London Commercial/Industrial Sprinkler Activations

London Fire Brigade have reported the following sprinkler activations for the month of September/October 2023 involving a range of commercial/industrial premises: –

• 5 September; Food and Drink Processing plant
• 9 October; Customer Fulfilment Centre
• 12 October; Mental Health Facility Hospital

On each occasion it is reported: –

• The premises sprinkler system activated and raised the alarm.
• Of the three activations two fires were extinguished with no further firefighting required by operational crews on arrival.
• The remaining fire was contained, controlled requiring the use of one hose reel jet by operational crews on arrival to extinguish the fire.
• No more than 2 sprinkler heads were activated for each incident
• All fires were contained to the room of origin.

The above-mentioned incidents from a healthcare facility to a customer fulfilment centre clearly identify the benefits of Automatic Fire Suppression Systems (AFSS) for business resilience each fire was contained, controlled, or extinguished. Unfortunately, the impact of a fire can be devastating resulting in many businesses never recovering.  AFSS have demonstrated for many years that the inclusion of a AFSS can prevent major financial and equipment losses for UK Business.

These incidents demonstrate once again that sprinklers do work, the National Fire Chiefs Council, National Fire Sprinkler Network have worked together to investigate the effectiveness and reliability of sprinkler systems, in an ³independent report completed by Optimal economics interrogating thousands of incidents providing detailed and comprehensive analysis of the activation and performance of sprinkler systems used to control fires in buildings. The evidence indicates that sprinklers have an operational reliability of 95% when they do operate, they extinguish the fire on 99% of occasions on a wide range of buildings.

The ¹Business Sprinkler Alliance highlight that the future of a West Midlands food business remains uncertain following devastating fire following a huge fire at a food business in Willenhall caused significant damage and major disruption it was another in a series of fires in the food industry in recent years, with none of the facilities benefiting from an automatic sprinkler system. Six months later and what is left of the fire damaged structure is about to be demolished and the future of the Midland Chilled Foods business at this site remains unclear.

To promote the benefits of sprinklers we need the evidence, if you hear of a save report it using the report a sprinkler save tab

Links

• Sprinkler Saves Review 2022/2023
• Sprinkler Saves Update No 2
• ¹Business Sprinkler Alliance
• ³Efficiency and Effectiveness of Sprinkler Systems in the United Kingdom: An Analysis from Fire Service Data – Optimal Economics May 2017