The fire safety association BAFE and British Standards (BSI) report the first registration and Third Party Certification for the new wet and dry riser service and maintenance scheme, as a service for high-rise buildings.
The scheme, known as BAFE SP105 Service & Maintenance of Dry and Wet Riser/Falling Installations, offers evidence of competency for firms who deliver service and maintenance of dry and wet riser/falling installations. It observes best practice, including working to several British Standards including BS 9990 (code of practice for non-automatic fire-fighting systems in buildings) and BS 5041 Parts 1 – 5 (Fire hydrant systems equipment).
The first company to achieve this Third Party Certification and BAFE Registration is Nationwide Fire & Security based in Rowley Regis, West Midlands. Steve Small, Managing Director of Nationwide, said: “It is great to have achieved Third Party Certification to the BAFE wet and dry riser Scheme. We are extremely proud of our achievement and can confidently state and now prove our competency to provide this service. BSI were very thorough during the assessment, which was good as this cemented our judgements of this being the right direction to venture down. Competency is a huge topic now, especially with high rise buildings, and we want our company to be ready to provide this significant evidence.”
Chris Auger, Director of Schemes at BAFE, said: “We introduced SP105 to the BAFE portfolio of competency Schemes in December 2019 but due to the national lockdown, as a result of COVID, progress with the scheme paused in early 2020. We are delighted to award the first BAFE SP105 Registration to Nationwide Fire & Security and we congratulate them on their achievement.
BAFE continues to develop its diverse range of Schemes available to enable niche, but extremely important specialised markets, gain access to Third Party Certification, prove their competence and have a clear differentiator to their competition as a USP.”
Auger added: “BAFE have been actively involved in the CSG (Competence Steering Group) Working Groups and we look forward to a much stronger emphasis on competency with UKAS Accredited Third Party Certification in the interest of life safety and property protection for the whole built environment, not just high-rise or high risk. We aim to support industry with said access to appropriate Third Party Certification.”
Richard Gurney, Group Certification & Laboratory Manager – Fire Safety Products & Associated Directives at BSI added: “We join BAFE in congratulating Nationwide Fire & Security in achieving SP105 Third Party Certification with BSI. It confirms that the organisation complies with the BAFE SP105 Scheme requirements and provides continued assurance to end users that they are receiving a service by a competent organisation and technician.”
The BAFE SP105 Scheme, Competency of Organisations for the Service & Maintenance of Dry and Wet Riser/Falling Installations, is available for Third Party Certification assessment via BSI (British Standards Institution). Visit https://bit.ly/3m6nPFi.
About Nationwide
The co-owners Steve and Jackie Small recently transferred 70pc of their shares into a John Lewis-style trust. They said: We had received several offers from competitors to buy the company, but were concerned about the future direction of the company both in terms of the relationship with clients and the future prospects and job security for employees.”
Day-to-day operations are already overseen by Nathan Small and Lindsey Westwood, who have now been appointed as directors. Sharron Anning in the accounts department has been appointed as a director of the trust.
Visit www.nationwidecctv.co.uk/.
