EUROPE IS PLAYING WITH FIRE - A call to action on fire safety in buildings - Fire Safe Europe
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EUROPE
IS PLAYING
WITH FIRE
A call to action
on fire safety in buildings
1
EUROPE
IS PLAYING
WITH FIRE
A call to action
on fire safety in buildings
White paper of Fire Safe Europe aisbl launched on 2 December 2014 in the European Parliament, Brussels, Belgium.
www.firesafeeurope.eu | secretariat@firesafeeurope.eu | +32 (0)483 167 273
THE FIRE ALARM IS SOUNDING EUROPE IS PUTTING CITIZENS
AT RISK - HOW?
Fire is consistently dangerous countries. Often these requirements are managed
but fire safety regulations are by different levels of government. Amazingly many
dangerously diverse European countries ascribe minimal importance
to fire safety and even in the best cases most
Europeans are justifiably proud of their diverse regulations applied at the national or local level
cultures and traditions. But when it comes to fire have significant room for improvement. All these
safety regulations they have one thing in common: aspects can be improved within local stylistic and
everywhere the rules and standards are far below cultural frameworks.
of what they need to be to
protect EU citizens when they Many European countries Likewise, it should be
are at home or abroad. Yet, fires possible to put in place uniform
ascribe minimal importance
are the same across Europe. building-material testing
to fire safety and even in the protocols across the EU
Much of fire safety depends best cases most regulations without injuring local cultural
on basic aspects of building applied at the national or differences. Why? Because even
design such as the number of though buildings don’t travel,
local level have significant
In recent years, the European Union (EU) has made floors, provisions for evacuation
routes and exits, active and
room for improvement.
the building materials and
elements needed to construct
important strides in enacting and modernizing regulations passive fire mitigation elements, them do. A level playing field is
to promote the health and safety of Europeans. and the proximity of the building to rescue
and emergency services. And, buildings of a
needed not just for safety reasons but to foster a
single market. But the current system only covers
Unfortunately, those strides have sidestepped one of given type - such as schools, offices, homes, or a part of the building-materials on the market and
the oldest and most menacing threats to daily life: fire. hospitals - can be subject to significantly different
requirements in terms of fire safety in different
cannot handle complex composite products. An
update is urgently needed.
What is the result? More learn and play and the hospitals that
than 4,000 deaths and 70,000 house the infirm and vulnerable.
hospitalizations every year due to It’s time for the sidestepping to
fire and smoke-
related injuries
end and for an EU-
wide fire safety effort
[ CASE IN POINT ]
Across the EU many
- that’s nearly 200 to begin - especially Same buildings, strikingly disparate safety levels
people every day. fire-related building in this era when
Over 126 billion standards are climate and energy Fire Safe Europe recently looked at national the combustibility of fire compartment walls (a
in numbers: euros in related costs security concerns are regulations related to fire safety in an average compartment is an area within a building which is
seriously inadequate
incurred annually prompting extensive school building in ten countries from all four supposed to contain a fire if it breaks out). Out of 10
and inconsistent from
70,000 across the EU.
country to country, and
building renovation corners of Europe. The differences were alarming. surveyed countries, only Germany and Czeck Republic
require that compartment walls have to be made of
people Europeans spend construction material
programs. The effort
should be robust
Fire exits non-combustible materials. In most other countries,
are hospitalised in Europe In some EU Member States, children have to run they can be made of highly combustible products.
about 90% of their testing protocols are out and should ensure
each year due to severe six times further to reach the nearest fire exit - 10
lives inside buildings. that construction
injuries caused by fire of date. meters in Germany compared to 60 meters in Italy! Enabling buildings to bear the load of a fire
We want buildings to products and Does it mean that children in Italy run faster than Only Slovakia and the Czech Republic require
€126bn be comfortable, and
we need them to be safe - especially
practices consistently
meet appropriate and rigorously
children in Germany? non-combustible load bearing structures (the
construction product used to carry the weight of the
equivalent to 1% of European
GDP is eaten up by fire those with public access such as the enforced fire safety standards. And it Ensuring fires are contained building) on each floor level. Five countries, including
damage each year schools where our children go to should get underway without delay. Almost half the countries surveyed do not regulate Sweden and Spain do not regulate this at all!
