Howells Bradford Ltd

Regulatory Reform

In June 2005, the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order was introduced into England and Wales. This order, which has been viewed as the most significant overhaul of fire safety legislation for many years, applies to all non-domestic premises.

According to the Order, the sole responsibility for ensuring that lives are not put at risk, rest with the responsible person. This in most cases is the employer. It requires that the responsible person or their representative must carry out suitable and sufficient risk assessments of the workplace in order to remove or reduce all fire hazards as far as possible.

The Order obliges the enforcing authority to make sure that the Order is complied with and sets penalties if it is not.

The order came into force on the 1st October 2006

Howells Bradford Ltd is a member of the HVCA and work to TR19 standards which satisfy all aspects of the Regulatory Reform. The HVCA consider kitchen extraction systems to present significant fire hazards due to the potential for the accumulation of grease. Accumulated grease within an extraction system forms a hidden combustion load. Under certain circumstances flames or very high temperatures within the duct can ignite the grease causing fire to spread rapidly throughout the system and ductwork. Flame and heat within the duct can ignite surrounding materials at various points along the ductwork path, and transfer fire in ways that are difficult to predict and control by designers, installers and ultimately fire fighters. As a result of this, many insurance companies will not provide cover unless a system has been certificated by an HVCA approved company as cleaned to the required standard.

Usage Amount	Extraction daily usage	Cleaning Frequency
Heavy Use	12 – 16 hours per day	3 monthly
Moderate Use	6 – 12 hours per day	6 monthly
Light Use	2 – 6 hours per day	12 monthly