Annual report 2019 - Fire Prevention Technology

Development Group: Year in Review 2019 FIRE PREVENTION TECHNOLOGY Development Group

Annual Review 2019 With 2019 behind us, it is time to take a look at the materials the Development Group has put together to improve the quality of fire prevention technology. 2019 was the second year of Development Group activities, and the group’s focus was to increase knowledge and highlight the importance of fire prevention. Material has been produced for both those involved in maintenance and design as well as those who acquire equipment. The development team will continue to keep an eye on future regulatory reforms, in particular those in the maintenance of equipment.

Cooperation between various working groups has also been improved, the aim being to compile more information about fire prevention technology into a website at palontorjuntatekniikka.fi.

The Group will also continue to support research. Launched in 2019, the research project into addressing new technologies in fire prevention will be completed in 2020. The research has already shown that tools for quality control are needed for different parties and that the field as a whole would benefit from more active exchange of information.

In addition to technical solutions, the challenges include attitudes and little to no exchange of multidisciplinary information.

There are still many old-fashioned attitudes to fire prevention in the Finnish construction industry. New options are seen as new opportunities in the construction industry, but at the same time the attitudes to new technology can be apprehensive due to the lack of suitable tools for managing equipment. It could be said that the use of smart fire safety solutions is hindered by numerous human problems.

It is always easier to spot problems than to identify and map areas for development and potential solutions. To take the field further, we must work together. For this reason, multidisciplinary exchange of information is of particular importance, and hopefully in the future, different organisations and parties will be able to engage in dialogue on the solutions found and the stumbling blocks that led to these solutions – after all, learning together and exchanging information make it possible for us to succeed together.

Lauri Lehto Security Specialist SPEK

The Finnish National Rescue Association would like to thank everyone who has participated in its activities for promoting safety!

Participants in 2019 activities include: Finnish National Rescue Association: Lauri Lehto and Ilpo Leino FA: Petri Mero Finnish Safety and Chemicals Agency: Jan Meszka Partnership network: Esko Rantanen Palonilmaisualan yhdistys (Association of the Fire Alarm Sector): Matti Helkamo Sprinkleritekninen yhdistys (Sprinkler Technical Association): Arja Rantala Inspection bodies: Antero Peltomaa Hardware design: Timo Nevalainen Consulting and training activities: Jarmo Alaoja The Fire Prevention Technology Development Group is an expert group coordinated by SPEK (Finnish National Rescue Association), whose members’ common objectives are to promote fire safety and to develop fire safety guidelines, quality and new technical possibilities. The Development Group acts as a party supporting current guidelines and regulations. The Group takes into consideration the factors affecting the lifecycles of fire prevention equipment, the need to improve the implementation of fire extinguishing systems, future hardware trends and the merging of hardware interfaces.

As the technology becomes more advanced, us humans too must be able to assess the changes taking place in our operating environment. Our aim is to consolidate the knowhow and promote cooperation in the field. Exchange of information can help us develop and give us better tools for facing new challenges.

Exchange of information Development Group’s information session on TRIPLA in Pasila, Helsinki The construction site of Tripla is on everyone’s lips in Finland at the moment because of the scale of the project; due to its complexity, the challenges faced by the construction teams working on Tripla have been the first of their kind in Finland.

The new public transport terminal, the railway station, new road transport links and the new shopping centre were opened in October 2019. 2020 will see, among others, the completion of the hotel facilities. During its autumn meeting, the Fire Protection Technology Development Group examined the construction project of Tripla and its challenges. In 2018, the Development Group had visited the construction site to learn more about safety risks on the construction site.

The scale and complexity of the construction site were known from the beginning, but the constantly changing environment turned out to be a massive challenge. Tripla constructors have fortunately managed to maintain a good level of safety, with the exception of locations requiring working at height, which would benefit from more instructions and guidelines on fall arrest systems, access control systems, roll calls and the local and portable firefighting equipment on the construction site.

