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Prevent loss of business with timely servicing

The recent spate of retail mall and other public facility closures by local authorities in various centres, especially in Cape Town, could have been avoided by contracting a professional servicing and maintenance package says Leo Slootmans, CEO of national fire, security and maintenance services company, FireSpec.

Security and fire system maintenance is often the last line item in building OPEX considerations and a virtual Cinderella service when compared with the more visible maintenance and building performance issues.

The S.A. National Standard (SANS) 10400 Part T as Code of Practice affecting public and building safety aspects of the National Building Regulations, brings with it a host of compliance standards and practices for the built environment. It addresses risk management in the comprehensive sense.

“Compliance with regulations is firmly on the agenda of many commercial and industrial companies. Hence, the installation of best practice active and passive fire protection systems has become key,” says FireSpec’s CEO, Leo Slootmans.

“While it might be the last thing on people’s minds, it is startling how quickly the matter escalates when facing building closure by local authorities owing to public safety concerns.”

To prevent such building closures, Slootmans advises facilities managers to:

1. Ensure equipment is working. This includes security and access, and fire detection, evacuation and extinguishing systems.

2. Run regular tests, alert tenants and customers as required.

3. Stay up to date with all the latest regulations and changes to both building codes and municipal laws.

4. Prioritise the maintenance and repair of systems not working.

5. Engage the services of an accredited service and maintenance company.

Building managers are faced with a changing landscape – both in terms of building safety codes and also system ­technology, says Slootmans. “Much original system hardware has simply gone out of date or has become totally obsolete owing to refurbishing and structural changes within a retail mall or public building. Fire systems, both passive and active, originally approved under rational design considerations may need a complete review once seemingly innocent work has been done inside the building. For example, breaking through walls, partitions or drilling through other structures to allow service duct entry or cabling could completely change the fire performance of the building.”

FireSpec offers a comprehensive package of new equipment and service according to Slootmans. “Take the work we did for ACSA at the new departure terminal of Cape Town International Airport. This major project involved the installation and total integration of active systems and passive controls. This facilitates the safe handling of fire and security emergencies including building evacuation. The integrated system that we installed ensures emergencies are dealt with seamlessly both at source and downstream, for example the shutdown of LPG automatically to all kitchens once the fire alert has been automatically activated. In addition, key passive fire protection features were installed, increasing the time window for safe evacuations to occur, or simply acting as barriers to flames.”

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