With the anniversary of the Grenfell Tower tragedy just passed, local businesswoman Avene Furness-Monks is on a mission to ensure that social housing, high-rise apartments, hotels, and businesses in the North West receive the highest possible standard of inspections of their refuse and laundry chutes.
Refuse and laundry chutes are not something that the general public have a great deal of awareness of – mainly because they are fitted unobtrusively for aesthetic reasons. They provide an excellent solution for apartments and hotels to prevent rubbish or dirty laundry from being transported around the corridors and lifts. However, if they are not fitted correctly, or inspected regularly, they can enable a fire to quickly take hold in the building, potentially putting lives at risk.
Chute Fire Certification UK® is working with multiple housing associations across the UK, as well as national hotel chain Jurys Inn Group, and local businesses implementing its chute consultancy and chute fire risk assessment services, with recommendations and actions points to be chute fire safe and meet regulatory requirements.
Commercial Director of Chute Fire Certification UK®, Avene Furness-Monks is determined to lead the way in this industry, announcing “Safety is so important to us, that we are currently the only chute provider in the UK that deploys Certified Fire Technicians by the Institute of Fire Safety Mangers to inspect chutes. We use the latest regulatory methodology, and this, coupled with our knowledge of chutes means that our Fire Technicians maintain the highest recognised standards in the industry. So even if a fire does occur, it can be contained, and everyone evacuated safely.
“We invest in our staff to give our customers the reassurance that their business is fully compliant. Regulations change all the time, so it’s important that we keep up-to-date with all the latest recommendations and products.”
In response to customer demand, Chute Fire Certification UK® launched the E240 Chute Fire Safe Protection System earlier this year, a fire protection product which provides a 4-hour fire rating, certified to all relevant regulations.