iQ Student Accommodation provides student rooms in over 20 city centre locations across the UK, including London, Manchester, Birmingham, Sheffield, Oxford, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Bangor.
As a provider of student accommodation, it is incumbent upon iQ to ensure that all fire regulations are met and that adequate precautions are taken to ensure the safety of all residents.
Following the devastating fire at Grenfell Tower in June 2017, iQ undertook a proactive and comprehensive reassessment of its properties around the country – looking at all aspects of its fire and life safety policies and procedures to confirm that it had taken all possible steps to ensure the safety and wellbeing of residents and employees.
It had already been working with Safelincs, looking at the types of fire extinguishers being employed throughout its estate.
iQ has Manchester Fire and Rescue Service as its “Primary Authority” to ensure a consistent national approach to fire safety, with a role to ensure policies and procedures comply with or exceed current regulations. As a result it introduced a programme to replace water, foam and other fire extinguisher types with state-of-the-art water mist extinguishers.
The water mist technology used by these extinguishers allows them to produce over 22 billion water droplets from only 1 litre of water! The droplets are as small as 25 microns in diameter and create an ultra-fine mist which has superior fire-fighting capabilities. The patented nozzle creates water droplets unlike any other extinguisher, producing mist that leaves almost no trace and no collateral damage.
As a result these extinguishers are capable of tackling almost all common fires including class A, B, C, F type fires, as well as fires involving live electrical equipment of up to 1000V; the extinguishers contain de-ionised water which cannot conduct electricity. The unique water mist has the cooling effect of water and creates a "mist curtain", cutting off the oxygen supply to the fire. The droplets are so small that they have no adverse reaction on burning liquids and fats.
Safelincs have installed these extinguishers on the landings and in communal areas in over 20 iQ properties to date. Some of the sites have over 400 student bedrooms.
These extinguishers will successfully tackle any type of fire that might break out in this type of accommodation.
"iQ have staff in each building 24 hours a day, seven days a week,” explained Alison Hollands, Health and Safety Manager. “They have all been trained to operate these appliances. In a rushed situation they no longer have to worry about which appliance to grab as one extinguisher will cover all eventualities."
Now staff and users of PYCO can move about the building freely, staff are able to monitor all the rooms adequately and fire safety regulations are adhered to.
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