Major conference to raise fire safety issues

GETTING disabled people safely out of burning buildings will be the main topic at an international fire conference to be held soon in Dublin.

According to organisers, while building fire safety codes and standards exist in almost every country, including Ireland, on this issue, they are technically inadequate, rarely implemented and discriminate against people with disabilities.

Delegates and speakers from Ireland and all over the world will be attending the two-day Dublin

‘Fire Safety for All’ conference at the Radisson Blu Hotel, Golden Lane.

A key focus of the conference, which takes place on April 9 and 10, will be the launch of the 2015 Dublin Declaration on

‘Fire Safety for All’ in Buildings.

Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs with responsibility for Overseas Development Aid, Sean Sherlock, will officially open the conference on the evening of Thursday, April 9.

“What we are talking about here is effective accessibility of buildings,

? said CJ Walsh, Chief Technical Officer of FireOx International.

“In other words, how people can enter, use and exit shopping centres, apartment blocks or offices safely and with ease, particularly people with activity limitations, which includes people with disabilities, children under five years of age, frail older people, women in the later stages of pregnancy, and people with a health condition.

?

Mr Walsh, the conference organiser, pointed out that Ireland is one of only a few remaining countries that have yet to ratify the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (2006), the principal aim of which is to ensure that people with activity limitations can participate in their local communities.

“This is not just a national disgrace, it is a huge embarrassment for the country when you consider that the European Union itself and most of the EU’s Member States have already ratified this UN Convention,

? he said.

Mr Walsh, a registered architect and a fire engineer, added:

“In Ireland, we pay lip service to providing an accessible environment for people with disabilities. In reality, accessibility is either non-existent or very deficient.

?

Accessibility of a building includes the approach, entry and use, and, most importantly, safe evacuation during a fire incident to a place of safety which is remote from the building and reached by way of an accessible route.

Mr Walsh said the target of the fire safety conference, which is supported by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Fáilte Ireland, is to ensure that people with activity limitations can safely evacuate from a burning building to an accessible place of safety.

The conference is co-sponsored by the International Council for Research & Innovation in Building & Construction (CIB), and the Rehabilitation International’s International Commission on Technology & Accessibility (ICTA).

Speakers at the conference will be coming from Hong Kong, Spain, Scotland, Canada, Belgium, Austria, Holland and Ireland.