Insulate Magazine May 2018

Insulate insulate Columnist columnist
MIMA Calls for Urgent Action
from Prime Minister Over Building Safety
Sarah Kostense-Winterton Executive Director, MIMA
Official reviews may be underway
and will run their
courses, but ten months on
from the tragedy of Grenfell and the
anniversary looming on 14 June, the
UK remains no closer to a safer system
of fire safety regulation and little
has been done to prevent another fire.
This situation is not one which can
wait for outcomes. The Government
must act and act now to protect the
public and especially those most vulnerable
in society. The Government
must lead from the front.
Deep-rooted concerns have prompted
an open letter to the Prime Minister,
Theresa May from MIMA with a
group of united leading fire safety
experts and advocates urging the
government to implement three important
regulatory changes with immediate
effect that will significantly
improve fire safety for high-rise and
high-risk buildings, such as schools,
hospitals, care homes, sheltered housing
and residential blocks.
These three common-sense measures
will help protect people’s lives and the
buildings in which they live, work,
learn, and recover. The fire safety experts
urge the government to require
immediately that:
• Only non-combustible cladding
and insulation be installed;
• They be fitted with sprinklers;
and,
• All new buildings of these types
have alternative escape routes.
Alongside MIMA, signatories include
prominent architect, television
presenter, lecturer and writer, George
Clarke; European Fire Sprinkler
Network (EFSN); Jane Duncan,
Chair, RIBA Expert Advisory Group
on Fire
Safety and former President of the
RIBA; Mineral Wool Manufacturers
Association (MIMA); Ronnie King
OBE, Honorary Administrative
Secretary and Principal Adviser to the
All Party Parliamentary Fire Safety
& Rescue
Group and former Chief Fire Officer;
British Automatic Fire Sprinkler
Association (BAFSA); Professor
Richard Hull and Professor Anna
Stec from the University of Central
Lancashire; Professor Anne Power
from the London School of Economics;
and Sam Webb, Architect and
RIBA Expert Advisory Group on
Fire Safety member. so thermal resistance
(R-value, units: m2K/W) is a
more accurate measure of a material’s
ability, at a specific thickness, to resist
heat transfer.
The signatories acknowledge official
reviews are underway, but these steps
would substantially reduce the risk
still facing many buildings in the UK,
and reassure the many families and
individuals living and working in high
risk buildings across the country.
George Clarke personally supports
this approach and has commented:
Sarah Kostense-Winterton
is Executive Director of
MIMA, the Mineral Wool
Insulation Manufacturers
Association, the industry
trade body for non-combustible,
breathable insulation
which provides an authoritative
source of independent
information and advice
on glass and stone wool
insulation.
MIMA represents four
of the leading insulation
companies in the UK -
Isover Saint-Gobain, Knauf
Insulation, ROCKWOOL
and Superglass.
For further details of the
guidance, please visit
MIMA’s website at http://
mima.info/info-centre/
news/ or contact Sarah at
sarah@mima.info
“The rules for how we build safe homes,
offices, schools and hospitals have for
many years been far too open to
interpretation. This has led to poor
design decisions that have compromised
fire safety and put lives at risk. What
we are arguing for could be implemented
tomorrow, would be extremely effective
in making buildings safer, and help
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