Fire Authority urges housing industry to reap the benefits of being "Safer with Sprinklers

Citation

(2008), "Fire Authority urges housing industry to reap the benefits of being "Safer with Sprinklers", Structural Survey, Vol. 26 No. 5. https://doi.org/10.1108/ss.2008.11026eab.002

Fire Authority urges housing industry to reap the benefits of being "Safer with Sprinklers"

Article Type: Newsbriefs From: Structural Survey, Volume 26, Issue 5

Keywords: Dwellings, Fire risk, Sprinklers

Kent Fire and Rescue Service’s initiative to ensure sprinklers are installed in the homes of vulnerable people offers benefits to all – safer communities, design freedoms and even funding. The “Safer with Sprinklers” campaign in Kent and Medway aims to promote sprinklers not only to improve personal safety, but also to ensure they are offered at the design stage and considered as a selling point by property owners in the future. The initiative aims to dispel myths such as “they go off accidentally”, “are too expensive” and other negative perceptions identified in recent research undertaken by an independent market research company. Steve Griffiths, Kent Fire and Rescue Service’s Assistant Director Community Safety said: “Improving the safety of vulnerable people, via the built environment by installing residential sprinklers, is a key objective of Kent Fire and Rescue Service. Our ‘Safer with Sprinklers’ campaign is designed to inform and influence key decision makers to consider the use of sprinkler systems in the homes of vulnerable people and in particular building professionals, who need advising of the design freedoms and flexibilities that could be available.” He added: “We are encouraging all those involved within the building industry to assess and develop the use of sprinkler systems as a way of achieving enhanced safety whilst still obtaining greater design freedoms.”