Building Owners, Landlords, Tenant and Facilities Management Organisations, under new legislative guidance, have a duty of care for the fire strategy, compliance and ‘digital recording’ of that data for their buildings fire safety assets.
The new Fire Safety Regulations 2022 that came into force earlier in the year states that the buildings ‘Responsible Persons’ must deliver the necessary fire door information to all residents of multi-occupancy buildings. Additional legislation introduced in early October, the ‘Phase 3’ amendments to Section 156, has further strengthened fire safety in all FSO regulated premises by: improving cooperation and coordination between Responsible Persons; increasing requirements in relation to the recording and sharing of fire safety information thus creating a continual record throughout a building’s lifespan; making it easier for enforcement authorities to take action against non-compliance; ensuring residents have access to comprehensive information about fire safety in their building.
FireDNA has been designed specifically to help meet all of the new compliance criteria, and is aligned with the data requirements of BS 8644-1:2022 and Regulation 10.
What is FireDNA?
FireDNA is cloud-based software and a mobile app that has been developed for everyone involved in passive fire product; manufacture, installation, inspection, management and maintenance. As well as for those that live and work within environments where passive fire products are installed and have a crucial role to play in fire safety and prevention.
- FireDNA helps to protect anyone who lives, works or visits multi-occupancy buildings
- FireDNA provides a fire door, and passive fire product asset management solution for the Responsible Persons who own or manage multi-occupancy buildings
- FireDNA allows manufacturers to provide specifications and guidelines for the compliant installation and maintenance of their products, as well as any third-party fire test certification
- FireDNA gives guidance to Contractors, Installers and trades that supply, fit and maintain passive fire products and allows them to easily catalogue their installations and remedial work ‘on-site’, with or without a wifi connection
In essence FireDNA delivers a digitised O&M Manual across the lifecycle of Passive Fire Products; Fire Doors, Doorsets, Firescreens etc. This end-to-end ‘Golden Thread’ of data can then be made easily accessible to those that need it, at the point of need.
How does FireDNA work and who is it for?
FireDNA software catalogues Manufacturers product data, digitally shares it with Contractors and Installers, who in turn add their installation data, passing that onto Building Owners, FM’s & TMO’s.
That data can then be used by Building Control, Maintenance Teams, Fire Inspectors and viewed by Tenants and Residents alike, with a simple swipe of a smartphone or mobile device.
Specific user groups that benefit from deploying the FireDNA software and app are as follows:
Manufacturers: Upload production specifications and critical installation guidance and can easily share third party certificates for product suitability, fire safety test evidence and permitted onsite repairs and adjustments.
Contractors & Installers: Add installation statements, are able to demonstrate core competencies and evidence installation and fit-out standards. They can also issue operational and maintenance guidance and certificates as part of the O&M Manual sign-off and hand-over.
Fire Inspectors: Conduct certified audits and inspections, that data is then automatically formatted into detailed reports, using voice annotation and photographic evidence, which output to MS Word Docs, Excel Spreadsheets and PDF’s.
Building Owners, FM’s and TMO’s: Can effectively monitor, maintain and share fire safety compliance data with all stakeholders through their dashboard. They can also assign internal and external teams to undertake inspections and maintenance tasks.
Maintenance Teams: Access work schedules and update the passive fire products ‘live status’ once remedial works and maintenance tasks are completed.
Residents & Tenants: get ‘peace of mind’ that the passive fire products; Fire Doors, Doorsets, Firescreens etc, in their building are safe and compliant by scanning the QR Code or NFC Tag using a free version of the FireDNA App
FireDNA seamlessly links everyone in this chain of responsibility.
Every element of ‘data input’ and ‘action taken’ within the FireDNA software, across all user groups, is ‘date stamped’ and ‘action logged’ making all changes or updates completely transparent and accessible, which cannot be retrospectively amended or changed.
Building Owners and/or the ‘Responsible Persons’
FireDNA software enables Building Owners, Facilities Managers and Tenant Management Organisations to save considerable time and money on their compliance reporting. They are able to organise quarterly and annual inspections and have the results immediately accessible to digitally share with interested third parties and stakeholders.
The FireDNA Software and Mobile App has been deployed by asset management firm BAML (part of the Ballymore Group) to inspect and monitor 25,000 Fire Doors across 10 of its large London developments including; Embassy Gardens in Nine Elms, ‘Wardian’ London’s iconic two towers in Canary Wharf, Royal Wharf in the Royal Docks area and the Brentford town centre regeneration project adjacent to the River Brent.
With the new Regulation 10 having come into force earlier in the year, owners of buildings over 11 metres are required to carry out quarterly checks and annual inspections on all fire doors. Following a demonstration of our software, BAML immediately saw the benefits FireDNA delivers, not only through the time and cost savings, but also in the ease of use, accessibility of the data, and how FireDNA integrates with their full asset register.
Fire Door Inspectors
For qualified Inspectors FireDNA has shown it can half the time in carrying out surveys and inspections of Fire Doors and Doorsets compared with their existing methods. In addition, it also negates the need for time intensive paperwork and has shown to save significant time (up to 70%) in creating Audit and Inspection reports and remedial costing documentation.
On a recent project undertaken on behalf of Mitie for the Scottish Fire & Rescue Service our software was used. The project included inspection and reporting on 9422 fire doors, across 357 sites, within 547 buildings. As a result, FireDNA was instrumental in helping to bring the project in on time and within budget.
The FDI (The Fire Door Inspectors) Testimonial
Elliott Brown, Managing Director and Owner of The FDI has been using the FireDNA Software & App for several years’ now, here’s what he has to say…
” I’m a big advocate for innovative products coming into our industry to ensure vital fire safety information is easily accessible. I am an even bigger advocate of FireDNA as our chosen product to assist with this.
The FDI have over 28.000 fire doors audited and inspected on this system, each and every one of them has had its relevant information uploaded, the level of detail we have been able to input into this system is second to none!
Using the upload fields and dropdown menu options we can easily input:
- Overall building compartment drawings
- Individual ironmongery component specifications
- Highly detailed installation information with images
- Continued maintenance programme requirements
And the reporting output is incredible and so fast:
- Highly detailed Audit and Inspection Reports
- Regulation 10 Quarterly Fire Door Check Reports
- Fully functional Remedial Work Costing Spreadsheets
This system gives the full overview, and exceptional granular detail for our clients; not only from ourselves but also from the other entities and trades coming together onsite to carry out the works. It enables everyone involved to quickly and easily add to the information chain and instantly share it with the buildings Responsible Persons.
If you are looking at implementing a new digital fire door monitoring system, then in my view, look no further than FireDNA.”
To find out more about how FireDNA can assist you, or for more information about our products and services log onto: www.fire-dna.com or call our team on 01403 597590.
You’ll also find our ‘Live Chat’ button on our website, where you can chat to one of our team in more detail, book a Demo, or sign-up to our FREE Trial. Contact us today to see how FireDNA can assist you in your fire safety and compliance data management.
