BS 9999 and BS 9991 are voluntary publicly available guidance standards created by BSI panels comprising persons drawn from industry. With regards to fire curtains, they ‘echo’ the points of view of the panel that created BS 8524-1 and wrote the UK foreword on EN 16034, pointing to the use of BS 8524-1. This overlooks that it is a legal requirement to CE mark fire curtains to EN 16034 since 1st November 2019.
The Construction Products Regulations are still a legal requirement in the UK. This means that construction products in the UK that are covered by a harmonised standard are legally required to be CE marked to that harmonised standard (or UKCA marked to the ‘designated’ standard version).
Whilst BS 9999 was published eight years ago and as such it is understandable it being out of date, there is a recent revision of BS 9991 which still refers to BS 8524-1.
Richard Millet, KC to the Grenfell Inquiry, referred to dangerously outdated guidance created by non-governmental bodies and influenced by commercial interests as contributory to the Grenfell tragedy:
Overarching Statements and Module 7 Closing Statements, 10th Nov 2022
We understand why people refer to the guidance, but it is the overreliance on it – even when dangerously outdated, and sometimes ahead of legal obligations – that is dangerous.
This is especially so in the fire curtains industry where some of the poorest products on the market have passed BS 8524-1 (when it was available) and the outdated guidance still ‘guides’ people to it.
For the avoidance of doubt the current product standard to use for fire curtains is BS EN 16034.
An insightful read – BS 8524: The old fire curtain standard… that doesn’t do what it says on the tin.
