On 24th November, we sent our second letter jointly with BSIA to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy [BEIS] relaying our respective industry’s concerns on the impact of the implementation of the new UKCA mark. In late December, we received a response from Paul Scully MP, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State in the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, which can be seen at the bottom. In our letter (click here to read), we requested that ‘should a reciprocal agreement not be acceptable, the specified 12 months’ timeline be extended to a minimum of 36 months to allow sufficient time for manufacturers to prepare and apply the UKCA mark. Unfortunately, for our industry, the Government ignored this request on two separate occasions. We believe exceptions should be made for fire and security products given that exceptions have been granted for medical devices – as all are focussed on life safety. The resulting impacts that the UKCA regime can and will have on life safety systems are worrying. For instance, lack of spare parts to maintain current fire safety systems correctly could affect thousands of hospitals, schools and care homes to name but a few. Government has stressed that ‘we cannot indefinitely accept EU certification and CE marked goods on the market in Great Britain on a non-reciprocal basis beyond the end of the Transition Period on 31 December 2020’ and accepts that ‘transitioning to the new UK regime will require planning and will result in some costs to businesses’. The FIA believes that these costs will be extensive and potentially damaging for a number of businesses and the practicality of transitioning to the UKCA regime for all fire safety products within the given 12-month period is unachievable. They also indicate that ‘we see no reason that UK conformity assessment bodies cannot start conformity assessment procedures for the UK market before the end of the Transition Period in their current capacity as notified bodies and conclude it once they have become a UK approved body’. They go on to say ‘the UK has proposed a comprehensive Mutual Recognition Agreement for the acceptance of results of conformity assessment across sectors’ although ‘this is of course still subject to ongoing negotiations’. They conclude that ‘we will be working closely with businesses over the coming year to ensure guidance is clear and that businesses feel supported in transitioning to the new domestic arrangements’. Through this unprecedented period, we will continue to represent the needs of the industry to government. It is imperative that the Government understands the impact that changing to the UKCA regime will have not only for businesses from the fire industry whose task it is to keep buildings safe; but also for the thousands of business owners that rely on their buildings being compliant so that they can remain open.   To stay up to date on the latest, trends, innovations, people news and company updates within the global fire market please register to receive our newsletter here. Media contact Rebecca Morpeth Spayne, Editor, International Fire Buyer Tel: +44 (0) 1622 823 922 Email: editor@firebuyer.com

Designed to “remove” or “reduce” the need for interim safety measures at high-rise buildings with unsafe cladding, the UK Housing Secretary, Robert Jenrick, announced a £30 million Waking Watch Relief Fund on 17 December 2020. Mr Jenrick has since announced the fund is now open for applications from 31 January 2021.  The fund, which has been opened for applications, will “help end the scandal of excessive waking watch costs” via the installation of fire alarm systems in high-rise buildings, according to the Government. The fund will cover the upfront capital costs of installing an alarm system. The common fire alarm system should generally be designed in accordance with the recommendations of BS 5839-1 for a Category L5 system, which is referred to in the NFCC’s revised guidance on simultaneous evacuation. To be eligible a building must: Be in the private sector. Be over 18 metres in height. Have an unsafe cladding system. Have a waking watch in place where these costs have been passed on to leaseholders. Social sector buildings that can provide evidence of waking watch costs that have been passed on to leaseholders may also be eligible ‘Waking Watch’ patrols have been a long source of frustration and contention from leaseholders, residents and fire safety professionals, with an average monthly cost of £137 to a flat owner – rising to £256 in London. Introduced in the wake of the Grenfell Tower tragedy over three years ago in high-rise buildings considered high-risk, thousands of residents and homeowners continue to pay for the 24-hour fire safety patrols. The number of affected buildings has continued to rise, too. In London, 573 blocks now have the patrols, compared to 286 in March, as more buildings continue to be identified as ‘unsafe’. The installation of fire alarms should enable significant cost savings, believes the Government. In research undertaken between June to September 2020, the costs of employing a person to carry out Waking Watch duties 24 hours a day exceeds the average one-off cost of installing a fire alarm system in three to six months, depending on the hourly rate charged. In addition, some buildings require more than one person to carry out Waking Watch duties, while this doesn’t take additional charges into account, such as radio/training costs or toilet hire. Upon launch of the fund, Mr Jenrick said: “I’ve heard first-hand from leaseholders the misery that rip-off waking watch costs have been bringing to residents of high-rise buildings with cladding. “I’m announcing a £30m Waking Watch Relief Fund to help relieve the financial pressure on those residents and to ensure they are safe. I’m confident that this