Inspection and testing of the fire protection system
The design of occupant safety in a building, or its business continuity, also depends on the reliability of the active fire protection system. For a system to be reliable, it is not enough for it to be well-designed and installed; it must also be properly maintained and suited to the risk, which may change throughout the lifecycle of a business. It has been demonstrated, even in the literature, that the presence of systems that do not function correctly due to insufficient control in the aforementioned activities is high not only in Italy but also in the United States, where these systems were invented, and where there is, consequently, a significant culture around them. In order to reduce the risk of malfunction, increasing regulations have started to require additional checks on design, testing, and inspections. Veryfire strongly believes in these practices to increase the reliability of the system and uses its own know-how to assist its clients.
Project Verification
In the technical and scientific world, it is common to perform a peer review, which is a reciprocal review between professionals of equal expertise, ensuring the quality of an activity. The UNI EN 12845 standard, since its first edition, has stipulated in Chapter 4 that designs (drawings and informative documents) must be signed not only by the designer but also by the person responsible for project control, who should not be the designer themselves. This practice has always been neglected because, in Italy, there was no organization like Veryfire until now. Thanks to the previous experience of its collaborators in the field of fire protection system design, Veryfire offers its technical expertise to evaluate their design, with the advantage of reducing potential design errors. Veryfire's ethical values of impartiality and independence allow the end client to benefit from greater reliability of the system. The very fact that the project control manager is not the designer, installer, or maintainer ensures that the controller acts with independence and impartiality.
Periodic Inspection
In many fields of engineering, the need for periodic inspections of systems by an independent body has arisen, one capable of ensuring reliability based on its expertise and impartial position. For example, with the 2020 edition of the UNI EN 12845, alongside the designer, system installers, and maintenance personnel, a new role is introduced: the independent inspection body, which operates through a qualified individual.
We have worked to create the foundation to be that independent body and provide the service of periodic fire protection system inspections. This service aims to offer the business owner the maintenance of quality in terms of compliance with standards, design, installation, operation, and maintenance. In addition to verifying that the parties involved in the system have operated correctly, Veryfire is also able to support the client in drafting any improvement plans and actions that may arise.
The inspection of the fire protection system results in a report that lists any deviations from the standards and the corresponding action plan to make the necessary adjustments.
Commissioning of the fire protection system
The commissioning of fire protection systems is an operation in which the role of an independent body is essential to guarantee the appropriate reliability to the end client and the building occupants. UNI EN 12101-13:2022, for pressurization systems, since its first publication in 2022, recommends the presence or execution of tests by an independent and unbiased body capable of verifying the building's habitability after the installation of pressurization systems. Veryfire is able to offer the commissioning of fire protection systems, relying on expert technicians and appropriate equipment for their reliability assessment.
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