Firefighters or Building Control Surveyors

27th May 2016

Assent’s Building Control Surveyors from HQs took on a different type of challenge yesterday which took them out of their comfort zone of buildings into the unknown world of fire and rescue.

To help our surveyors understand the difficulties that firefighters have to face when entering a building they took on the challenge of attending a Fire Fighting Experience Day with the South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue service in Sheffield.

South Yorkshire Fire Services (SYFS) officers Roger Brason and Caz Whiteman discussed how the Regulations we apply (specifically B5) help them fight fires in real life with reference to dry/wet risers in high rise, the relationship between hydrants and buildings and establishing bridgeheads via firefighting lobbies. The discussion was followed by a practical demonstration by SYFS officer Gary Devonport of a fire flash over in controlled conditions.

Assent’s surveyors were shown how to connect firefighting hoses to hydrants to tackle fires before putting them through their paces as they tried to reach a fire on the third floor of SYFS smoke house. This was achieved in 5-and-a-half minutes and demonstrated the physical exertion required to manually lift hoses up three flights of stairs to reach the fire. They were then taken into SYFS purpose built fire house to simulate the difficulty of navigating through a house in total darkness to rescue a casualty.

The final exercise of the day saw surveyors taken into the fire house to experience a flash over.

The day proved to be positive and hardworking but our surveyors now have the insight and valuable knowledge of the conditions that firefighters have to take on.