Why are we not protecting our valuable assets?

This informal CPD article, ‘Why are we not protecting our valuable assets?', was provided by Business Sprinkler Alliance (BSA), established in 2010 as an alliance of fire safety professionals working to protect UK plc against fire.

Why are we not protecting our valuable assets?

The optimistic belief that a fire “will not happen to me” could explain why many businesses are not always considering the real impact of fire and its consequences. They can underestimate the direct financial impact on both the property and the business, and the time it takes to recover from a fire. This all can have an impact on business value over time. A business property that is well-protected in terms of fire protection and safety will have a far greater intrinsic value, yet the ‘market’ does not seem to value this.

Looking at the value of a property, it’s important to think about performance over time. We use metrics, data and evaluations to do this. However, how does this include considering risk and events that may happen, like fire? An EPC rating by comparison is required whenever a property is built, sold and rented and seen as a key indicator of energy efficiency of a building and energy costs. The lack of a rating would be questioned and the value of the property is impacted if the information isn’t provided.

When it comes to fire safety, there are no fire safety ratings of buildings and if fire safety information is not available, this does not always lead to questions. It should do and this is perhaps a more prominent item for certain buildings today. There are moves afoot for selected buildings to have such information through the provision of what has been termed a Golden Thread. However, this needs to spread to a wider set of buildings. Fundamentally we need to be asking how the building delivers fire safety and is protected against such events, and where is the information to support this? This should become a valuable piece of information for any owner and similarly have a negative impact on the value if not provided across all buildings.

For example, if one office block has sprinklers, fire alarms, documented maintenance, plans etc and another doesn’t have sprinklers then the sprinkler-protected building is clearly worth more. If nothing else it has more equipment. The value of that equipment can be seen functionally but it is also an investment in terms of fire safety and protection of the property over time. A sprinkler investment means that if there is a serious fire event, then you're likely to have more of that asset left afterwards. A well-protected property therefore has an intrinsic value.

This also raises the question as to the value of the property that has been sprinkler- protected over time. Some would argue that value only comes to pass when you stop something bad happening. The analogy to airbags would be a good example, as you hope you won’t ever have to use them. Interestingly, airbags were developed in the early 1950s and while they are a feature of all modern cars, this safety solution is still not a legal requirement – but a car could not receive a suitable safety rating without one.

Today, automatic fire sprinklers are not widely used in the UK partly because the regulatory guidance rarely prescribes their use and partly because even when prescribed they are often ‘value engineered’ out. Yet automatic fire sprinklers prevent large fires because they activate automatically over a fire, controlling or even extinguishing the blaze before the Fire and Rescue Service arrives.  They therefore protect the lives of those in the building and the firefighters who attend an incident – but they also prevent significant damage or destruction of a building by fire.

As warehouses and similar industrial buildings are likely to proliferate in the coming years, now is the time to think of how, and why, we should protect these valuable assets which may not be glamorous, but nonetheless are vital as part of the UK’s business infrastructure.

We hope this article was helpful. For more information from Business Sprinkler Alliance (BSA), please visit their CPD Member Directory page. Alternatively, you can go to the CPD Industry Hubs for more articles, courses and events relevant to your Continuing Professional Development requirements.