To all Members of the RSA                                                                                    

Dear Member,

Firstly, I would like to thank Keith Rhodes for his sterling work as Chairman over the past few years. As the new Chairman of the RSA I hope that I will be able to carry forward his aims.

May I briefly introduce myself?

I have been involved in the fire protection industry for the last seventeen years. This has encompassed spells with Matthew Hall Merroll, Wormald Fire Systems, Preussag, and running my own R&D Company. I am currently a contract manager for Domestic Sprinklers plc.

As of the 19^th of May, I have been honoured to be elevated to the position of Chairman of this fine association – the RSA. First and foremost my personal aim as Chairman will be to promote the value of being a member of the RSA.

Like any trade association, the RSA works mainly for the benefit of its Membership. In this respect, I would ask that Members make full use of the RSA’s logo and promotional materials, especially the RSA Certificate of Conformity. This CoC is above all an assurance that the installation has been dealt with, from start to finish, by a reputable, competent, and professional Fire Sprinkler Installer – ie a Member of the RSA.

The flip side of the coin is that the wider use of these CoCs will increase awareness of the RSA by BCOs, Fire Service, Local Government, Contractors, and Developers, which will expand our brand awareness of where to go for reputable R&D sprinkler installers. This in turn obviously increases individual Member’s turnover - so it’s a win-win for us all.

Alongside the promotion of the RSA brand, we also need to promote the life saving benefits of Residential Sprinkler systems to reduce, if not eradicate, the unacceptable level of death and serious injury from fires in the UK. This we believe is as important, if not more important, than the RSA brand itself, since the most fundamental aim of any association should be to promote the Industry it represents.

Being a member of the RSA offers Members a wealth of experience and technical knowledge, and a forum to voice their concerns regarding the current state of the industry. Currently, there are technical issues concerning the upgrade of DD252 to BS9252, the upcoming revision of BS9251 and the Water Industry, which are being addressed by Sir George and I am fully supportive of Sir George in this. I would urge you to take time out to give him your views on these matters since they will have a huge impact on our Industry.

Once again, I would like to thank all Members present at the AGM for their support in my new position – I am very flattered to be chosen and will work hard to justify your trust. I would also like to wish all the best to our Members in the current financial climate and hope we all can continue with the good work.

Please feel free to contact me if you have any issues to discuss and I will be happy to assist you myself or draw on assistance from other Members if I cannot.

Best regards.

Andy Kelleher

Chairman RSA

Tel: 07789755231

e-mail: kelleher1@hotmail.co.uk

The RSA held its 4th AGM on Wednesday May 19th at the Green Man Brackley. The meeting attracted the largest turn-out yet for the association, which led to a lively and proactive meeting.

Keith Rhodes announced his intention to step down as Chairman after guiding the RSA for the last 4 years. The Membership expressed their gratitude to Keith for all his hard work through a difficult time for the Industry.

Andy Kelleher (of Domestic Sprinkler plc) was elected unanimously as our new Chairman. Andy has many years experience in the Sprinkler Industry and brings a fresh perspective to the role of the RSA.

Other Council Members elected at the meeting include -

Steve Yeomans of Autoquench             - Treasurer

Colin Chantler of Triangle Sprinkler      - Technical Chairman

Charlene Johnson  of BCK Contracting   - Membership Secretary

Sir George Pigot agreed to continue to run the administration as Secretary General of the association.

A fuller report will appear here shortly.

15^th May 2009.

Dear Member,

As you will know the RSA held its AGM at the Greene Man near Brackley on Wednesday April 29^th. The meeting was well attended and finished with a pleasant lunch.

Steve Yeomans, the Honorary Treasurer, presented an Income & Expenditure statement for 2008, which showed the RSA essentially broke even for the year. With the small increase in subscription rates for 2009, it is hoped the RSA will generate a small surplus to cover the cost of representation on British Standards and Water Liaison Group committees.

Following the presentation of the accounts I gave a brief resume of the activities of the RSA over the past year, and described some of our objectives for the coming year. This led on to a wide ranging discussion which spilled over into the Members Meeting later in the morning.

The existing Council was re-elected and has been further strengthened by the addition of 2 more members. Colin Taylor of Domestic Sprinklers plc takes on the lead role on Technical/Political matters. Colin brings a wealth of experience in the water and sprinkler industries to the RSA, being both a qualified fire engineer and having many years experience of the Water Regulations. Charlene and Kevan Johnson of BCK Contracting have taken on the role of Membership and plan to contact all of you shortly seeking your views on a range of issues - as well as chasing any of you that have yet to pay your 2009 subscription!

