About one in six building fires and building fire hazards is related to chimneys and fireplaces. According to the rescue service, in the worst years there are up to 1000 of them. The responsibility for fire safety related to the installation phase belongs to the person undertaking the construction project, in single-family houses this often means the building family. The project that just ended mapped the risk factors of fireplaces and chimneys and looked for solutions.
In November, Rakennustuoteollisuus RTT ry and Industria Oy completed a roadshow and advisory project co-financed by the Fire Protection Fund with the theme "Risk situations of fireplaces and chimneys as a developer of fire safety".
One of the goals of the project was to share information about the current regulations and instructions regarding chimneys and fireplaces, as well as typical risk situations. Among the current regulations, the RIL 245-2020 Small chimneys guideline, which takes into account the Ministry of the Environment's regulation on chimneys (745/2017), the related guide and the recently updated national application standards for chimneys (SFS 7009-7015), played a key role.
At events held in five different locations, participants' views were collected on the most significant risk factors, ways to prevent them, and the challenges associated with identifying risk factors. The background was, for example, statistical information on fires from the Pronto database, laboratory and field tests on chimneys carried out by TTY, and error situations concerning real fireplaces and chimneys from FISE's construction error bank.
Of the risk factors, the factors related to installation and implementation were judged to be clearly the most significant, such as insufficient protective distances, renewing the fireplace or chimney, and the implementation of the upper floor penetration. When it comes to sharing information, the participants thought the best way was to prepare even clearer instructions and publications, as well as to hold related training events and webinars tailored to different target groups.
Figure 1. Views of event participants on the risk factors of fireplaces and chimneys.
A total of around two hundred building control representatives, fire officials, designers, responsible foremen, chimney sweeps, distributors, installers and representatives of companies in the field participated in the free events. The events were organized comprehensively in different parts of Finland: Espoo, Turku, Tampere, Kuopio and Oulu. In addition to RTT, the project's financiers are the Fire Protection Fund, the Ministry of the Environment, RIL, the Ministry of the Interior, Schiedel Savuhormistot Oy and the Finnish Tiiliteollisuusliitto ry.
The following were responsible for the presentation material of the events: Timo Pulkki (RTT), Jyrki Kauppinen (Ministry of the Environment), Pekka Talaskivi (RIL), Kurt Kokko, Paula Porkola and Johanna Ahola (SUPPORT), Hannu Murtokare (Nuohousala Central Union), Perttu Leppänen (FirePro Fire Protection Oy), Heidi Liukkonen and Kalle Kiviranta (Salvation College) and Jari Valtonen (Industria Oy) and company representatives.
The presentation material can be downloaded from the RTT website: constructionindustry.fi/psr-2020. The experts' speeches can also be viewed as YouTube videos on the same page.
For more information:
- Project manager Jari Valtonen, Industria Oy
jari.valtonen@industria.fi / 050 574 5654 - Director Timo Pulkki, Construction Product Industry RTT ry
timo.pulkki@rakennusteollisuus.fi / 050 414 3114