A blog written by Commulite…
The Grenfell Inquiry brought up the need for better evacuation control, leading to the creation of BS8629 which is now a recommended standard, but is yet to be made a necessary compliance in England.
It also highlighted the confusion both firefighters and residents had in knowing which floor they were on amid the disaster.
Clearly there is much that can be done to improve the safety of future and existing buildings. So why does it take legal compliance for people’s lives to be considered valuable enough to invest in adequate materials and systems?
What does compliance really mean? Is it really just about submitting the right paperwork to make sure you don’t break the law?
We believe it’s more than that.
● It’s having the peace of mind that you’ve done your best to ensure the safety of your residents in an emergency situation.
● It’s knowing you haven’t cut corners to save cost… and cost lives.
● It’s having control of the supply chain so you are not falling victim to ‘Value Engineering’.
● It’s having suppliers you can trust to put both yours and your residents’ needs first.
As a company we regularly receive comments from contractors who don’t care about the efficacy of our system, because ‘nobody will check it anyway’. And let's face it, it’s not their problem at the end of the day, it’s the client who is responsible and who will face the inquiry if there is a disaster.
When we develop our systems, we first look at what we can do to make it the best possible safety solution for the residents, as well how easy and accessible we can make it for our clients.
Of course, we are aware of the compliance standards, but for us that is a low benchmark. The standard compliance for emergency lighting is for 3 hours of light, but what if it’s night-time and residents are trapped for longer than 3 hours? We made sure our system will get them through the night with 9 hours of light.
With the introduction of BS8629 we developed Evax, an evacuation system integrating all of the intelligent monitoring control from the Commulite System. Evax gives the fire brigade easy control over a zoned evacuation, whilst giving residents clear instructions on what they need to do to be safely evacuated. Minimising the potential for confusion in an already terrifying situation.
Whilst our primary goal is safety of the residents, by superseding the current standards it also future proofs your investment. Not to mention giving you the knowledge that you have installed the best possible solution for your residents.
And because our systems are continuously remotely monitored, you have complete peace of mind. There are no ‘maybes’ with Commulite, you KNOW you are compliant at all times. We also make it easy for you with automatically generated and filed reports.
When you install Commulite Emergency Lighting Systems and Evax Emergency Evacuation Systems you are making an investment in your residents that will pay you back faster than any other system on the market. That’s a win win for everyone.
We should all be striving to do our best to protect lives, not just submitting the right paperwork to avoid a fine. It’s everyone’s responsibility to do the right thing.