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British Standards of health and safety
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From Mark James, Chief Fire Officer, Fire and Rescue Service.
I NOTED with interest your headline article, ‘Bookie who didn’t bet on bureaucracy’, by Jack Maguire on 16 August and thought it prudent to write in order to explain the States of Jersey Fire and Rescue Service’s position.
Of course, I am very sorry that ‘Honest Nev’ has been left feeling frustrated by the situation, this was never our intention. When the Fire and Rescue Service become involved in the planning of events such as the Gorey fete, we do with three aims; to help make it enjoyable, to do our best to make sure nobody is hurt and to help event organisers comply with any regulatory requirements. Exactly how to do all three of these things to everyone’s satisfaction is, clearly, not always easy and different people will continue to hold different views about what is reasonable and what isn’t.
We think it is reasonable to apply thoroughly researched and very widely used and accepted British Standards for a variety of public safety issues. This assures us that the level of protection is appropriate, satisfies regulators, organisers and (for the most part) stall holders that the standards are at least based on something more than a fire officer’s judgment alone and are consistent and transparent.
The standards that apply to temporary structures are BS7837 or BS5867 and they are used to ensure that a fire does not take hold and spread; they are not a specialist product and the most basic gazebo cover should meet them. Traders, understandably, do not want to spend money unnecessarily however this fire retardant standard is (almost) universally accepted as an important part of running a public event without fear of a dangerous situation breaking out.
In all probability it is because of the widespread use of these standards and their international equivalents that we do not have much experience of fires spreading out of control but we know that when they do they can be disastrous.
In November 2011 a fire broke out in the hawker stalls of a street market in Kowloon, Hong Kong killing nine people and injuring 34 others. Of course the wonderful Gorey fete cannot easily be compared to a Kowloon street market but fire is fire wherever you are and they all have the potential to be very destructive events.
My officers are always happy to provide fire safety advice and can be contacted on 445967 or via email at FireSafety@gov.je.
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