will make a real difference to worried leaseholders up and down the country this Christmas. “We have continued to prioritise the removal of unsafe ACM cladding throughout the pandemic and expect around 95% of remediation work will have been completed or be underway by the end of this year.” National Fire Chiefs Council Chair, Roy Wilsher, added: “We welcome this new Waking Watch Relief Fund, which will help to reduce the financial burden for some leaseholders having to fund the costs of waking watches. “It has been our firm and long held expectation that building owners should move to install common fire alarms as quickly as possible and this funding is a positive step.” Waking Watch Fund open for applications On January 31 2021 it was announced the fund was now open for applications from the Responsible Person (RP) – the person, entity or group responsible for ensuring the safety of residents in their building from fire and identifying suitable mitigating measures where needed. RPs are being encouraged to speak to their local Fire and Rescue Service about the implications of installing a common fire alarm in their building. The fund will be distributed through councils, regional authorities and centrally though the Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government (MHCLG), depending on location, with £22m of the £30m already having been allocated to the eight cities that were estimated to have the most need. Greater London has received £16.1m, Greater Manchester £2.1 and Birmingham £1.1m, with the other five recipients being Leeds, Liverpool, Bristol, Newcastle and Sheffield. The Government says these allocations have been based on the Building Safety Fund registration statistics, with “adjustments made to account for social sector funding”. The remaining £8m will be available centrally and is available to all other areas of England. On the opening of the fund, Mr Jenrick added: “We know many people are anxious about the costs of waking watches, which was always only intended as an interim measure while historic safety issues were fixed. “This fund will relieve the financial pressure on residents in these buildings and ensure they will be kept safe. I encourage those who are eligible not to delay and start their applications swiftly so we can distribute the funds as quickly as possible.” MHCLG guidance for applications highlights that Waking Watch patrols and alarms should be considered “a short-term option that mitigate an immediate risk”, rather than an alternative to remediation, and alarm systems should be installed “as quickly as possible” when funding is agreed. It is also advised that “consideration should be given to installing an alarm specified to allow upgrade to a BS8629 Emergency Evacuation Alert System once remediation is completed”. This will allow the alarm system to be converted for the use of an evacuation alert system which is compatible with the ‘Stay Put’ strategy, and “reasonable costs of installing these alarms may be covered by the fund”. The fund will cover the costs of fire alarms installed after 17 December 2020. The full criteria for the Waking Watch fund, including application guidance, can be found here. Do the measures go far enough? Questions remain, however, on whether the £30 million fund goes far enough. Stephen Mackenzie, Independent Fire, Security and Resilience Expert, offered his thoughts: “Unfortunately, the numbers don’t add up and £30m is ‘breadcrumbs’ in relative terms. We have 457 high-rise blocks with ACM, as well

The Issue & Solution Regardless of the “air quality” within an ICU ward, minimising the airflow out of it is essential for reducing the risk of airborne contagion spread. One way this is achieved is through minimising the air permeability of a room, another is by negatively-pressurising a room which in itself cannot be effectively achieved without a suitably low air permeability value. Minimising air permeability is therefore doubly essential. Air permeability is defined as the volume of air entering or exiting a room per hour per square metre of room envelope given a certain differential pressure, usually taken to be 50 Pa (Pascals are a unit of measure for air pressure). Currently, when hospitals monitor the efficacy of their negative pressurisation, they do so using a pressure monitor. This tells hospital staff, providing they are checking it regularly, whether the air pressure in the ICU ward is at a suitable level. If the pressure drops below a certain level, sometimes these monitors are set up to an alarm system. There are three problems with this: One is that the indication of the current pressure is not an indication of future ability to maintain that pressure. Secondly, if the pressure does drop, no matter how infrequently, it undermines the ability of the ward to prevent airborne infection spread and the pressure monitors provide no means of addressing that problem. If hospital staff do take action as a result of pressure drops, it is often to employ what might be called a “Patch & Hope” response. Thirdly, pressure monitors only measure the air pressure at a localised point in space. If the correct air pressure is found in one part of a room, this is no guarantee that it may be found elsewhere. The hand-held, ergonomic Portascanner® COVID-19 instrument provides a capability that compliments and goes far beyond what a simple air pressure monitor can do. It allows operators to detect leakage points, meaning that they can be addressed to prevent dips in the required pressurisation which regularly occur. It also quantifies the airflow rate through leakage points and the air permeability of a room, providing surety that the room is sufficiently airtight for the FPE (Fan Pressurisation Equipment) to operate consistently. Pressure monitors cannot do these things. According to an independent review by the Building