3 February 2020

For the first International Conference organised by the Hellenic Institute for the Fire Protection of Structures (ELIPYKA), the Modern Building Alliance will give an overview of EU and national regulatory frameworks. Based on the B.I.O. framework and the 7 layers for fire safety in buildings, this presentation will enhance a reflection on how to fully address fire safety in national and European legislations.

Other important topics to be addressed the conference: performance based design and approaches, Fire Safety Engineering competency, fire tests and protection, …

Information and agenda: https://elipyka.org/en/

31 January 2020

Today, the written answer from the European Commission to the Parliamentary question tabled by MEPs Pernille Weiss, Theresa Griffin and Sean Kelly has been officially published. In its response to MEPs, the European Commission stressed the importance of the role of the Fire Information Exchange Platform and the importance to prevent fires especially via its Recommendations of Building Renovation (Commission Recommendation (EU) 2019/786).

Question

Question for written answer E-003627/2019 to the Commission Rule 138

Theresa Griffin, Seán Kelly, Pernille Weiss

Subject: Fire prevention and detection

Commission recommendation (EU) 2019/786 of 8 May 2019 on building renovation stressed the important role of fire prevention and detection.

The fire safety strategy in buildings is first to prevent fires, and second to avoid exposure to smoke. Residential smoke alarms detect fires as early as possible, give occupants sufficient time to react and have saved thousands of lives. Smoke alarms are Construction Products Regulation (CPR) products and are third-party certified to the EN146042 standard, a requirement for all products in the EU.

Correct installation and maintenance of residential smoke alarms can further improve their performance and specific installation and maintenance requirements exist in six Member States.

Currently, over 4 000 EU citizens die each year in residential fires and over 70 000 sustain smoke inhalation or burn injuries. But less than half of the Member States currently require smoke alarms to be installed in residential buildings.

1. Can the Commission ensure that all EU citizens benefit from smoke alarms?
2. Which technical means are in place to encourage Member States to ensure that alarm installation standards are adhered to?

Reply:

EN E-003627/2019

Answer given by Mr Breton on behalf of the European Commission (30.1.2020)

1. Under the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, fire safety (including fire detection) in buildings falls under exclusive competence of the Member States. This is in line with the subsidiarity principle.
2. Under the regulatory landscape described above the Commission is not in a position to propose legislative initiatives about the installation and use of smoke detection alarms and about their installation.

However, the Commission has found two paths through which it informally promoted fire safety, which encompasses the issue of smoke alarms and their installation:

- In order to facilitate the exchange of experience and the best practices in the area of fire safety the Commission has set up the Fire Information Exchange Platform (FIEP). The participation to FIEP is from Member States’ authorities, construction industry, rescue services and non-governmental oganisations, and it covers almost 100 participants. After the creation of the FIEP (at the end of 2017) it has convened twice as a plenary meeting and three times in smaller more focused compositions (so-called project teams).

- In 2019 the Commission issued a Recommendation on building renovation (Commission Recommendation (EU) 2019/786). The Recommendation emphasises the fact that the renovation of buildings aiming to improve their energy performance could be used as an opportunity to improve the fire safety of the existing building stock at the same time. This could include the installation of smoke alarms and detection equipment.

23 January 2020

Today, the International Fire Safety Standards coalition (IFSS) has launched a public consultation on a set of principles and best practices for fire safety that exist all around the world. This project aims to bring transparency and consistency across the dozens of differing standards being used around the world. The global consultation is open until the 23^rd March.

The Modern Building Alliance, as member of the IFSS, fully supports this initiative. It correlates very well with the 7 layers of fire safety and B.I.O framework we suggested as basis for EU Member States.

“Getting consistency, sharing knowledge and best practices across the world on fire safety resonate with what the European Commission is doing with the Fire Information Exchange Platform. It proofs that the need is real to increase fire safety of buildings. We are proud to support the IFSS who developed draft common principles on fire safety that can be used as a reference around the world. It is essential to ensure that fire safety is correctly considered over the whole life time of any buildings. A focus is therefore also needed on enforcement of regulations and competency of the value chain”

 Quentin de Hults, Executive Chair of the Modern Building Alliance

Additional information:

IFSS has been created by a Standard Setting Committee with 25 independent industry fire safety experts. It pulls together the pockets of fire safety best practice that exist across the globe, considering issues such fire prevention, detection and communication, occupant’s protection, containment and extinguishment at each stage of the property life cycle. The coalition organisations spearheading the standards have already received support from the United Nations.

 IFSS Press Release: https://ifss-coalition.org/news/

Access the consultation: https://consultations.intstandards.org/consult.ti/IFSS/consultationHome