I was flattered to be asked to continue as Chairman and Steve Yeomans agreed to continue as Hon Treasurer. Sir George Pigot also agreed to continue to administer our affairs.

The AGM was followed by a lively Members’ Meeting. Subjects discussed included many of the usual suspects, like water supplies, plus a lot of new ideas on what services Members would like to see the RSA provide.

Sir George Pigot and Colin Taylor reported on the Water Liaison Group, which is chaired by the NFSN. This group is reviewing the Water Protocol document agreed by the FSA back in 2004. Whilst some progress is being made there still seems a long way to go on matters of storage and theft of water. Currently the Group is proposing amendments to the Water Act to specifically include fire sprinklers in its provisions, which will go a long way to resolving the intrinsic problems the Water Companies have with the supply of water to fire sprinklers.

BSI fire sprinkler committee FSH18/2 is trying to agree and publish the sprinkler head standard BS9252. Current outstanding matters include details of the fire test, minimum application rates and areas of coverage. The RSA’s position is that BS9252 needs to mirror the America standard UL1626 such that residential sprinkler heads approved for use in the USA do not need modification or re-testing for the UK market.

The RSA will hold a Technical Committee meeting on 3 June 2009 at which you can learn much more about these issues. We will also be holding a Members’ meeting in the autumn on the 23 September 2009. Venues to be confirmed.

Despite the economic downturn, 2009 looks like being a good year for the RSA, with a strong Membership base and several new members joining in the last few months. Membership is currently over 40 and looks set to be more than 50 if existing trends continue. Many Members reported steady business levels and continued reasonable levels of enquiry on most fronts, although as might be expected this seems patchy across the country.

The care home sector is buoyant, probably due to the revised Building Regulations, which now require such properties to be sprinkler protected. The new housing sector has of course been adversely affected by the economic climate, although the home improvement market remains firm with strong enquiries concerning sprinklers being used as trade-offs in loft conversions.

Members also reported that a significant proportion of their enquiries originate from their listing on the RSA web site. This shows that architects, specifiers and building control officers continue to respect the good standing of the RSA and competence of its Members.

Therefore on reflection it would appear that the overall market for Residential Sprinkler systems has not been a severely affected by the economic downturn as many other industries. Hopefully our Members will be able to sustain their activities over the coming months and be well placed to capitalise on the resurgence of construction activity when it comes.

On a closing note I am saddened to see that fire deaths in the UK rose to over 500 last year after many years of decline. Fortunately our work means that, as our industry expands so that more and more properties are protected by residential sprinklers, this sorry statistic will diminish and the UK will become a safer place to live.

It only remains for me to wish our members and their customers a safe and hopefully prosperous 2009. 

Keith Rhodes

Chairman RSA

There were at least five deaths in the UK in dwellings over the Christmas/New Year period.

The current financial turmoil is having a devastating effect on the housing market leading to the failure of a number of builders and consequent losses for sprinkler installers. Fortunately RSA members have been exchanging information about projects where the builders have got into financial trouble, or worse have ceased trading.

After taking a hit for over £7,000.00 one member was quick to warn other Members thus saved them from also being caught.

The Chairman suggested that should Members come across a half-completed sprinkler project they should be wary and try to find out who the original installer was and why the project has been left uncompleted before getting involved. Moreover if it is one of our Members they should try to get them back into the project to help them recover their losses.

The RSA working party has now agreed a Testing Protocol that will ensure that a Residential Sprinkler system will comply with the flow requirements of BS9251.

A copy of this document can be downloaded by clicking here

Following a recent meeting of minds between members new and old, the RSA has re opened its technical sub committee and it’s first task is to resolve continuing misunderstanding in the real world commissioning of sprinkler systems.

The position of the pressure gauge as shown in BS 9251 is not appropriate for carrying out dynamic flow tests nor is the requirement of a 22mm test branch.

To make matters even more confusing the flow test requirements of 60 and 84 liters are irrelevant and seriously misleading.

The RSA will publish new guidance notes to members on this matter later this year.

If in the meantime any member has concerns about commission testing contact any council member for help and advice.

The first of the RSA refresher courses took place at ITT Lowara’s premises on the 11^th June.

The event was preceded by a splendid evening dinner hosted by ITT with a complimentary bar which saw sustained use by our members!

the event was a spectacular success with 25 members taking part. apart from the formal overviews of the standard and changes being made to it lectures were given by guest presenters including Keith Pratley, chairman of Water UK who was given a forthright and sometimes hostile reception by members who didn’t hold back on asking difficult questions and probing controversial statements Keith Made.

