Sprinkler Systems & Fire Safety for Hospitals, Care Homes, Residential and Nursing Homes


Staffing - Sprinklers - Evacuation

Most care homes have far fewer staff at night than during the day – when everyone's in bed, there's far less to do. Under normal circumstances this is sensible practice, but what do you do when fire breaks out and two or three staff members are left trying to evacuate 30 elderly or disabled residents?

One option is to move residents from one wing or area of the home to another until help arrives. But clearly this isn't risk free, and it's still difficult and time consuming. Well, thanks to legislation first introduced in 2006, care homes now have a legal alternative to evacuation – and it all comes down to fire sprinklers.

Subject to a fire risk assessment, care homes fitted with British Standard sprinklers can employ what's known as a delayed evacuation policy. This basically means that, because the sprinklers deal with the fire quickly and effectively at source, it's usually safe to leave residents in their beds – with the exception of anyone in the room where the fire started of course. This strategy is increasingly being adopted by care home owners, following the guidance contained in the government document 'Fire safety risk assessment – residential care premises'. And if you do not have to get residents out in a rush then there is a reduction in specialist equipment, ongoing training etc (Stair Sledges etc.) While there will inevitably be some disruption to installing sprinklers into existing care homes, this is certainly not the case for new homes or homes planning large extensions.

A relatively new Building Regulations guidance document (the Approved Document 'B' 2006) now provides some incentives for certain new-build requirements if a fully operational sprinkler system is in place. For example, in the past it's been a requirement that all bedroom doors must be fitted with closers – devices to keep doors shut at all times. However, not surprisingly, lots of care home residents have difficulty in opening these doors and often don't want to be in left in their bedrooms with the doors closed. They want to feel part of the home's community, even if they're confined to bed.

One way around this is to fit free-swing closers, which are operated electronically and wired in to the fire alarm system. The doors can be left open, but when the alarm is raised they close automatically. But this is not always an inexpensive or simple solution. Even closed, fire doors don't allow for delayed evacuation, so the basic problem of staff-to-resident ratios remains.

Much is made of the need to ensure staffing levels meet the requirements of the nursing and support of vulnerable people, however often overlooked is the mandatory requirement in the Fire Order to be able to evacuate people in a couple of minutes in the event of a fire. In order to facilitate this residences' have to invest in special equipment being escape blankets or special chairs for stairs and quick response teams to attend and help with the evacuation, to go with these procedures regular training and maintenance has to be kept up. The reality is that it takes at least 2 carers and several minutes to help one semi able person out to safety, so the chances of 3 or 4 people being evacuated in the required time with the number of carers needed to care is unlikely. By installing a sprinkler system a "Stay Put" strategy can be set up that does away with all the staffing that ought to have been in place along with all the extra equipment, training, fire doors etc.

These direct savings can recoup the cost of the installation of sprinklers whilst the open corridor and reduced fire lobbies environment can make the movement of people through the building easier and more efficient

So, thanks to this new legislation, growing numbers of new care homes are being fitted with sprinkler systems, and retro-fitting is also on the increase. There's been a definite shift in attitudes towards sprinkler installation – what was previously seen as a cost consideration has become a valuable safety and staffing solution.

Why Install a Fire Protection Sprinkler System
Benefits of Having Fire Spinkler Systems in New Buildings
How we install Fire Spinkler Systems