Amendments to the Fire Protection Association’s Joint Code of Practice highlight several topical areas of risk that construction projects must assess and remove. Sadie Rice, an associate in Gateley Legal’s Regulatory & Business Defence team, discusses the amendments and what construction project stakeholders should do next
Tomas Ceida was reportedly asleep in the Greenwich-based club in which he worked when the fire started that would sadly claim his life.
According to the Inquest, working conditions during the installation of a new glass ceiling, including an acoustic wall compacted with straw or hay and unsafe hot works, caused the deadly blaze.
The Coroner, however, also noted systemic issues in the communication of roles, fire alerts, evacuation procedures, and documentation, all of which contributed to 28-year-old Tomas’s tragic death on 9 August 2016.
Avoiding such tragedies is precisely why all stakeholders in the construction industry work to the principles within the Joint Code, which also feature in the HSE’s own guidance on managing fire risk in construction.
‘The majority of fires can be prevented by designing out risks’
“The majority of fires can be prevented by designing out risks, taking simple precautions, and by adopting safe working practices,” the Joint Code of Practice states.
“All parties involved must work together to ensure that adequate detection and prevention measures are incorporated during design and contract planning stages; and that the work on site is undertaken to the highest standard of fire safety, thereby affording the maximum level of protection to the building and its occupants.”
Recent years, however, have seen a significant change in the legislation and standards concerning construction sites, as well as greater use of modern methods and technologies, especially in the post-Grenfell higher-risk building arena.
As a result, changes to the Joint Code of Practice have come thick and fast, with the tenth edition amended further in last January to reflect current legislation.
While not introducing significant additional changes to expectations or guidance, these amendments highlight specific areas of concern for construction.
It is, therefore, important that they are reviewed within the wider context of the Joint Code of Practice and, where possible, incorporated into existing risk assessments and on-site procedures.
Designing out the material risk
Removing, reducing, or mitigating risk during the concept and design phases of a construction project is nothing new. “During the design stage,” the Joint Code of Practice says, “issues may arise which can impact on fire risk during construction and use when complete.”
The Joint Code of Practice gives several examples, such as the passage of smoke and flames through a building, the design of access and evacuation routes, and the implementation of functional alarm systems.
Designers, clients, and contractors are all required to cooperate to “identify and eliminate hazards and reduce likely risk from hazards where elimination is not reasonably practicable,” an expectation that is reflected in the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015, which stipulate that a designer must “take into account the general principles of prevention and any pre-construction information to eliminate, so far as is reasonably practicable, foreseeable risks to the health or safety of any person”.
These same principles are visible in the Building Safety Act, especially regarding higher-risk buildings.
Version ten of the Joint Code of Practice expands on the concept of designing out risk to emphasise the importance of choosing the correct and safest materials at this stage. This is largely due to the 2018 ban on the use of combustible materials in, and on, the external walls of those higher risk buildings, including new apartment blocks, hospitals, residential care premises, and student accommodation.
The Government is currently consulting on extending this ban to include hotels, hostels, and boarding houses, following recommendations by the Royal Institute of British Architects.
While not directly affecting all construction projects, the 2018 ban is a strong indicator of the trend towards a more critical choice of building materials, regardless of whether they form part of the complete structure.
According to the Joint Code of Practice: “Particular consideration should be given to reducing the risk presented by all combustible insulating materials, in particular those in cladding systems, green roofing/walling (or similar alternative features) and structurally insulated panels.
This should also include consideration of temporary materials brought onto the site to facilitate work such as non-combustible scaffold boards in place of timber boards in high fire risk areas.”
Applying risk assessment and management to procurement is likely to become an expectation for all projects, with construction suppliers becoming crucial collaborators in designing out risk.
Guidance on temporary structures and accommodation
As noted above, the choice of materials also extends to temporary structures and accommodation, such as scaffolds, prefabricated cabins, site cabins, and sectional buildings.
The guidance on these elements is now detailed and extensive, with all temporary structures erected after 2025 expected to follow the recommendations.
Until then, properly maintained temporary buildings meeting the requirements of the Joint Code of Practice’s ninth edition will be acceptable.
Alongside a greater emphasis on materials used across all elements of a temporary structure, including its floors, walls, roofs, doors, windows, and ventilators, the Code also gives guidance on the layout and placement of such structures.
Further detail can be found in Section 13 of the Joint Code of Practice, but a few key takeaways are the bans on temporary buildings with storeys more than 18m above ground – including the placement of such structures within larger timber-framed structures – and the use of deep fat fryers within any temporary accommodation.
The Joint Code of Practice also states that “temporary building(s) should be separated from the building under construction or refurbishment and other permanent buildings to provide as wide a fire break as reasonably practicable”. This fire break should be at least 6m wide where possible, and free from combustible materials.
Again, it is at the design stage where such requirements can, and should, be accounted for. Site layout should be evaluated at all stages of construction. It is also important to consider how and where structures will expand as work progresses, as this may reduce the width of the fire break.
The benefits of such fire breaks should not be underestimated, as an incident at a hospital in Whitehaven in February 2023 demonstrates.
Although several portable buildings at the site of a multi-million-pound redevelopment were badly damaged during a fire, their distance from the hospital’s main entrance meant that people were able to visit A&E as normal.
Modern methods and technologies come with additional risks
Modern methods and technologies do, of course, enhance the safety of people in and around construction sites, but they also come with additional risks. These risks do not always concern elements such as timber frames or hot works either.
In the drive for net-zero, for example, modern, low-emission technologies can also present additional risks when incorporated into construction sites, with the Joint Code of Practice giving electric vehicles, lithium-ion batteries, and charging facilities as three key examples.
While the tenth edition of the Joint Code of Practice does not negate or contradict previous ones, and is not obligatory, it is important that all construction project stakeholders engage with and incorporate the recommendations in the latest version, not least because it is likely to be seen as the benchmark for what is considered reasonably practicable by the HSE when looking at enforcement. This is the best way to ensure that a site has identified, and accounted for, all elements of risk – both new and old.
Where guidance concerns areas that are less understood or commonplace, construction project stakeholders should consult health and fire safety experts to ensure that they fully understand the Joint Code of Practice’s recommendations and how to best apply them to the site’s specific requirements.
Awareness of fire safety and risk is more important than ever
As the Joint Code of Practice’s introduction reiterates, awareness of fire safety and risk management is more important than ever. “Every year, there are numerous major fires on construction sites and in buildings undergoing refurbishment,” it says.
“All have serious consequences: people are killed and injured; buildings, including those of historic interest, are destroyed. Plant and equipment are damaged, work is held up and completion dates are not met.”
Despite these consequences, there is some concern that obligations around fire safety are not completely understood, with the Coroner in the Tomas Ceida tragedy even going so far as to state that this lack of awareness “may be a risk to future deaths”.
Engaging with the Joint Code of Practice, in collaboration with health and fire safety specialists, is the best way to ensure all construction stakeholders understand their obligations and design their construction sites around fire safety before the groundwork even begins.
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