Keith acquitted himself well under the barrage and received a warm and genuine round of applause. he commented afterwards that he actually appreciated the frank and candid views that members put forward to him.

Feedback from members has been as follows

 “It was good to see the event was well supported, even though the venue was quite a distance for most.”

 “I was delighted with the number of members who attended and would like to thank lowara for their generous hospitality

Once again it highlighted the absolute need for an active group to represent the residential/domestic sector”

“the dinner provided by ITT was really good. we had a great evening and met lots of fellow members in a non combative atmoshphere. we lerned so much from the whole event and will be attending again to see the outcome of some of the issues raised. once again many thanks to ITT Lowara- great food – great pumps!”

“Its great to see such a positive response from companies who wish to improve the understanding of the industry and how techniques are implemented.”

 “As for the Tuesday and Wednesday as a whole, we all really enjoyed it on all fronts. We are very pleased that we made the effort. It was very refreshing for everyone to be so open about how they do things and that certainly showed that we are not all singing from the same hymn sheet.  But saying that, it was so good to see different firms all wanting to improve and straighten out our industry”. 

 We will be holding a repeat of this refresher later in the year in the North of England to give the opportunity to other members to attend.

We found that most members who came to the evening meeting found useful contacts and made new associations with fellow members. Certainly the networking continued into the early hours after the ITT dinner party!

Keith Rhodes

The Studley Green estate was the first housing development in Europe to be fitted with domestic sprinklers, following its rebuild in 1999.

The sprinkler systems were fitted by a consortium headed by the Residential Sprinkler Association (RSA) that included the Sprinkler Industry, local Council, Housing Association, Residents Committee, Architects and Builders.

On Sunday February 24, a couple living in a ground floor flat at Aldeburgh Place escaped a potentially fatal blaze after the sprinkler system was activated. The fire, which happened at 2.30am, was concentrated in the living room and is believed to have been started by discarded smoking materials. Although the flat had smoke detectors fitted, they were not working.

Wiltshire Fire & Rescue Service actively lobbies for the inclusion of sprinkler systems in domestic and commercial properties. Chief Fire Officer Andy Goves said: "This is the second time that the sprinklers at Studley Green have done their job, with two people surviving a fire in their home that could have had fatal consequences otherwise. This incident shows yet again how effective sprinkler systems are - the equivalent of having a fire engine already at your house ready to go. Sprinklers save lives and protect property, and we will continue to lobby local authorities, housing associations and developers to include these safety measures in their properties.

"Modern sprinkler designs are unobtrusive and, contrary to what you might see on TV or films, cause negligible water damage in controlling fires and preventing property from otherwise burning down."

Successful partnerships already include Wiltshire County Council agreeing to install sprinklers in the new flagship secondary school being built in Melksham, Swindon Borough Council including sprinklers in seven new schools being built through its Private Finance Initiative, plus numerous schemes in residential homes and housing association properties.

Mr Goves added: "Wiltshire Fire & Rescue Service is a key campaigner for the National Fire Sprinkler Network, which is lobbying to have sprinkler systems installed in schools, care homes, houses of multiple occupation, multi-storey residential premises and commercial premises. In Wiltshire we have had a number of local successes, but this latest fire shows that no-one can afford to be complacent. I hope this classic example will encourage others to redouble their efforts and help all of us increase the number of sprinkler installations to make a safer community."

Barry Hughes, chief executive of West Wiltshire Housing Society, which owns and manages the Studley Green estate, added: "Although it is always distressing to be involved in a fire, thankfully the sprinklers really reduced the damage. We installed the sprinklers at Studley Green as part of a European Pilot. This is the second fire where the sprinklers saved lives and homes.

"I would like to call on the Government to make sprinklers in homes compulsory in building regulations."

Sir George Pigot, commenting on behalf of the RSA, said "Incidents like this serve to demonstrate the effectiveness of residential sprinkler systems and also the foresight of RSA in making these installations possible all those years ago".

Dear all,

As you may know, further to our inaugural meeting on the 21st March, the Residential Sprinkler Associates have now been officially launched. After much discussion it was agreed to call the new group Residential Sprinkler Associates, however, retaining the old FSA logo, replacing the F with R.

A committee was voted as follows:

Chairman                        Roger Brason             South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue

Vice Chairman                 Steve Yeomans          Autoquench Ltd

Treasurer                        Phil Barnett               Barnett Consultancy Services Ltd

Membership Secretary      Malcolm Black            Nimbus Fire Systems

Sir George Pigot will act as "administrator", overseeing the website etc,

I for my sins have been appointed membership secretary. We shall be listing all paid up members on the new website shortly, it is therefore imperative you let us have your subscriptions for the coming year promptly and certainly no later than March 31st for your details to be listed.

