Fife Council well ahead of Fire Safety Standards

Fife Council has taken the lead in Scotland by installing hard-wired
smoke & heat alarms to a level of tenant safety well-exceeding
requirements of the new Building Standards, using Kidde Fyrnetics’ Slick® range.

As the second largest local authority landlord in Scotland,
Fife has 34,000 properties and every year improves 1,600 homes and carries out 200,000 repairs.
It is committed to having all its properties fitted with the latest hard-wired smoke/heat alarms within a few years.
Over the next 12 months, some 2,000 homes will be fitted as part of a Home Improvement programme
and another 3,500 under a specific project. The properties involved vary in age and type and either
have no alarms or antiquated battery powered units at present. 

The authority decided to specify systems in accordance with the current Code of Practice, BS 5839 Part 6:2004, which is based on the latest research. The Code generally requires interconnected heat alarms in every kitchen and smoke alarms in living rooms, as well as in circulation areas – all with mains power and additional backup.  Although provisions of the Domestic Technical Handbook 2, 2006 for the Scottish Building Standards were discussed, the authority considered them insufficient to protect tenants, with just smoke alarms in halls and landings – particularly as Kitchens are the main source of fires. Despite being new this year, these provisions are based on an outdated Code of Practice - which is particularly worrying as recent statistics show that Scotland has more than twice as many fire deaths per head of population than any other part of the UK. It also demonstrates the dangers of adopting Regulations intended for new-build on the housing stock, as a higher standard of smoke/heat alarm system may be justified in existing homes with poor structural fire protection such as doors, partitions and floors.

Just two manufacturers were able to meet Fife’s rigorous specification for smoke and heat alarms, and McGill Electrical of Dunfermline, who won the open-tender main contract, chose Kidde Fyrnetics’ Slick® range. Some 8,500 Slick® alarms were supplied by Edmundson Electrical Kirkcaldy for this stage of the work. ‘Slick’® is the only fast-fit range of mains powered hard-wired alarms guaranteed for a full 10 years and uses an integral rechargeable lithium cell backup, inaccessible to tenants and particularly suited to social housing. All Slick® units have a neat, unobtrusive design and unique fast-fit facility which accommodates decorative ceiling finishes easily. Typical Kidde product features such as separate test & hush buttons aid clarity for the user, as do twin LEDs showing the alarm’s current operational state. Separate Installer and User manuals are included with each unit.