The construction site of Tripla is well prepared for work at height. Teams which are all committed to an effective safety policy is the key to maintaining an excellent health and safety record. However, even today many constructions sites do not secure an adequate budget and resources for health and safety at the start of the project, forcing health and safety representatives to seek solutions when the work has already started.

There has also been variation in the levels of fire safety standards, but the electronic permit for working with fire has been a significant improvement. However, further resources are needed for granting permits for working with fire.

“Working with fire posed a risk especially at the frame erection phase. Increased risk of fire comes down to human errors, such as the failure to pay attention to your surroundings or to contain any sparks you create. The working with fire application has been a great success once it was tweaked to work in a construction environment”, Erno Martin, Safety Manager for YIT, says.

Health and safety on the construction site and constantly maintaining the required safety standards have been a significant challenge due to the site’s location within a busy area and multinational workforce.

“Following the same rules is the cornerstone of health and safety, but when the deadline is getting closer and closer, you can see people starting to take more risks in different situations. This is why risk management requires everyone to follow the same rules and work together. Contractors must be committed to monitoring health and safety, and overall there is still room for improvement in the attitudes. For this reason, we must improve last-minute risk assessment practices”, Erno Martin says.

The challenges have often been very simple. Cleanliness, accessibility and arranging the necessary lighting contribute to a safe work environment, but maintaining these is not always as easy as you might expect.

Cooperation with the authorities has been smooth and the rescue department has made several field trips to the construction site and inspected it many times. When the opening date was getting closer, the number of safety demonstrations rose sharply. Nearly 15,000 people who have undergone the safety onboarding process have worked on the construction site during the project. Ensuring health and safety has, in other words, required a vast organisation and constant maintenance.

“In terms of fire safety, the biggest challenge is that people don’t tend to understand what’s best for them”, Erno Martin explains. “Emergency exit signs, especially temporary ones, are painted over, moved and removed without a second thought.

Escape routes are blocked. Other obvious risks include cleanliness, scaffolding and ladder safety and the misuse of electrified systems on the construction site. Smoking on the construction site is another major challenge as people tend to take unnecessary risks with it. However, the number of serious incidents and accidents has declined”, Erno Martin says.

“Moreover, the first aid skills of those who have responded to all the accidents and incidents have been excellent”.

SPEK would like to thank Tripla again for organising an event for the experts. We want to give special thanks to YIT Safety Manager Erno Martin for working tirelessly to introduce people to the topic.

Lauri Lehto, Security Specialist, SPEK

Learning about technology During the last Development Group meeting of the year, the group members got to learn more about fire suppression systems for commercial kitchens.

With all its appliances, a commercial kitchen is a massive investment which is expected to work for several years. In restaurants, downtime equals loss of earnings, which means that the total cost of fire damage is higher than the purchase and maintenance costs of a fire suppression system. As such, a fire suppression system is a justified investment.

In the same vein, the health and safety of employees is vital to a profitable business. Uncontrollable fire can easily lead to personal injuries, which can be very severe.

A potential fire risk is a combination of several factors, including too high temperatures of kitchen appliances, highly flammable vegetable oils and fats and the accumulation of grease in hood extractors and ventilation ducts.

Fire risk can also be significantly reduced by ensuring proper service and maintenance of the equipment. Old and faulty kitchen appliances are a risk factor of their own since a fire may also start from an electrical fault. Inadequate cleaning and maintenance of kitchen appliances is another risk factor which is influenced by different work practices and cultures.

Fire suppression systems for commercial kitchens include thermal sensors which react to unusual temperature increases and flames. This triggers the system to turn on automatically to suppress or extinguish the fire. The air intakes and outlets of the ventilation system as well as the kitchen appliances must be configured to turn off if the fire suppression system is activated. In addition, the system may be used to record information about the alarm for example for the fire alarm and the control centre. When configuring a fire suppression system for a commercial kitchen, it is important to keep in mind how the kitchen and system in question are controlled and how the facilities and appliances are maintained and cleaned in order to maintain them in their proper condition and minimise the risks.

