Chris



I have asked both my wife and girl friend and they are both unable to define or give an example of the term premature.


However in terms of premature collapse of wiring systems I have previously sought advice on the from an ex senior fire officer now fire risk assessor. His view was premature collapse was when elements of the building were failing because the fire was so extensive or hot.Prior top that stage would be the rescue stage for firefighters where they would be going in to a premises on fire with breathing apparatus to search for and rescue occupants. If due the excessive heat elements of the building were collapsing it would be to hot for the firefighters to enter and anyone who was trapped inside would be dead anyway. If that was the case they would fight the fire from outside the building squirting water in through the window apertures.


When the regulation was introduced in to the Wiring Regulations it was at the behest of the fire service as I think at the time 8 firefighters had been killed in 10 years mostly in residential premises. Because contractors were ignoring the definition of "Escape Route" as defined in Part 2 preferring to use their own definition to avoid having to implement the safety measure in the 18th Edition the term escape route was removed from the Regulation to ensure it was applicable without doubt to everywhere.


When this Regulation went in to the 17the Edition I was doing presentations on this at the Elex shows for Stroma. We were getting some people in the audience who were clearly not happy with this and questioned the need for this safety provision. At one Elex show after some objections from the audience a member of the audience put is hand up and said in addition to being an electrician he was a retained fire fighter and went on to say "this is killing my mates please do this" which stopped any further questions from the audience.


Every support does not have  to be metallic perhaps every third support if in your judgment it would be sufficient to prevent the cable falling down and trapping someone. There a loads of solutions from the manufacturers and suppliers for every type of cable and situation so there is no excuse not to do it, come along the the Elex shows (next one Sandown Park in November) and have a look at the solutions on display there.

Chris



I have asked both my wife and girl friend and they are both unable to define or give an example of the term premature.


However in terms of premature collapse of wiring systems I have previously sought advice on the from an ex senior fire officer now fire risk assessor. His view was premature collapse was when elements of the building were failing because the fire was so extensive or hot.Prior top that stage would be the rescue stage for firefighters where they would be going in to a premises on fire with breathing apparatus to search for and rescue occupants. If due the excessive heat elements of the building were collapsing it would be to hot for the firefighters to enter and anyone who was trapped inside would be dead anyway. If that was the case they would fight the fire from outside the building squirting water in through the window apertures.


When the regulation was introduced in to the Wiring Regulations it was at the behest of the fire service as I think at the time 8 firefighters had been killed in 10 years mostly in residential premises. Because contractors were ignoring the definition of "Escape Route" as defined in Part 2 preferring to use their own definition to avoid having to implement the safety measure in the 18th Edition the term escape route was removed from the Regulation to ensure it was applicable without doubt to everywhere.


When this Regulation went in to the 17the Edition I was doing presentations on this at the Elex shows for Stroma. We were getting some people in the audience who were clearly not happy with this and questioned the need for this safety provision. At one Elex show after some objections from the audience a member of the audience put is hand up and said in addition to being an electrician he was a retained fire fighter and went on to say "this is killing my mates please do this" which stopped any further questions from the audience.


Every support does not have  to be metallic perhaps every third support if in your judgment it would be sufficient to prevent the cable falling down and trapping someone. There a loads of solutions from the manufacturers and suppliers for every type of cable and situation so there is no excuse not to do it, come along the the Elex shows (next one Sandown Park in November) and have a look at the solutions on display there.