4 5
Regulation lags
small-scale tests that in many
innovation and cases are not representative of
is falling further a real-scale fire. Consequently, [ CASE IN POINT ]
behind they are profoundly limited
in their ability to predict The importance of harmonized test methods
Fire safety regulations and modern real-world fire safety
When an international team of scientists The wall covered exclusively with non-
standards for buildings and performance.
construction products seem to and engineers carried out large-scale tests combustible insulation contained the fire and
have failed to keep pace with There is no harmonized on external thermal insulation composite remained structurally undamaged.
the innovations that regularly European standard test (ETICS) systems in Croatia recently, they had
revolutionize the industry. This method to ensure for example, to use a British standard - simply because no The wall with combustible insulation and a
is the sad fact in Europe today, that external wall (or ETICS) EU standard exists. non-combustible fire barrier above the source
at all level of government. systems, which often contribute
of the fire delayed the spread of the fire for 10
Some standards are simply to the spread of fires in large
The tests aimed to demonstrate the minutes. However, when the blaze “jumped”
out of date, and others were or high-rise buildings, are safe.
inadequate to begin with. And, most alarmingly, they take performance of different types of insulation this barrier, the same toxic smoke and
no account of the toxicity of systems in high-rise buildings. furious flames of the first wall occurred.
In the EU, construction smoke, which is responsible for The test highlighted the shortfalls of the
products are governed by more than half of all fire-related The results were striking for many: current EU testing regime for ETICS solutions
the Construction Products fatalities. A wall fitted with combustible insulation given that there is no harmonized large-scale
Regulation (CPR), which
pumped toxic black smoke into the air and European test to ensure that only systems
aims to ensure that reliable
was completely burned out within 15 minutes. that meet rigorous fire performance criteria
performance-related data are
made available, by means of
Fire safety test methods should be allowed on high rise buildings.
a Declaration of Performance have not been revised
(DOP), for any construction since 2002 and are based
product placed on the European
on data from no later
market. The CPR also enables
consumers to easily identify than 1994. They take no
products as “fit for purpose” account of smoke toxicity,
through the “CE” marking. which is responsible for
Because the CPR was intended
primarily to break down barriers
more than half of all fire-
to trade, it also requires that related fatalities.
products meet a number of
“essential requirements”,
including those related to fire
safety. Regrettably, no mechanism
in numbers:
exists to correct or update the
The fire safety concepts upon technical details of test methods
2,000,000 which the CPR is based are in the light of changing building
fires fundamentally sound. But the
fire safety test methods have
technology or product evolution.
are reported in Europe
annually
not been revised since 2002 and In short, the testing system
are based on data from no later had limitations from the start
A video of the test
50% than 1994. and its inability to evolve simply
perpetuates the inadequacies.
can be watched here
of the fire deaths are due
to inhalation of smoke and The test methods called on
toxic combustion gases only by the CPR are based on
6 7
The dust of renovation
DEVELOPING AN ACTION PLAN
buildings and establish thermal
must settle on a safe
environment
renovation projects over the next Europe needs a fire blanket
years. The implementation of these
programs should deliver significant The European Union is unique in its ability to
in numbers: E
In light of the fact that buildings energy savings, greenhouse gas enable citizens of 28 countries to live, work and THE ACTION PLAN SHOULD INVOLV
currently account for more than 40% reductions, and millions of new jobs. travel across border with relative ease. Currently 3 STRAIGHTFOR WA RD STEPS:
90% of the energy used But as buildings over 500,000 European students study abroad
Raising the ambition on fire safety
of our time is spent annually in Europe, This exciting period across Europe are annually, 660 million hotel nights are booked in
in buildings across the EU with
in buildings the EU has recently renovated, their fire European hotels each year, and more than 12 a Fire Safety Strategy;
of change and
taken steps to reduce safety characteristics million people, many construction workers, work
90% energy consumption
renovation offers the will change. outside their home countries. pdate the provisions in the
U
Construction Products Regulation
of fires in the EU in buildings and EU an unprecedented
(CPR) to address its gaps and
happen in buildings thereby protect the opportunity to act and This exciting It therefore seems appropriate that the EU
weaknesses in testing methods;
lifestyle and energy improve the fire safety of period of change and ensures that all countries strive for a common
3 security of its citizens.
its built environment.
renovation offers the level of fire safety in buildings to safeguard the Incorporate smoke toxicity in EU
minutes The EU Directives EU an unprecedented daily security of all Europeans no matter where standards and regulations for
construction products.
is all it takes for fire to on Energy Efficiency opportunity to act they are. What’s more, the EU has already acted
involve an entire room, and on the Energy Performance and improve the fire safety of its in the built environment and has demonstrated a
because our buildings
of Buildings demand that all EU built environment. Fire safety rules proven track record of success in implementing
contain more flammable
materials than ever countries put in place programs must be drastically improved and EU-wide standards and regulations that improve
before to promote near-zero energy new consistently enforced across Europe. and/or protect the health and well-being of its But if the matter is faced with political bravery and
citizens. a coherent action plan, it can be addressed.
The current fire safety problem is massive in The heightened level of ambition will ensure
scale but not un-solvable. It is complicated by the that fire safety efforts are on the right track
diversity of regulations and construction practices across Europe. A CPR update will modernize its
across countries, the pace of change in the built standards and regulations so that they reflect the
[ CASE IN POINT ] environment, the roll out of new renovation real-world performance of construction products
programmes, and the increased mobility of and systems in a fire. And, the incorporation of
More combustibles, faster fires construction workers (leading to complications due toxicity will tackle the major killer in any building
to regional variations in standards and practices). fire: smoke.