ANSUL commercial kitchen suppression solutions were presented to the Development Group by: Tuomas Himanen, Area Sales Manager, Tel: 0400 264 820, email: tuomas.himanen@ytm.fi Manu Alarto, Product Manager, Tel: 050 571 8776, email: manu.alarto@ytm.fi

Tuomas Himanen Area Sales Manager YTM Manu Alarto Product Manager YTM

Support for research projects in 2019 Fire safety consideration and attitudes in modern smart construction Mikko Malaska, Anu Aaltonen and Lauri Lehto

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Spring 2019 saw the completion of this report, which was published in the article series SPEK Puheenvuoroja (SPEK Puheenvuoroja 6)

Putting common knowledge to good use

Research questions

The prevailing themes throughout the entire research project were the challenges related to cooperation and exchange of information. The aspects considered most challenging include the maintenance, use and servicing of both basic and smart systems at different stages of the building lifecycle. There is plenty of expertise in the field, but it does not necessarily reach the critical decision-making stages of projects. Fire safety management especially in larger projects is siloed into different technical systems, and it is not seen as a wider entity. At the moment, factors hindering the modernisation of construction are different ideas about safety as well as old-fashioned attitudes, in which fire safety management is often seen as separate entity.

The research project was based on two core questions:

Objectives The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which parties involved in modern construction projects are aware of the requirements of fire safety and the utilisation of advanced technical and functional solutions. Another goal was to examine the expectations of different parties regarding aspects such as the available information, training and areas for improvement. Finally, the research project was hoped to increase fire safety awareness among construction decision makers (developers, providers of funds, owners) on areas such as identifying different solutions and options and assessing the technical and financial impacts of these solutions during building lifecycle. The results can be used to make decisions about future research and training activities and to target technical solutions at the areas where they are needed the most.

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How is fire safety taken into consideration in planned smart construction projects and construction projects involving work at height?

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What are the key challenges in realising the potential of new technologies?

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The core questions were specified with questions to encourage the participants to think about the topic before the actual interview:

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How could fire safety management benefit from new technologies?

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What hinders the introduction of technologies in fire safety management?

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Are all parties to large projects aware of the needs and possibilities

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of the development of fire safety?

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How can you get project parties that make decisions and execute the plans to identify and understand the potential and cost effectiveness factors related to fire safety management?

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What kind of information or tools are needed to support the planning and execution of fire safety management?

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Who would benefit from this information and how should it be conveyed to them?

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Could fire safety management be sold as a service instead of a collection of individual technical solutions?

Research project by the University of Tampere and SPEK Research project by the University of Tampere and SPEK: Uusien teknologioiden sovellus- ja käyttömahdollisuudet älyrakentamisen paloturvallisuudessa (The potential of new technologies in fire safety management of smart construction projects) Thesis worker, Janne Mäkelä, University of Tampere

The potential of new technologies in fire safety management of smart construction projects Smart building technologies are being developed at a fast pace. How should fire safety be taken into consideration in this process? What needs to be taken into account in smart building projects to keep the entire project under control?

University of Tampere and The Finnish National Rescue Association have launched a joint research project to provide solutions to these challenges. This project continues from where previous study Fire safety consideration and attitudes in modern smart construction left off.

Technology can increase fire safety in smart construction Smart construction refers to the installation of automated systems in buildings to facilitate monitoring of functions, collecting data and adjusting the functions accordingly.

The goal is for fire safety systems to become fully integrated into this configuration. This would allow house owners and property managers to monitor building data essential to fire safety as well as the status of the fire safety management system using a single platform.

This data can be used to improve safety by anticipating and preventing fires, creating an overview of the emergency situation to help rescue services in evacuation and fire extinguishing efforts and making it easier to maintain and update the equipment and systems.

A lot of new things to learn The research team has been joined by a thesis worker. At this stage of the project, his duties include reading and gathering information about the topic, mapping existing fire management systems and analysing interview notes.

“Smart construction and fire safety management are both full of plenty of new things for me, so I’ve spent a lot of time learning new information”, thesis worker Janne Mäkelä says. Despite the massive amounts of information needed to be processed, work on the project is progressing smoothly.

