Summary
• The UKTFA’s Site Safe Scheme is now obligatory for members working on buildings over 2,500m² or four storeys.
• Site Safe’s 16 points range from anti-arson site security to construction work practices.
• The UKTFA is now evaluating further fire safety initiatives.

Geoff Arnold admits he paled as he watched BBC Breakfast TV on November 26. What shocked the chairman of the UK Timber Frame Association and chief executive of Pinewood Structures was the report of a major construction site fire in Peckham.

“I saw the pictures of the burnt out wreckage, the scaffolding standing and thought ‘oh no, it’s timber frame’,” he said.

In itself, the news was bad enough. No-one was hurt, but the four-storey frame for a 39-apartment block – which had just been finished by Target Timber Frame and handed over to contractors Greenacre Homes for completion – was totally destroyed and 300 people had to be evacuated from neighbouring buildings.

What heightened the impact of the fire for the UKTFA was that it followed several others on part finished multi-storey timber frame building sites in recent years. Sections of the masonry construction lobby had already capitalised on these incidents (which, like Peckham, were mainly suspected arson), even calling for ‘high rise’ timber frame to be banned in built-up areas. They also sparked inflammatory reports about timber frame fire risk in Building magazine – and its article on the latest blaze was only marginally less emotive, using the image of a frame made of matches and the cover line “so how dangerous is timber frame?”.

Against this backdrop, the UKTFA concluded that Peckham demanded decisive action on building site fire risk. And just two months later, it says, decisive action is what it’s taken, with more initiatives in the pipeline.

“Timber frame has it all to lose,” said Mr Arnold. “With the growing impetus for sustainable construction and timber frame’s unique environmental advantages, we are potentially perfectly placed. As our ‘Fabric First’ promotion in 2010 will highlight, timber frame is seen as the most cost-effective build method currently capable of delivering volume housing that meets levels three and four of the government’s Code for Sustainable Homes without bolt-on renewable energy technology. Completed timber frame buildings, with all the internal and external lining and cladding in place, are also proven to be as fire safe as any other, but there are obviously construction site safety issues and we have to confront them – we cannot let this damage our industry in anyway.”

Important steps

He stressed that the UKTFA had already taken important steps on fire safety prior to Peckham. These included technical research and, most significantly, the drafting of its 16-point ‘Site Safe Scheme’ – effectively a construction site risk assessment and fire safety code of practice for timber frame companies and sub-contractors. This lays down the ground rules while the frame is at its most vulnerable, exposed stage, taking into account building type, scale and location and covering the range of topics, including fire safety planning and workforce education, potential sources of ignition, detection and extinguishing equipment and anti-arson site protection, from fencing and motion sensors, to security guards (and it is reported that the Peckham site had no night watchman).

Drafting the Site Safe was a major step forward, said Mr Arnold. “But after Peckham we had to ask if it was being adopted sufficiently robustly,” he said. “Having previously worked in engineering marketing, my concern was also whether we were communicating the scheme to the wider industry.”

Both issues, he added, are now being addressed. From January 31 it will be obligatory for UKTFA members to adhere to all aspects of Site Safe on buildings over four storeys or 2,500m².

“We’re still finalising the detail, but in the case of clear intentional breaches by members it will probably be one strike and you’re out, perhaps two strikes for reporting errors,” said Mr Arnold. “Our rules must have teeth.”

These larger sites will also have to be registered with the UKTFA and submit to audit to be Site Safe accredited.

Critically, timber frame providers must additionally prove they have explained and passed on the Site Safe document to the sub-contractor.

The UKTFA is clear that, once the timber frame provider has signed off the frame, fire risk responsibility passes to the contractor, but it also sees its role as ensuring that they in turn follow Site Safe.

“We’re now looking at how to achieve this,” said Mr Arnold. “It could form part of standard auditing by NHBC, or NEBOSH-accredited in-house safety assessors. And there also has to be a reporting route where contractors fail to comply, possibly to the Health & Safety Executive.”

It will also be compulsory under Site Safe for timber frame companies to register larger sites with their local fire authority.

Cutting fire risk

Beyond Site Safe, the UKTFA is also looking at means of cutting arson and fire risk through new technologies and work practice.

“The Sidey secure window system, which is pre-installed in wall panels, is interesting and there’s the possibility of compartmentalisation of sites, so that sections are completed, with roofs and party walls, as the next area of frame is erected,” said Mr Arnold. “We’re also liaising with treatment suppliers on fire retardants.”

Other future possibilities that have caught the UKTFA’s eye include temporary construction site sprinklers, and, as another aid for fire fighters, a building type fire performance labelling system; “the building equivalent of Hazchem labels”.

Despite the best efforts of the masonry sector and the more exploitative media coverage, the UKTFA has not detected any backlash against timber frame from developers or consumers following recent site fires. The greater risk, it believes, is of legislators or the Fire Protection Association picking up on the incidents and imposing overly restrictive controls. But in any event, said Mr Arnold, it cannot be complacent.

“We must continue to take this seriously, address any problems and engage with stakeholders. What we must not have is another Peckham.”