alarms in all Kitchens, where most domestic fires start. Both fire and carbon monoxide poisoning are dealt with in the recently introduced HHSRS, covered in detail in the Guide which focuses on the difficulties faced by inspectors in recognising dangerous faults and hazards excluded from HHSRS as being the tenant’s responsibility. The new 8-page technical guide is available free of charge via kiddefyr@ukgateway.net or on www.smoke-alarms.co.uk
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