In the 1950’s it would typically take about
25 minutes for a small fire to become out of
control, allowing the rescue services time
to respond and contain the fire. Nowadays
a small fire can become a blazing inferno in
less than 3 minutes - injuring and killing the [ CASE IN POINT ]
building occupants before the emergency Road safety, where European teamwork has saved
services can arrive on the scene.
The average time it takes the fire and rescue
thousands of lives
service to arrive at a fire is between 8 and European
Road Safety Action A model for action already exists in the form of the EU Road Safety
Programme
15 minutes in Europe. 2011–2020 Strategy. The Strategy aims to cut EU road deaths by 50% by 2020
compared with 2003 levels. And by 2010 a 33% reduction had already
been achieved.
Was it easy? Probably not. Was it worth it? Absolutely.
Is fire safety less important?
Working Document for the
Stakeholder Conference
2nd December 2009
8 091127_2b_DGTren_RoadSafety_WorkingDoc_hw.indd 1 27.11.2009 16:42:08 Uhr
9
European Fire Safety
Strategy The standardisation bodies responsible for
the development of the test methods, CEN/
TAKING ACTION, SAVING LIVES
CENELEC, should then be mandated to assess
Although each EU Member State is ultimately and continually monitor the suitability of Fires in European buildings injure and/or As long as the issue remains unaddressed,
responsible for developing, implementing, and established test methods and to incorporate kill over 70,000 people every year. Many of those fire and its deadly companion- smoke will stand
enforcing safety standards applicable to its existing or new large-scale and where possible injuries and deaths result from building design and unchecked as killers waiting to strike.
territories, the European Commission should small-scale tests and criteria to ensure that construction flaws that are not properly addressed The European Parliament has a track record for
move with political conviction towards defining product and systems are tested in a way that by local or national fire safety regulations. taking on tough issues and ensuring that Europe
minimum fire safety levels. The EU needs a Fire reflects their real-world performance in a fire. addresses them.
Safety Strategy. External wall (ETICS) systems and sandwich It is a problem that grows worse every day as It is time for the European Parliament to wake
panels are particularly in need of attention, as we change the fabric of buildings, yet despite the up to the threat of fire. To continue to ignore the
As was the case with the EU’s Road are systems with combustible elements sensitive danger to European citizens, no EU-wide standards problem is to sleep through a very loud alarm.
Safety Strategy, as a starting point in this to installation errors and ageing. and regulations currently exist to address the
effort, reliable data, based on a harmonized matter of fire safety in buildings. We call you to action.
methodology, will be needed to identify trends,
best practices, pinpoint which actions should be
taken, and indicate progress with compliance. Incorporating Toxicity
Goals also need to be set for each EU Member
State country on the “acceptable” human and Data from across the globe indicate that
economic losses for fire safety. more than half of all fire-related injuries and
deaths are caused not by the fire directly but
by its smoke. Smoke from a fire can obscure
evacuation routes, impair the vision of evacuees,
Updating the CPR to address cause irritation to the respiratory tracts, and
its gaps and weaknesses eventually bring about narcosis due to the
in testing methods inhalation of asphyxiant gases. In addition, the
long term exposure to smoke also represents a
major cause of cancer among Fire Fighters.
The test methods called on by the CPR for the
fire safety of construction products are in urgent Clearly one of the greatest dangers of smoke
need of revision, especially with regard to their lies in its toxic potency. Yet no current European
scale. The simple fact is that the fire behavior regulation or standard includes smoke toxicity in
of some of the most commonly used modern its requirements. Opacity, yes. Toxicity, no. This
construction materials and systems cannot means that the greatest potential fire-related
always be reliably predicted with existing small- killer lies silently in the background, ignored
scale tests or modelling. Fortunately, tackling until it strikes.
the update does not mean starting with a blank
slate, because several International (ISO) and That is why Fire Safe Europe recommends
European national test protocols already exist. strongly that a system be put in place to quantify
the toxic potential of smoke from different
The European Commission has published construction products in different fire situations.
“Guidance Paper G”, which addresses issues ISO has developed test methods and criteria
related to the functioning of the European for smoke toxicity. It simply needs to be applied
system for classification of construction via a mandate to CEN/CENELEC to incorporate
products reaction to fire. The concepts contained toxicity criteria into the CPR classification
in Guidance Paper G should be incorporated scheme based on the existing ISO WD 16405 and
in CPR legislation and thus made normative. ISO 13571 methodologies.
10 11
For more information
+32 (0)483 167 273
secretariat@firesafeeurope.eu
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