Fire safety, unfortunately, is one of those areas often treated as a ‘tick box’ exercise. Facilities managers ensure boxes are ticked, as and when needed, or as near as damn it and simply forget about it. Despite this rather nonchalant attitude toward fire risk, the importance of being on top of fire safety simply cannot be understated.
When a fire takes hold, whether it’s a small office building or even a large commercial office, the results can be deadly. If this happens, fire dampers are essential when it comes to helping prevent the spread of fire and smoke.
How Do Fire Dampers Help?
Fire dampers are installed within the ducts of heating, ventilation and air-conditioning systems. Upon detecting heat and/or smoke, they automatically close, preventing the fire from spreading further via the ductwork in the building.
It’s for this reason that regular, professional maintenance and testing of fire dampers is so very important. Despite this obvious importance, the lack of fire dampers maintenance during regular commercial cleaning is astounding. Even those that do ‘include’ ventilation ductwork into their planned preventative maintenance, it’s often a mere look over – no more than a visual inspection with little to no testing actually involved.
It’s also worth noting that it’s not uncommon for fire dampers to be poorly installed. Couple this with poor testing regimes and it’s easy to see where it all goes wrong, with faults not being discovered until it’s too late.
”You could find yourself with fines of up to £10,000 as well as two years in prison for the designated person responsible for ensuring the working order of ventilation ducts and fire dampers.
Fire Safety Order 2015 in England and Wales
It’s Not All Intentional
One of the most common reasons that people have claimed to not have their fire dampers tested and adequately cleaned is through the sheer fact that it’s hidden away. The mantra of ‘out of sight, out of mind’ is very much an issue. The fact that it’s also difficult to gain access to and actually rather time consuming are also excuses we’ve heard before.
Thankfully, with Grease Gone, you never need worry about any of these issues again. Our teams of expert commercial ventilation maintenance staff can carry all of this out for you, testing your fire dampers to ensure they’re in full working order while also ensuring you company or premises meets the testing regime stipulated under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety Order 2015 in England and Wales).
By not meeting these requirements, you could find yourself with fines of up to £10,000 as well as two years in prison for the designated person responsible for ensuring the working order of ventilation ducts and fire dampers.
You may even find a prohibition notice is issued, forcing you to shut the building down if your local fire officer is dissatisfied with the level of testing and cleaning, and believes you aren’t complying with the act.
Add to this the fact that your insurance may also be null and void when it comes to accessing claims for any fire damage incurred should the worst happen and the importance of regular fire damper testing in your office building is so very clear.
Contact Grease Gone Today
If you’d like more information on fire damper testing or would like a schedule set in place, please don’t hesitate to contact us today on 020 88663 413. Our team will be on hand to help ensure you’re not only compliant with the law but keeping your staff and business as safe as possible at all times.