Could I remind you RSA will operate on a purely voluntary basis with individuals giving their time and efforts freely, please help us to provide the best possible services to our membership by helping out wherever you can and promptly paying your subscriptions

On reflection the meeting was extremely encouraging. I was delighted by the level of enthusiasm for the residential sector to retain it's own identity and to continue the high level of professionalism we have built up over the last decade.

I look forward to working with you all in the future and continuing our efforts towards the residential/domestic sector of the sprinkler market which has been the driving force in fire sprinkler promotion for many years

Please keep a close eye on our website for future developments

May I take this opportunity to thank Hugh Pigot for his continued support and guidance in the greater use of fire sprinklers.

 Regards to all,

 Malcolm Black

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To all prospective members of Fire Sprinkler Associates

                                                                                    6^th March 2007.

 Dear All,

Following the successful meeting on February 8^th I promised to arrange an inaugural meeting for FIRE SPRINKLER ASSOCIATES. This has now been set for Wednesday March 21^st commencing at 11.00 am and will be at the Stratford Victoria, Stratford-upon-Avon.

A map of the location is attached, as is an Agenda. The purpose of the meeting is to agree to form the new organisation, agree its rules, enrol members and elect a management team.

I very much look forward to seeing you there.

Best regards to all,

Malcolm Black

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Dear all,

Despite the snow quite a few people turned up for the open meeting on Feb 8th 2007 and I received quite a few emails and phone calls in support from others who could not make the meeting.

After some discussion it was agreed that there was an immediate need for an organisation to support the residential and domestic sector of the fire sprinkler industry in the UK. The meeting agreed to form an organisation to provide training, accreditation, technical information, representation and a web site.

Some asked if the old FSA could be resuscitated and we promised to look into that possibility. Regrettably the position regarding liabilities is by no means clear and there could be further ramifications regarding the failed merger between FSA and BAFSA. We have therefore decided to press ahead with the creation of Fire Sprinkler Associates, and we will be putting out a calling notice for the AGM shortly. Please check our website for updates.

The meeting also decided that there would be only one category of member and to set the subscription at £250 for the first year. Costs should be low since the new FSA will not have a full time secretariat or conduct marketing. However Hugh has volunteered to conduct formalities, set up a bank account, etc, and to issue invoices to the majority of ex FSA members, who have expressed an interest in joining us.

It was also agreed that the new FSA would not be intended to compete with BAFSA but merely to provide services they do not currently offer. Should BAFSA evolve into the sort of organisation needed to support our sector of the industry those present saw no problem merging with them in due course.

On a personal note I would remind you we will be reliant entirely on members giving their time and efforts free of charge and meetings, mail-outs ect do have costs! Therefore it would be greatly appreciated if you would all show your support by paying promptly, we don't wish to waste valuable time chasing what is after all a small amount for the type of services we are striving to provide.

 I look forward to meeting you all at our first AGM in March (date to be advised (Probably March 15th 2007)

Best regards,

Malcolm Black

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Dear all,

A meeting room has been booked at the Stratford Victoria hotel, Feb 8th 2007 commencing 11.00 am. Many of you have expressed the wish to see a Domestic/Residential only body formed to ensure we retain the kind of representation this sector of the market has benefited from over the past number of years through FSA and RSA. The attached proposal describes such
an organisation and a presentation will be made at the meeting to explain the proposal in more detail.

As you will no doubt be aware work on this initiative has been undertaken and funded by volunteers but it is now imperative we have your support if this is to become a reality, Quite simply I believe this to be our last opportunity to create an alternative to simply signing up to others, who at this moment in time, do not have the necessary services in place to meet
the needs of the smaller installation companies 

Would you therefore please let me know by return if you will be attending the meeting. I can also be contacted on 0777 965 9802
I look forward to meeting you all on the 8th Feb in Stratford upon Avon.

Best regards to all,

Malcolm Black                      Click here to download "new" FSA Proposal paper

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The open meeting called by Malcolm Black unanimously endorsed the need for an organisation to represent and support the "Residential" sector of the UK Fire Sprinkler Industry.

As a result a task group will prepare a discussion document, which will be distributed shortly and another open meeting will be arranged for early February.

In the meantime the old FSA will continue to provide basic services, such as training, accreditation and technical advice, but on a voluntary basis.

Please check this web site frequently for updates....................

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