At the moment the project is divided into three key areas, the first of which explores the potential of new technologies. The second provides a deeper look into integrated system configurations, while the third area examines smart construction project processes and the areas for improvement therein.

Important areas for improvement can be the construction process, clarifying the division of responsibilities during the lifecycle and raising awareness about the key aspects of system integration. New approaches and attitudes are needed to reach the potential of smart construction.

Making progress The research team is getting a clearer overview of problems and areas for improvement on the basis of the interviews they have conducted. More interviews are scheduled in the future with representatives of for example development organisations, system suppliers, designers, construction supervision authorities and rescue services.

The research project is scheduled to be completed in spring 2020, and it is funded by the Fire Protection Fund (Palosuojelurahasto).

Guidelines published in 2019

What does fire protection technology mean? Fire protection technology terms in plain Finnish

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The purpose of these guidelines is to highlight the importance of fire protection technology in everyday property and safety management. With proper fire protection technology, the operations of a property never come to a stop.

With advanced technologies and changes in the environment, different terms for equipment technologies have emerged in spoken Finnish. Regulations concerning fire protection technology feature different definitions which will not be replaced by these guidelines. Instead, the purpose of the guidelines is to present the functions and principles of fire protection technologies as separate entities in plain Finnish.

Improving fire safety in schools

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Teachers and pupils have the right to a safe working and learning environment. Incidents involving risks to personal safety in schools and other learning institutions in the past few years have highlighted the need to develop risk management practices in schools, improve the safety of schools and to implement proper safety culture in schools.

Head teachers and other teaching staff members play a key role in fire safety management of schools, but they cannot do it alone. It is important that schools can anticipate and prepare for risks and that teachers and pupils know what to do in an event of fire.

School buildings serve a wide range of purposes, which needs to be taken into account in safety planning. Fire safety management should never be ignored as a part of safety planning. Fire safety management in schools also requires proper fire protection technologies and properly maintained firefighting equipment, and this is where people play a key role.

A fire is always dangerous and can result in personal injuries and a temporary shutdown of activities in addition to loss of property. Schools should recognise the potential of proper fire protection technology to provide extra time which allows staff to put out smaller fires and evacuate those who are at a direct risk of being affected by the fire.

Improving fire safety in churches – proactive fire prevention

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Churches are an integral part of Finnish history and represent some of the most unique and historically significant buildings in Finland. The objects kept in churches are also unique and culturally irreplaceable. Threats to churches must be carefully considered in safety planning.

Several fire hazards and fires occur in churches each year, with nearly half of them being caused by human activity.

Damage caused by fires can be irreplaceable, and in the worst case, a fire can destroy an entire church along with all of its contents.

Safety solutions must always be based on site-specific evaluations. There are various implemented solutions which depend on regional factors. Each church should be examined individually as a whole, taking into account aesthetic, technical and financial considerations. A comprehensive and effective fire safety solution consists of several components, including various technical solutions, structural fire safety, overall cleanliness, proactive human activities and cooperation with rescue services.

Technical guidelines

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Guidelines published by the Fire Prevention Technology Development Group and the materials contained therein are informative general-purpose models which provide information different organisations need.

The purpose of the guidelines is to provide information; they are not intended to replace existing standards, regulations or other industry-specific rules, the requirements of which fire protection equipment and the maintenance of the equipment must meet.

It is essential that fire protection equipment is properly installed and planned so that, if necessary, is also functions as planned. The planning of fire protection systems must be based on the principle that the equipment supplier presents the planning principles in the initial equipment specifications. The planning must first take into account the requirements laid down in different regulations and standards. In addition to national regulations, Finland complies with European standards, based on which the planning must be done. When designing a fire protection system, the latest version of each standard must be observed.

