From Tragedy to Technology: How Fire Safety Reforms are Shaping the Future

New Fire Safety Regulations 2022: A Response to Grenfell

The Grenfell disaster and its findings have delivered a new set of regulations known as Fire Safety Regulations 2022.  These came into effect January 2023 and include several new duties for building owners and managers including:

• Information Sharing: Responsible persons must sure information about the building’s external wall system with local fire and rescue services.
• Floor Plans: Electronic copies of floor plans and single-page orientation plan must be created and available.
• Wayfinding Signage: High-rise buildings must have signage visible in low light conditions.
• Fire Door Checks: Regular checks on fire doors and essential firefighting equipment are required.

‍

Lessons from the Past: The Childers Tragedy in Australia

What some people in the UK may not be aware of is that a very similar tragedy and reform occurred in Australia some 24 years ago in Queensland.  It was just two months before the Sydney Olympics and Australia was about to burst onto the scenes of every lounge room worldwide but instead, a story about 15 young vibrant backpackers perishing in an accommodation fire that should have been prevented and horrified the world. 

Both Childers and Grenfell were tragedies that killed the innocent and had everyone’s attention.  Both cases resulted in Royal Commissions and reforms that take decades to effect change. Occupant fire safety laws are now more prescriptive and result in greater responsibility for certifiers and building owners/occupiers. In 2009 the Locatrix team began writing software that specifically supported the outcomes and new rules.

‍

Locatrix: Innovating Fire Safety with PlanStudio and PlanSafe

Fast forward to today and Locatrix has two products: PlanStudio and PlanSafe.  PlanStudio is an automated drafting tool that creates digitized floor plans specifically for the fire industry.  PlanSafe takes the site-specific information collected through PlanStudio and it creates an online site and role specific training solution for occupants in a building.

Locatrix now sets the software standard for the fire industry in Australia, as the preferred tool to create and update indoor floor plans (evacuation plans) which are then shared securely with Emergency Services.  That means that when there is an emergency, First Responders can access digital floor plans on their own networks through the Locatrix APIs. This new product known as Emergency Services Platform - ESP.

Pyrotec Services Ltd: Embracing Technology for Compliance

Pyrotec Services Ltd is a well-established company with over 40 years experience in the fire alarm sector.  Founded in 1979 in Oxfordshire, the company has grown to become a principal provider of fire and security services in its region.  Specialising in protecting life and property through comprehensive fire and security solutions, they service a variety of industries including residential, commercial, local government, health trust and educational. 

Justyn Soames is a Director at Pyrotec Fire and Security and has worked in the industry for 40 years himself. 

A naturally curious man, Justyn said he discovered Locatrix’s PlanStudio while working within the company’s system maintenance software platform Uptick.

“I was working away looking into the various ways to utilise the software and saw that PlanStudio was an integration offering through Uptick.  So I did a quick google search to see if perhaps there was another technology solution that could further help us meet the new fire safety requirements – and there it was - PlanStudio!”

‍

Since adopting PlanStudio, Justyn and other members of the projects team  have quickly taken to the software.

“Jamie Eade provided a few training sessions and along with the in-app training tools, we all became easily proficient in sign publishing.  This realization of speed and purpose-built templates offered by PlanStudio, I can see that this is a great tool that will help us grow our business, providing an additional offering for our customer base”. 

What Justyn is finding is that with technology from Uptick and Locatrix are enriching the fire industry, the level and quality of reporting is now so high, fire contractors and building owners have no excuses for non-compliance. 

“With improved reporting comes high accountability and this highlights the need to address the gaps to make sure buildings are safe.  One of the most common unmet requirements is the need for evacuation plans”

 “The vast majority of the buildings we service are that old that plans just are not available and if they are, are certainly not up to date.  This is where PlanStudio comes into its full effect.  PlanStudio enables us to draft the building quickly and easily, with the added time saver of automation enabling us to publish the amount of evacuation plans immediately.  All you must do is identify on the plan which walls the signs are to be affixed and the software orientates the plan and publishes it for you”. 

“With the urgency of meeting compliance requirements, there simply is not another tool on the market that can be used to deliver plans with the accuracy and completeness of PlanStudio.  AutoCAD plans can take days to create from scratch, whereas PlanStudio plans can be created in a fraction of the time  and even while on site if required”. 

‍

The Future of Fire Safety: Technology is a Key Player

Justyn says that while PlanStudio will provide Pyrotec a competitive advantage, he believes that other fire companies should be taking note and giving PlanStudio a trial.

“PlanStudio is just a brilliant software platform and needs to be recognized as a leading industry tool.  With the Fire Safety Reforms we need better technology to help us identify,  address and record building risks and non compliances.  The days of pen and paper are long gone and were never as reliable as they needed to be.  Where there are lives at risk  every relevant sector needs to do better.  No person should ever have to witness let alone be involved in another Grenfell disaster again”.