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Prevention of Fire, Protection of Property and Assets and Business Interruption
Asset Protection

Key components of a strategy to protect buildings and assets are:
  • Compartmentation to limit fire spread.
  • Separation of high hazard and high value/business critical rooms.
  • Automatic fire detection to provide early warning.
  • Suppression systems and equipment to control/extinguish fires.
All Divisions are required to ensure that their assets are appropriately protected, taking into account the following principles. Where necessary, the advice of specialists should be sought. Compartmentation/Fire Separation Building Regulations limit the size of fire compartments within buildings. However, smaller compartment sizes will often be necessary for property protection. Different occupancies should be separated by fire resisting construction. For example, there should be fire separation between stage/scenery storage areas and studios. Rooms that present significant hazards, either due to the presence of ignition sources or because they contain a high fire load, and rooms containing high value equipment etc., should be enclosed in fire resisting construction. Examples include:
  • Kitchens.
  • Boiler rooms.
  • Workshops.
  • Store rooms, especially tape stores.
  • TV and radio studios.
  • Apparatus rooms.
  • Communications/Computer rooms.
  • Edit suites.
  • Electrical switchrooms.
  • Control rooms.
Fire resisting construction intended for property protection should normally achieve, at least, 60 minutes fire resistance (integrity, insulation and, where appropriate, load bearing capacity) when tested in accordance with BS 476-22. In some circumstances, longer periods may be required, particularly for major compartment walls. Equally, 30 minutes may suffice for lower risk situations, in which the amount of combustible materials (and hence the likely fire duration) is small. Openings in compartment walls should be fitted with fire resisting self closing doors of the same rating. The integrity of compartments should be maintained, particularly where services pass through the compartment walls, ceilings and floors.
 
Choice of Automatic Systems
A business critical or important technical installation is likely to employ two or more of the following fire detection and automatic suppression arrangements:
  • Automatic Fire Detection
  • High sensitivity aspirating smoke detection
  • Gaseous fire suppression
  • Water fire suppression
The most business critical areas will use all four levels of protection to ensure that fires are detected at a very early stage, with automatic systems in place should a failure occur in each stage.
 
A chart showing the process for considering automatic fire protection can be found here.
 
In order to determine the correct approach regarding appropriate fire suppression, it is vital that the Fire Safety Manager, BBC Safety, is informed when new broadcast/business critical technical areas are proposed, or existing areas are found to be unprotected.
 
Automatic Fire Detection
The earliest possible warning of fire would be provided where automatic fire detectors are installed throughout all rooms and spaces in a building.
 
As a minimum, escape routes, corridors and circulation areas should be provided with automatic fire detection. Rooms off these areas and other vulnerable rooms such as plant rooms and stores should also be covered.
 
Very Early Smoke Detection Apparatus
Special high sensitivity aspirating smoke detection systems should be used to protect business critical apparatus rooms.
 
It is essential that the system be monitored continuously by staff. If the premises are left unoccupied for significant periods (e.g. overnight), automatic transmission of alarms to a remote manned centre should be considered.
 
Automatic Fire Suppression Sprinklers
If a high standard of property protection is considered necessary, an automatic sprinkler system should be provided. Although partial coverage of a building can be of benefit in some circumstances, it is normal practice to install sprinklers throughout a protected building.
 
Gaseous Extinguishing Systems
The highest standard of property and asset protection is provided by the installation of a gaseous fire extinguishing system. Apart from areas where high voltage equipment is present, sprinkler systems should also be installed.
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