Safety experts responsible for putting fire protection systems in iconic buildings like the Shard and Sydney Operate House have been put through their paces at a South Yorkshire training exercise.

South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue (SYFR) staged the exercise for seven fire engineers from ARUP, a multinational company responsible for implementing fire safety systems in large buildings worldwide.

The exercise at South Yorkshire’s Handsworth training base included scenarios in the service’s cutting edge Realistic Fire Training Building.

The training was designed to help the engineers to experience first-hand the physical demands placed on fire crews attending incidents.

SYFR’s Roger Brason, who helped organise the training, said: “As part of the design process, fire engineers have an obligation under building regulations to provide access and facilities for fire services. Physical attributes which are a daily part of a firefighters’ role are at times not fully quantified in design consideration by the fire engineering community.

“But staging this training allowed the engineers to understand how standard features commonly provided in buildings, such as dry and wet risers, fire fighting lifts, fire hydrants and smoke ventilation are used in real life events.”

Sometimes features which can aid firefighting are engineered out of designs to save money and space, so SYFR hopes that by staging the exercise engineers will have a better understanding of the impact this can have.

The exercise was led by South Yorkshire’s technical fire safety team, which is responsible for engaging businesses in the county and ensuring they meet obligations under fire safety legislation.

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