An owners' community with fire estinguishers is safer: we guide towards the aim
Regardless of your building year of construction, we advise you to propose the installation of fire extinguishers distributed throughout the community. You must propose it to the Board of owners and get the majority of affirmative votes required by the Horizontal Property Law.
First part: Regulation of Fire Protection Installations (better known as RIPCI) the regulations in force to install, check and keep the extinguishers ready for use.
In 2023, the Fire Protection Installations Regulations 2017 are the basic fire protection document in force (hereafter referred to as Spanish acronym RIPCI).
1.1. What does the RIPCI establish?
The RIPCI indicates all the concerning the installation of fire extinguishers in owners' communities.
a) Regulations on the installation of fire extinguishers
The Basic Building Standard of 1996, establishes that:
1.1.1. All buildings build or rehabilitated that year are required to have fire extinguishers in common areas.
1.1.2. Buildings built before 1996 are exempt from having fire extinguishers.
b) Fire Protection Installations regulation of 2017
The Royal Decree 513/2017 of 22 May the entire compilation.
It specifies technical issues such as:
1.1.3. Fire extinguishers must be located in visible, accessible places and preferably near emergency exits:
The important thing about fire extinguishers be fully operational and a location attached to places where there is a high probability that a fire will break out.
We think about: electric meters. Check this link and discover how to check the entire electrical installation, fuel tanks, kitchens, air conditioners on the roof. We answer here the doubts about the air conditioning installation.
1.1.4. They have to be placed on supports that fix them vertically:
Being the highest part of the device between 80 and 120 centimeters above the ground. Its distribution throughout the building has to be done in such a way that they are, at most, 15 meters away from the hypothetical point of fire.
1.1.5. Mandatory quarterly reviews:
The regulation foresees that quarterly reviews are to be carried out by the fire extinguisher maintenance company (extinguishers, B.I.E. smoke detectors, etc.). It is required to make a visual inspection to determine the state of the extinguisher must be checked that:
- The pressure of the extinguisher is adequate
- The state of the seal to verify that there has been no modification that conditions the operability of the device.
That said, they can also be carried out by the owner of the facility, having to document the aforementioned review. This document must be signed and kept for five years.
1.1.6. It is necessary that an approved company carries out a compulsory annual revision of the device:
In it an approved technician checks:
- The load
- Pressure
- The weight
- Checks for leaks
The state of:
- Handles
- Pin
- Pressure gauge
- Mouth
- Sleeve
- Unequivocal vision signs of use
In addition to all the above checks, always under the strict criteria of the approved company, the extinguisher can be disassemble in order to clean the valve: we repeat it is dangerous it has to be done by an approved professional in this link you have a video that explains it.
Part 2: What is the main danger of a fire to life? Self-protection tips
2.1. In a fire there is fire and smoke. What kills more the burning of the fire or the inhalation of smoke and other gases?
Inhalation of smoke and other gases. In English "fire" is a key word, therefore, being burned to death is the threat that everyone fears. However, 70% of people who die are killed by asphyxiation.
2.2. How to avoid inhaling smoke and gases?
To protect yourself from smoke, close doors and windows, making the room where you take shelter airtight.
In case the smoke penetrates, use wet towels to avoid suffocation. The fire is outside our apartment? Do not go out.
Third part: brief history of fire protection in Spain
1835-1979: From the first fire insurance to the first fire protection regulation
- April 30, 1835: the first private fire insurance in Spain was born in Barcelona. by the way, at Finques Feliu we recommend you to contract one.
- 1835-1935: despite the brilliance of Catalan Modernism, bad building was the rule for the vast majority of the population.
-1936-73: the destruction caused by the civil war, wiped out a very important part of the real estate market. The responses of the Francoist regime to this destruction as a whole was a severe drawback.
In the post-war period, in a Spain without acces to international currency market and autarchy as a system, nothing was done. After this period, the inertia of self-construction continued -danger, unhealthy, disorderly and massive- but, for the first time, since 1939, some public construction was carried out let's be clear it was totally insufficient.
- 1974-79: The "technological standard for buildings".
In 1974 the "norma tecnologica de edificaciones" was passed. It is the first regulation that obliges to protect, from the moment of its construction, the buildings against fire. Within a lustrum of its approval, the Hospital Materno-Infantil Virgen del Rocío in Seville was built on November 22, 1977 and the Hotel Corona de Aragón on July 12, 1979.
The legislator's decision on the two fires was unappealable: it was imperative to update periodically the basic building regulations and, above all, to place the evacuation of buildings at the center of the fight against fires -the 1974 regulation did not even mention it-.
- 1981-96: Basic Building Standards consolidation
On April 10, 1981, the Basic Building Standard (NBC-CPI-81) was passed, which foresaw future updates. Among all of them, the NBE-CPI/96 regulation stands out. Firstly, because it is the first one that fully complies with the European Union criteria. Secondly, this regulation, as mentioned above, makes it compulsory to have fire extinguishers in the common areas of the owners' community.
- 1996-23: What has it meant to have a succession of norms with demanding construction and safety standards?
Twenty-seven years have gone by since the first standard was approved to international standards. It is enough time to see the results. Short and to the point: Spain, with 3.5 deaths per million inhabitants -according to 2019 data from Mapfre- was one of the four European Union countries with the fewest deaths due to smoking or fire.
It is not the same situation as 1973: Nowadays the Administration considers it a priority to review the fire extinguishers already in place and there is a whole sector of private fire extinguisher installation companies ready to do so.
Self-compliance, however, is not an option. Fire extinguishers are still not economically accessible to all neighborhoods and awareness of the benefits of installing fire extinguishers could be improved.
We hope you found the article useful.