Firefly® Phoenix Continues To Protect Home Bargains Chain

As value for money makes the Home Bargains brand an increasingly popular choice with price conscious shoppers, the national retailer is continuing to increase its coverage by building new stores in locations such as Camborne in Cornwall, with products from the FIREFLY® range repeatedly being included in the specification to help ensure the safety of staff and customers.  As with many of its outlets, the existing 9,150sq ft warehouse and sales floor on the Camborne Retail Park is being refurbished by Oakhurst (Southport) Ltd. with WPL Consulting filling the role of project architect. 

The Phoenix Vertical, Collaroll and ancillary FIREFLY® products have been used to create a semi-permanent fire barrier that is suspended from the underside of the pitched, metal decked roof. Installation of the 60- minute rated fire curtain and smoke barrier was carried out by sub-contractor S R Shopfitting over a period of just a couple of days in early July, with the new Home Bargains outlet scheduled for its official opening on August 22nd. Working from hydraulic platforms, the lightweight Phoenix fire barrier was fixed to sections of steel angle bolted onto the roof members, with all overlaps sealed using FIREFLY® High Temperature Adhesive, while butt joints were fixed using stainless steel staples. 

While the Collaroll was used to wrap the high-level steel beams, the manufacturer’s ablative batts – introduced into the range last year to assist with tasks like creating protected zones – fill voids beneath the soffit level. The Site Manager for Oakhurst, Kerry Humphrey’s, commented: “Along with a number of S R Shopfitting’s operatives, I have been on the FIREFLY® training course at its Rochdale premises and consider the systems to be far easier to install than the previous solution, which involved installing quite bulky sections of rock mineral wool which, even for those not directly involved with the work, tended to make you itch quite badly.  The Phoenix and other products, by contrast are light to handle and easy to fix.  It’s a brilliant system.”

“In respect of the Home Bargains stores we’ve been involved on, the fire requirements vary slightly between England and Scotland, where the regulation is for a full fire and smoke barrier and we know FIREFLY® will provide any special details we need for new jobs.  With the barrier now installed by SR Shopfitting, the internal construction will continue so that the Phoenix terminates on top of the ceiling structure.  Everything is going well and we are on schedule to handover the building on the 21st.” 

Manufactured from woven and non-woven glass, the FIREFLY® range is designed to optimise resistance to flame and smoke as well as offer heat protection in a wide range of scenarios. The barriers are easy to install horizontally or vertically using a full selection of FIREFLY® ancillary products to ensure a fully tested and certified installed system.  www.tbafirefly.com 

Firefly® Phoenix Curtain Specified To Protect Medway Logistics Warehouse

Part of an international supply chain and logistics business, a vast warehouse in the Medway area of Kent enclosing almost 380,000 sq. ft. of storage space, has had its fire performance upgraded by a regular FIREFLY® customer utilising the manufacturer’s Phoenix barrier material together with the recently launched 180 ablative batt and ancillary products to create a curtain running around the building perimeter.

The work at the Noatum Logistics ePort warehouse on the Isle of Grain was carried out by Essex based T and R Fire Protection over a five-week period earlier this year, with its operatives using a variety of access approaches to attach the lightweight Phoenix barriers to roof purlins and floor beams. FIREFLY®’s high temperature adhesive and special staples were used to secure the 150mm overlaps between lengths of the Phoenix material, as well as to secure the curtains to the lengths of steel angle and heavier section Unistruts.

The Site Manager for T & R Fire Protection, Tom Port-Smith, commented: “While we regularly put forward FIREFLY® systems for a variety of applications as our ‘go to’ manufacturer for fire compartmentation, in this case the clients, Noatum/Dexion actually specified Phoenix on the basis of having successfully used it for past projects.  We get good technical support from the company whenever we need special details and the installation at the Medway premises went smoothly with the barriers being attached right around four floors and a walkway across a total distance of 600 metres.” 

