What are the main applications for Automist?
Automist conforms to BS 8458:2015. There are three main applications for Automist, to help buildings meet building regulations, address a fire risk assessment action, or as an elective fire safety upgrade.
1) Meeting building regulations
Automist is commonly used as a direct replacement for traditional sprinklers (BS 9251). There is a legal requirement to install fire sprinklers (or an equivalent Automatic Water Fire Suppression System (AWFSS)) into all new houses, flats, apartments and other types of accommodation that stand above 11 metres tall throughout the UK, and all new homes regardless of height in Wales. Care homes, registered group homes and sheltered housing also require suppression. It is commonly used for open-plan arrangements on the ground floor in addition to a fire-rated partition and door at the first-floor level. It can also be a useful fire-engineered solution for meeting the fire safety requirements in airspace or rooftop developments taking the buildings over 11m, where it may require a retrofit of fire suppression to existing flats.
Read more - Is there any fire engineering research that supports the use of Automist?
2) Addressing a fire risk assessment (FRA) action or Personal Emergency Evacuation Plans (PEEP)
The requirement to carry out a fire risk assessment is contained in the Regulatory (Fire Safety) Order 2006 (RRFSO), and in Scotland; The Fire (Scotland) Act 2005, and 2006 Regulations. Within the fire legislation, the requirements for firefighting require 'where necessary the premises are, to the extent that it is appropriate, equipped with appropriate firefighting equipment'. If the existing fire safety measures are assessed as inadequate, action must be taken to remove or reduce any fire hazards where possible to minimise the identified risks.
Automist is often used to reduce the risk to individuals in the room of fire origin, or those escaping in adjacent rooms. For example, Automist can be retrofitted to small paying-guest-accommodation to help provide an alternative way of keeping people safe if your property has inner rooms on the first floor, and where the means of escape was reliant on escape windows. It can even be used as a compensatory measure to allow an open-plan ground floor in sleeping accommodation. The Fire Safety Order does not prescribe the specific fire safety measures required. What it does require is that you must identify and manage the overall risk and provide fire safety measures that are appropriate for the risk. NF19 and fire engineering research highlight the historical practice of applying performance-based analysis to support inner room or open plan situations with the provision of a suppression system, depending on the exact arrangement of the dwelling.
Automist can provide a high level of protection for vulnerable residents, and, for long-term older residents. It "future proofs" residents' accommodation to cater for potential effects of age on mobility, sensory faculties and cognitive ability. Automatic water fire suppression systems (AWFSS) are recommended for all new sheltered and extra care housing and high-risk supported housing.
Other risks include those identified by PAS 9980. Some form of remediation works to the external façades might ultimately be necessary, but equally, in some circumstances, a more proportionate response might be improvements or alterations to the fire safety design and fire strategy in the building. For example, in some cases, this could be retrofitting Automist into the block.
3) Elective fire safety upgrade
In this case, Automist is being used to improve levels of fire safety. The system is not however a requirement for Building Regulations or general minimum statutory life safety standards. Therefore the design, performance and implementation of Automist is completely at the client's discretion and are not governed by statutory prescriptive requirements. In this case, the performance and/or operation of the suppression systems are not relied upon for adequate minimum standards of safety within the accommodation.
Read next - View some example case studies
Disclaimer: This information is not intended to be a comprehensive guide to all of the aspects of the building regulations but rather a useful source of background information. Whilst every care has been taken to ensure that the contents of this post are correct at the time of publication, it should never be used as any form of substitution for the guidance documents. It should be noted that there may be specific additional requirements dependent upon local authority building regulations and/or fire authority. The 'responsible person' for fire safety in a premises, will need to use their own judgement to decide what needs to be done to minimise risk.