News - Whale Fire

Building Site Fails Fire Safety

This is good to read because we have had lots of fires during or just after building works are completed. Good to see a potential fire hopefully prevented.

Company fined for inadequate fire precautions on site

leicestermercury.co.uk

Social Housing Fire Safety Investment

Money always moves from one area to another like in the stock market. When one sector is struggling another will gain a bit as investors move money out of one area into another.

The money now required for social housing fire safety is phenomenal and it does raise the question what else will suffer as a result. Will the Government actually meet this shortfall or will the payments ultimately be met by the Housing Associations and ultimately the tenants. It is certainly required and welcomed and we need to massively improve the fire safety standards in these buildings.

But what and who else will suffer as a result. Where will the money be taken from in order to pay for it and what will be the consequences. The first area that seems to have lost any funding is Potholes....! All the money we pay the council and have you ever seen so many on the roads!

Social housing fire safety work to cost over £10bn

constructionenquirer.com

Fire Safety Changes

Lots of new fire safety announcements coming up and definitely lots of uncertainty in the air at the moment. Every day seems to find a new building raising fresh concerns about the cladding and what to do about it or another bunch of students being forced out of their residence due to fire safety concerns. Not to mention all the buildings having fire safety deficiencies during and after construction works. As with lots of other things in life, it tends to require a big incident before firstly understanding a problem even existed and then beginning the very slow and arduous work of putting it right. Makes you wonder what else we don’t know until we do......

Flurry of ministerial announcements on fire safety ahead of the Grenfell Inquiry can’t hide an inadequate response

insidehousing.co.uk

Black Box Thinking

I don’t know the full story here but surely management would be better off acknowledging their mistakes and learning from the experience. No one was hurt but what an opportunity to learn and make sure if there is another fire or fire alarm activation then the evacuation goes smoothly. Sometimes we all have to admit when things could have gone better and put our hands up to improve. It’s simply called making mistakes and using experience to avoid making them again.

It’s probably something to do with the blame culture we live in and feeling the need to defend ourselves and our organisations we run. There is a brilliant book called ‘Black Box Thinking’ by Mathew Syed which is a great read for individuals and companies that want to learn from mistakes rather than bury them. Food for thought.

Eastbourne theatre defends ‘chaotic’ fire safety procedure

eastbourneherald.co.uk

Insurance and Mortgage Valuations

You need to subscribe to the times to read the full article but the introductory snippet gives you enough to go on. Insurance company trying to block litigation for fire safety deficiencies in block of flats and avoid paying out. Now we have residents who bought flats (in good faith) whose flats are currently worthless and bought insurance (in good faith) falling victims from no fault of their own.

Interesting times but as always Whale Fire are here to help, wherever we can, with these particular fire safety and all fire safety issues. We are on your side, not against you when times get rough.

https://lnkd.in/gFtDp74

https://lnkd.in/eiSWx_F

https://lnkd.in/gFtDp74

Are these flats really worth £0?

ascinating article about residents who can’t re-mortgage their flats and have been told they are worth nothing. This is happening up and down the country. If you are a resident in a building where the cladding has failed advice note 14 and you are being told you may have to implement a waking watch please let me know.

We can visit your building and look at all the options available providing you with a potentially more cost effective solution. By providing you with a more pragmatic, common sense but perfectly safe (if not safer) alternative we will work with you rather than against you.

We could save you money, stress and provide a shoulder to lean on during difficult times.

https://lnkd.in/gdGgS9r

https://lnkd.in/eiSWx_F

Public House Fire Safety

t’s really really not worth the risk of not complying with fire safety laws when you think about the potential consequences.

https://lnkd.in/g8-emFs

This landlord will now pay a far greater cost that paying out a few hundred pounds for a fire risk assessment and following the recommendations. Ignorance of the law is one thing but when playing ignorant puts others lives at risk then you will feel the full force of the law should you be found out.

If you are a landlord in Liverpool or anywhere in the UK we can help:

https://lnkd.in/gb58reh

What is the real purpose of a fire risk assessment?

When carrying out a fire risk assessment, it’s really important to understand what you are trying to achieve.

Its amazing how often I have seen reports that seem to have missed the entire point. Assessors and Fire Service officers sometimes seem so fixated by guides and legislation that they are not actually looking at the risk of where a fire could potentially start. They often make recommendations that are so by the book but in reality would achieve little.

You need to look at the type of occupancy, usage, construction, number of floors and exits and who is actually in the building. Is the property occupied only in the day or also overnight? Where are your vulnerable persons in the building and are there persons with any history of arson or other worrying behaviour? Assessors and Officers often get so obsessed about the building and compartmentation that they forget to think about the people, the human behaviour that is often responsible for starting a fire and actually asking the simplest but potentially most important question....By whom and how could a fire actually start in this building? Often the answers are there staring at us in the face if only we can get back to basics rather than having our head lost in a guide that sometimes misses the entire point.