Andy Greenwood, the Technical Sales Manager for FIREFLY®, explained how the relatively short Phoenix fire curtain offers a form of compartmentation in such situations: “A 300mm fire break, around the perimeter of a warehouse, is a standard fire safety measure.This means the 300mm wide band of fire-resistant material is used to separate different sections of the building – which typically house large amounts of flammable material - helping to contain a fire and prevent it from spreading. This is crucial for both life safety in allowing time for evacuation, and property protection: limiting damage and loss to the area where the fire starts.”

Manufactured from woven and non-woven glass, the FIREFLY® range is designed to optimise resistance to flame and smoke as well as offer heat protection in a wide range of scenarios.  The barriers are easy to install horizontally or vertically using a full selection of FIREFLY® ancillary products to ensure a fully tested and certified installed system.  www.tbafirefly.com 

Meldrum Group Deploys Firefly’s Roof Cavity Closer At Berwick Barracks

After adding a specialist fire design and contracting arm to its already diverse skill mix, Meldrum Group has employed a similarly new product from the range of FIREFLY® during phased  refurbishment work within the historic Berwick Barracks, located in the heart of the Scottish Borders: uprating the level of protection within the original pitched roof structures. Brought in by main contractor, to carry out a range of tasks including installing dozens of new fire doors,

Meldrum Fire Engineering utilised FIREFLY®’s Roof Cavity Closer Batt to ensure the continuity of the compartmentation provisions within the extensive roof-spaces to the brick-built barracks.  A prominent landmark in Berwick-upon-Tweed, they date from around 1720 and are the home of the King’s Own Scottish Borderers - attracting many thousands of visitors to its museum every year. 

The work there has been carried out under the close scrutiny of English Heritage, while Edinburgh based LDN Architects has filled the role of lead consultant on the project.  The first phase has seen the museum moved across the courtyard to the opposite wing which had already been refurbished, with the plan being to return the exhibits to their original location once that building has been upgraded. 

The Contract Manager for Meldrum Fire Engineering, Ian Cross, commented: “The scope of our work has expanded rapidly over the past 18 months, carrying out contracts for the NHS, the new University of Glasgow campus, the Magdalen Trust and a number of care homes as well as clients in the commercial office sector – so we have a good mix of new-build and refurbishment work. To date we have had half a dozen of our operatives undergo product training at FIREFLY®’s Rochdale premises, with more due to attend soon." "

Not only are the FIREFLY® products very straightforward to fit, but we get very good technical guidance from the company, with Daniel Gordon, the Scottish Sales Manager, always coming back to us very quickly when we need details.  Also, he is always willing to visit site to confirm the installation has been carried out correctly.  ‘Right First Time’ is very much part of our ethos.”

“The use of the FIREFLY® solution was initially proposed by Meldrum Facilities’ Project Manager, Shane Murray and agreed with LDN. Then when it came to installing the cavity closers, we were on site for approximately a week, using the FIREFLY® systems to seal either side of the existing brick walls in the roof, as well as coating the timbers to the roof trusses with intumescent paint where they penetrate the walls.  We installed some 80 metres of the Roof Cavity Closer in all, using two mechanical fixings for each batt as well as fireproof sealant.” 

In addition to completing a very neat installation, Meldrum Fire Engineering also logged all of the products used on the Bolster quality assurance system, before fixing QR codes alongside all of the different details within the roof space so that the products can be referenced for future maintenance and safety checks. The FIREFLY® Roof Cavity Closer is designed to be fitted beneath the roof’s tiling membrane or felt so that in the event of a fire its intumescent graphite strip will expand and seal the void to the underside of the tiles. 

As well as being mechanically fixed as occurred at the barracks, the ablative batts can also be friction fitted into voids with the edges ‘buttered’ using the manufacturer’s FR Intumescent Acrylic.  They can further be employed in combination with FIREFLY® membranes or FIREFLY® FB180 ablative batts as part of system solution compliant with Part B of the Building Regulations.  www.tbafirefly.com