We are delighted to have completed our first installation – allowing for the removal of the expensive and ineffective Waking Watch.
The 38 apartment building in South London has become the first building in the UK to have the new Intelliclad system installed in a bid to boost residents safety as the wait for cladding remediation works continue.
Intelliclad is pioneering a new level of building safety by installing alarms into the combustible external façade of high-risk buildings to detect early symptoms of a fire, saving residents thousands of pounds a month in waking watch bills until remediation is carried out.
By having this installation carried out alongside implementation of Intelliclad’s internal fire alarm system – which conforms with BS 5839-1 L5 guidance – the building has been able to remove the need for Waking Watch.
New research suggests that Intelliclad’s unique application of detectors into the external façade is a much needed intervention – statistics indicate that since 2010, 60% of all high-rise façade fires across the globe have started externally.
Causes included discarded cigarettes on balconies, external lighting malfunctions, air conditioning units breaking down and fires in bins.
Fire Protection Association testing carried out on a specially constructed 10m wide and 9m high cladding rig at the Association’s headquarters showed Intelliclad detectors were activated six minutes and 33 seconds prior to cladding being breached by fire on the first test and 9 minutes, 47 seconds prior on the second.
The system has also been supported by renowned fire safety expert Frances Maria Peacock, whose reports and technical papers have been submitted to the Grenfell Tower Inquiry. Frances has put together an academic report on the comparison between Intelliclad, the Waking Watch and traditional common fire alarm systems, which can be downloaded from the Intelliclad website.
Darron Brough, Intelliclad’s Managing Director, said: “Years of hard work and experience has gone into creating Intelliclad and this installation signals the start of a new era of building safety.”
