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Fire safety stays top of the agenda at UK Construction Week

Fire Door Safety Week starts today (Monday 24 September 2018). But the critical message of fire safety will also extend to another 35,000 construction professionals at UK Construction Week, the country’s largest construction event which returns to the NEC in just a fortnight, from 9-11 October.

Top of the bill at UK Construction Week (UKCW) is a major seminar on the UKCW main stage on Wednesday 10 October looking at quality in construction post-Grenfell. Speakers at this event include Jonathan O’Neill, managing director at the Fire Protection Association, Peter Capelhorn, deputy chief executive and policy director at the Construction Products Association and Claire Curtis-Thomas, chief executive of the BBA.

Elsewhere in the show, free CPD workshops will cover topics such as ‘Are you fire door sure’ by Fire Door Safety Week’s spokesperson and leading authority on passive fire protection Hannah Mansell, plus others on fire safety during hot works, fire safe concrete construction, low fire hazard electrical cables, non-combustible insulation solutions, and effective compartmentation and fire stopping.

TRADA also has a seminar on the correct design of timber buildings for fire safety performance running each day in the Timber Focus Theatre in Hall 9, and the BRE Academy is offering a free CPD workshop on 11 October on fire safe design and management.

Among more than 650 exhibitors promoting fire safety solutions to the construction industry will be fit out specialist Morland promoting its fire door frame with concealed intumescent seal, along with fire door experts at UK Fire Doors Ltd, Complete Firedoors Ltd and Checkmate Fire Solutions, and stands by passive fire protection experts Envirograf, and fire extinguisher company Safelincs Ltd.

Nathan Garnett, UKCW event director, says:

“Fire safety is now top of the agenda all year round, not just during Fire Door Safety Week. We know it will be a major focus for many of our UKCW visitors as the issue is moving so fast.

“The construction industry is still waiting for the outcome of the government consultations following the Grenfell Tower fire and Hackitt Review, but that’s certainly not stopping important progress. Much of the discussion on fire safety at this year’s show is likely to be on the new solutions and pragmatic changes to design, construction, maintenance and property management that are already becoming part of daily practice.”