Building Research Establishment (BRE)
Ciara Holland, UK Building Research Establishment (BRE) fire investigation, described the UK building codes and their relationship to fire safety.
Using an example investigation, she explained that non-compliance was frequent in fire incidents, and breaches in fire stopping allowed toxic fire effluents to penetrate through the building, potentially exposing large numbers of occupants to the effluent from a fairly small fire. Of greater concern is that such failures to follow construction codes appear to be widespread, but only become evident after a fire.