Services Research and Information Association, reducing the air permeability of an isolation suite has a number of distinct benefits: A degree of passive protection is provided against contamination to or from adjacent areas. The ventilation system is able to be balanced and commissioned correctly. The pressure stabiliser can be specified accurately and can operate correctly. During fumigation, less fumigant will escape to adjacent areas. In the event of fan failure, the walls will become the first barrier against infection. If the leakage through the fabric is too high, the design supply and extract airflow rates may not be sufficient to pressurise the rooms or for the pressure stabiliser to operate correctly. Making up for high air permeability by increasing supply and extract flow rates is not considered desirable. A better option would be to achieve lower air permeability. An ICU ward is therefore far safer in terms of risk of infection spread, if the air permeability of its envelope can be quantified and if crucial leakage points can be identified and repaired. It is for this reason that Coltraco Ultrasonics won the right to a competitive government grant to innovate in this area and for this reason too that the end product has been independently declared outstanding in its field. A recent paper collating 24 cross-sectional studies across eight separate countries has found that significant levels of SARS-CoV-2 RNA particles were circulating in the air within 25% of ICU wards, 24% of hospital toilets, and 56% of hospital hallways. Hospitals, therefore, present a huge risk of cross-infection via airborne transmission. The most effective way to prevent airborne transmission from isolation wards is to ensure they are adequately negatively-pressurised at all times; the fact that these statistics exist, however, suggests that negative pressurisation, which might be taken for granted by hospital staff and monitored using pressure gauges, is in actuality not effectively achieved in a significant proportion of facilities, at least some of the time. This is why the Portascanner® COVID-19, as the only reasonable solution to a problem that some, but not all, are aware of, is such a breakthrough technology in reducing airborne cross-infection within the hospital sector. The “Patch & Hope” Problem In March 2020 the world was forced to stop, readjust, and overcome the barriers this virus has inflicted upon us all. Whilst it has sadly been a tragedy for so many people, businesses, households, and livelihoods, it has by no means stopped great British ideas, ingenuity, and innovation. The 5.9 million UK SMEs, which make up 99% of all business, generating 54% of all UK employment, have demonstrated remarkable resilience in the face of such adversity, and are at the forefront of the Government’s Levelling-Up agenda in the post-Covid-19 world that we are all so looking forward to. The NHS went into this crisis with 10,000 ICU beds. Today it is managing over 30,000. Our NHS are struggling to bear the brunt of this virus, and the staff should not also have to constantly concern themselves with the risks of being additionally exposed to the virus. Existing taping measures are not allowing this concern to be allayed. In Intensive Care Units (ICU) the NHS has to “negatively-pressurise” each ICU Ward to prevent COVID19 infection contagion to the rest of the hospital. However, if the air permeability of ICU Wards is not sufficiently low, negative-pressurisation cannot be achieved effectively. The methods presently being undertaken to verify air permeability, are disruptive, costly and do not allow operators to identify specific areas of leakage. The maintenance teams have limited means to monitor the airflow that sustains that negative-pressurisation or identify the location and size of any specific leaks, leaving any remedial action down

Siemens Smart Infrastructure has launched a new compact version of its Cerberus PACE Modular system, further extending the range of applications in which the public address voice alarm (PA/VA) solution can be employed. Together, Cerberus PACE Modular and Compact offer a comprehensive PA/VA solution, which can be integrated with fire protection and danger management systems. This enables even greater customization to protect lives, assets and business continuity. “Thanks to the Cerberus PACE systems, the user can cover all public and voice alarm needs with a single solution. By sharing the same state of the art technology as the modular system, but addressing small and simple applications, the Cerberus PACE Compact enables extensive customization and is a cost-efficient solution for customers,” said Mario Kahlert, Head of Fire Safety at Siemens Smart Infrastructure. The range of potential applications covers any situation which requires high performing and reliable PA/VA, including offices, hotels, airports, commercial facilities and educational buildings. As with the Modular system, Cerberus PACE Compact incorporates multiple redundancy levels and is also suitable for step-by-step modernization of outdated systems. The system’s professional sound quality and low latency enable clear communication, both in emergency situations and for day-to-day announcements or music. Maximized performance for maximized safety PA/VA systems are crucial for addressing people in the event of an emergency, requiring clear communication to trigger and then manage a prompt evacuation. Cerberus PACE Compact is available in two versions: Compact 400 and Compact 1000. Wall mounted, despite its comparatively small size, Cerberus PACE Compact offers power of up to 2000 watts and an additional backup amplifier and pilot tone amplifier – the sort of performance that is conventionally only available from much larger, rack-mounted systems. Cerberus PACE systems are fully compliant with the EN 54-16 