Parliamentary candidates urged to improve building fire safety

The campaign #Together4FireSafety, supported by Knauf Insulation, reveals that fire kills 11 people and hospitalises 190 more every single day across Europe.

90% of fire deaths occur in buildings

“More than 90% of fire fatalities occur in buildings so it is vital that we take action to ensure that our homes, offices, schools, hospitals and all other buildings are fire safe,” says Sian Hughes, Director of External Affairs for Knauf Insulation and Chair of Fire Safe Europe Communications Task Force. “That is why we are calling on European Election candidates to sign up today to make a real difference to the future of building safety.”

FSEU aims to build on the success of previous European Parliament policy makers who have supported initiatives such as studies into smoke toxicity and façade fire safety; the creation of a Fire Information Exchange Platform to highlight fire issues; the proposed collection of fire safety data and factoring fire safety into the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive.

EU safety legislation must keep up with innovation

“There is more to be done and many areas of European policy could benefit from taking fire safety into account as well as examining fresh solutions to fire safety issues,” said Sian.

“New renovation programmes as well as new ways of constructing buildings have transformed the built environment and changed the way buildings behave in a fire. Unfortunately, legislation has not kept up with these innovations.”

Fire experts, firefighters and even Smurfs join event

European parliamentary candidates have begun pledging their support to the campaign at today’s launch at the European Parliament.

The launch was hosted by Slovak MEP Vladimír Maňka and attended by fire experts, firefighters, associations, international companies, parliamentary candidates and even fire-fighting Smurf mascots.

For more details about the campaign visit FSEU.