The design and installation of equipment must take into account the intended use of the equipment and its compatibility with any other systems that may interact with the equipment. A 2019 publication: Dieselpumpun korvaus sähkökäyttöisellä pumpulla (Toimintamallin toteutus 2019) (Replacing a diesel pump with an electric pump, Implementation of a practice 2019)

Working together to achieve better quality

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In the future, central library for materials about fire prevention technology and improving fire prevention equipment will be found at palontorjuntatekniikka.fi. The library will also contain the publications of the regulatory interpretation working group of inspection bodies and the fire alarm recommendation working group.

The purpose of the activities of the regulatory interpretation working group of inspection bodies and its regulatory interpretations is to harmonise the interpretations of regulations concerning firefighting equipment and to increase cooperation between inspection bodies. The Development Group’s website also contains instructional guidelines created by the Development Group as well as publications of the fire alarm recommendation working group.

Bulletins released in 2019

Faults in automatic extinguishing systems are very rare

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News about damage caused by automatic extinguishing systems broke in early 2019 when water damage to the Kuopio Theatre was suspected to have been caused by a malfunctioning sprinkler nozzle. Automatic fire extinguishing systems have proven very reliable in events of fire. A sprinkler extinguishes a fire for a fraction of the amount of water that a fire brigade has to use at non-sprinkler sites. In addition, the risk of a water damage is very small. The risk of leakage caused by an equipment failure is one case per 16 million nozzles per year.

What is fire prevention equipment needed for?

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On average, it takes about 17–18 minutes for rescue departments to arrive at the scene from the start of a fire.

These minutes are crucial in evacuating people, suppressing small fires and, consequently, for the continuation of a company’s operations. Firefighting equipment provides valuable time to act during the most critical minutes of a fire and helps suppress a threatening situation as quickly as possible.

More attention needs to be paid to fire safety in smart construction

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The use of smart fire safety solutions is hindered by numerous human problems. There are shortcomings in knowledge, attitudes, resources and technology. Fire protection technology can often be seen as an area with potential for cost savings. This and other attitudes to fire protection technology have been surveyed by the Finnish National Rescue Association together with the Tampere University Fire Laboratory.

Fire protection technology is an increasingly reliable tool for maintaining safety

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The number of fire detection and protection devices installed in properties is growing. These devices protect people and property and ensure the continuity of operations. According to inspection statistics, the devices are more and more reliable. Despite the positive development, the Fire Prevention Development Group would like to remind everyone that the proper maintenance of the equipment requires specific knowledge.

Working together to achieve better quality!

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Properly chosen and installed fire prevention equipment helps prevent damage caused by fires throughout its entire lifecycle. Proper selection and installation of the equipment require careful planning and examination of the site. A collection of guidelines jointly prepared by different expert groups to improve the quality of fire prevention equipment is now available at paloturvallisuustekniikka.fi. The Development Group’s website now also contains the publications of the regulatory interpretation working group of inspection bodies and the fire alarm recommendation working group.

Further information The Fire Prevention Technology Development Group is a specialist group whose members share the common goal of promoting safety and developing the maintenance, quality and technical potential of fire prevention technology. Members of the Group include representatives of technical fire prevention associations and fire safety organisations. http://www.spek.fi/palontorjuntatekniikka, tekniikka@spek.fi

Lauri Lehto

Finnish National Rescue Association

+358 40 358 3810

Ilpo Leino

Finnish National Rescue Association

+358 45 657 7290

Jan Meszka

Finnish Safety and Chemicals Agency (Tukes)

+358 29 505 2061

Petri Puttonen

+358 50 528 1491

Inspection bodies

Antero Peltomaa

Inspection bodies

Timo Nevalainen

Equipment design

+358 50Â 421 1040 +358 50Â 3232908

Esko Rantanen

Partnership network

+358 9 310 1651

Arja Rantala

Sprinkleritekninen yhdistys (Sprinkler Technical Association)

+358 400 811 734

Petri Mero

Finance Finland

+358 20 793 4232

Matti Helkamo Palonilmaisualan yhdistys (Association of Fire Alarm Sector) +358 50 469 5051

Jarmo Alaoja Consulting +358 40 7504 828