standard and local codes of practice in European countries. The systems can cover all redundancy, ensuring there is adequate back-up. To support the safety-first approach, both high performing and reliable systems stand for no single point of failure, thanks to distributed intelligence, where each network participant has a CPU (a chip that allows the device to be made independent). Ensured business continuity For convenient setup and management of all components, Cerberus PACE comes with dedicated configuration software and real-time engineering. The system can be configured live, while it is running, without causing any interruption to day-to-day activities. No shut down is necessary for maintenance or to change the configuration, with remote access ensuring business continuity, whatever the environment. This is a crucial consideration for many applications where 24/7 operation is required. Flexibility and compatibility The state-of-the-art modular and scalable system architecture ensures that Cerberus PACE can be customized for buildings of all types and requirements. Cerberus PACE Compact can be combined with the Modular system using the same network and configuration tools to offer a wider choice of ancillary products (for example, amplifiers or audio matrix), while also enabling cost optimization. In addition, both systems can be used for stepwise modernizations of older voice alarm systems (often using existing cabling), making it possible to futureproof the system to meet changing demands. Different connection options (loop, stub line, double stub lines, and even compatibility with star structures or T-taps) offer greater flexibility during the installation process. For further information on Cerberus PACE, please see www.siemens.com/cerberus-pace   To stay up to date on the latest, trends, innovations, people news and company updates within the global fire market please register to receive our newsletter here. Media contact Rebecca Morpeth Spayne, Editor, International Fire Buyer Tel: +44 (0) 1622 823 922 Email: editor@firebuyer.com  

TRI-Lift has been appointed as the new Bronto Skylift distributor in Canada. As a division of TRI-Crane, Ontario-based TRI-Lift was founded by three partners, Jason Hanna, Mark Williams and Aaron Hanna in March 2019 and will provide sales, service and maintenance, spare parts and rental of Bronto’s non-insulated aerial truck mounted platforms. Williams, TRI-Crane partner, said, “When we got to know Bronto Skylift we did some background research and saw great potential in the Canadian market. We have good experiences of the European OEM’s. I know how Finns do business and really look forward to the co-operation.” The first unit, a 230ft working height S230XR, has already ordered and will be available for demonstration and rentals in March 2021. Jason Darnell, sales manager of Bronto Skylift, who brought the two companies together, said, “I look forward to working with the TRI-Lift team; I believe they are one of the industry leaders who know the market in this country. I also feel this team is well respected within the industry so customers will take their new partnership with Bronto Skylift as serious as they do.” TRI-Lift will aim Bronto equipment at a range of industries, including complex projects in the film industry and wind sector, among other applications. “It’s our passion to always find a solution even for the most difficult projects, that nobody else wants to do. When others turn away, we go there,” said, Jason Hanna, partner at TRI-Crane. TRI-Crane’s third partner Aaron Hanna, added. “We are very excited about the distributorship. There are a lot of industries and applications that this kind of equipment can be utilised.” All three TRI-Lift partners have extensive careers in the lifting and rental industry. Mark Williams is a third-generation family business owner and has been in the industry from a young age. Jason Hanna has been in the industry from the late 1980s and served as a crane operator and in various managerial roles, before becoming president of TRI-Crane and TRI-Lift. Aaron Hanna is vice president of sales at TRI-Lift and brings 20 years of sales experience in the industry, having started his career as a crane operator. “With their extensive knowledge, the partnership with TRI-Lift enable us to explore and expand our market in Canada,” concluded, Janne Pulkkinen, vice president, Bronto Skylift. Current Canadian distributor Hycotec will also continue to operate as a Bronto Skylift distributor in the country.

KME Fire Apparatus, a subsidiary of REV Group, has introduced the new X-Series Custom Pumper where performance, value, and reduced delivery time meet. The new X-Series is designed to help fire departments navigate the challenges associated with specifying and procuring fire apparatus by offering multiple core models that can be customised with thousands of options to meet their unique needs. This allows KME to build and deliver custom pumpers that fit fire departments’ budgets and best serve their communities with reduced lead times. Some core features of the X-Series include: Custom fire apparatus aluminum cab Optimised pump and body configurations to meet a variety of fire departments’ needs Maximum compartment space for equipment storage 750 to 1,000-gallon water tank capacities Hale or Waterous pumps Side or top-mount pump control configurations “We’ve listened to the marketplace and developed the X-Series to deliver custom fire apparatus at a competitive price with industry-leading delivery times,” said Chris McClung, Director of Sales for KME.  “With all the uncertainty and challenges faced by today’s fire service, we made it our mission to deliver quality custom pumpers in the most efficient means possible that perform day in and day out.” For more information on the X-Series please visit www.kmefire.com/x-series.