The security and fire installation company WLS has completed a project to install fully-integrated fire alarms for Cilantro Engineering as part of the Elephant & Castle regeneration in south London. As part of a £3 billion project, the regeneration of Elephant & Castle involves 19 projects and includes provision of 1,693 affordable homes alongside leisure, cultural, community, education and commercial facilities, and public realm works.
WLS fitted fire detection and alarms in the communal areas of two four-storey apartment blocks, a ten-storey block and a 16-story block, all built on the sites of former residential towers, demolished to make way for new homes. WLS says its design met the agreed fire strategy for the multi-occupancy residential buildings, for a flexible approach to meeting the changing requirements of building control and the project delivery partners throughout the design and installation. The complex scheme involved interfacing the smoke detection and fire alarm system with other elements of the safety specification and building services, including the automatic opening vents (AOVs) on the upper floors, the smoke dampers, the access control, sprinklers, the lifts, mechanical plant and the building management system (BMS). The SE27-based firm described it as a full cause and effect scenario-based approach to occupier safety.
Commercial Director, Sean Hickey, from Cilantro Engineering says: “We had design and delivery responsibility for electrical, mechanical and protection services for these four residential blocks and enlisted the help of WLS as trusted experts in fire safety.
“The interesting element of the fire and security installation for this project is not the individual technologies but the need to interface all those elements with each other to provide the most robust response possible to the safety strategy for the buildings. WLS’s experience of challenging environments like this was invaluable on this project and the end result will offer peace of mind to tenants.”
