NEW SELF-STORAGE FACILITY RAISES CONCERNS OVER THE LACK OF SPRINKLERS
A huge six-storey, flagship self-storage facility is being constructed for Big Yellow at Staples Corner, North West London, with Glencar Construction overseeing the £18 million project. While the building is being lauded by its owners for its sustainability credentials, targeting BREEAM Excellent and EPC A ratings, there are no plans to include sprinklers in its design.
Located on the busy A406 artery into London, this sustainable 12,500m2 potentially six storey building is due to be completed in June 2026. However, the current plans are based on the omission of sprinklers and raises significant concerns. Recent high-profile fires at self-storage facilities have demonstrated the devastating consequences of fire in such buildings and for those storing their goods.
Since 2018, fires in self-storage facilities have caused widespread destruction and disruption. Some have made the headlines, highlighting the scale and significant damage to buildings, the number of firefighters involved, the pollution involved and the outcomes. While these fires happened a while ago, a large number of these buildings are still under reconstruction, and some will never be rebuilt.
One such incident occurred at the Access Self-Storage facility in Byfleet in 2023 requiring nine fire engines, aerial platforms, and dozens of firefighters to battle the blaze. The fire spread to nearby businesses, including Screwfix and Halfords Auto Centre, causing extensive damage. Smoke from the fire, visible up to 10 miles away, forced residents to shut windows, while hundreds of renters lost valuable possessions stored in the facility.
Another catastrophic fire happened at the Shurgard Self-Storage in Croydon in 2018, which destroyed all 1,198 units in the facility. The replacement facility, built in 2020, included sprinklers despite not being a legal requirement.
Fires at other self-storage facilities including Twinwoods Business Park in 2019, Tameside in 2021 and Armadillo in 2022 have further highlighted the unique challenges of containing blazes in storage facilities, where tightly packed combustible materials and unknown contents exacerbate the risks. The incidents create large fires that burn for a long time. Once the fire and rescue service have established no people are inside these facilities, they will limit their firefighting to the exterior of these buildings due to the compromised structural integrity. These incidents have shown the lasting impact of such fires, not just on the affected businesses, but on surrounding areas, customers, and the environment.
This makes the proposed design of the building interesting as it is to contain a flexible storage arrangement which will see mezzanine floors within the structure that can be demounted. To meet guidance a fire separation wall will be erected in the steel frame structures of the building to separate each mezzanine floor into two compartments. A significant feat as any gaps and joints in both the wall and the demountable floors will be need extensive detailing to complete the compartments.
It is easy to see why a sprinkler system may create technical challenges in such a flexible installation. However, it is also hard to see how the outcomes that will make such a structure resilient to fire without them. Sprinklers are a well-documented method of controlling fires, providing critical time for fire crews to safely extinguish blazes and limiting damage. Current fire safety guidance in England (Approved Document B) recommends sprinklers for such buildings with compartments exceeding 2,000m².
Despite this, many facilities, including the planned Big Yellow site, opt not to include sprinklers. The decision has sparked questions about the true sustainability of such developments. While the facility is designed with green energy and efficiency in mind, a fire requiring extensive reconstruction would negate these benefits entirely.
“One of the big questions with these self-storage facilities is how anyone can claim protection against fire based on a full height separation between units, flexible storage arrangements either side and the lack of knowledge of what people are putting into their individual units,” said Iain Cox, Chair of the Business Sprinkler Alliance. “Can self-storage operators assume that a fire will be contained in such circumstances and therefore offer comfort to their customers?”
The Business Sprinkler Alliance urges developers to prioritise fire safety from the earliest design stages. Incorporating sprinklers not only protects the building but also safeguards the environment, businesses, and communities from the devastating impact of fires.
Image Credit: Jan van der Wolf