The hospital has 660 beds and provides medical and surgical care to a third of a million people with the building dating back to before the beginning of the Second World War. The refurbishment work, concluded at the end of November 2021, was being carried out by Plymouth based Ventro Ltd. whose operatives have had to work in many areas during the evenings and weekends in order to avoid disruption to the hospital’s everyday activities, including the treatment of patients.

Following early appraisals of the fire protection requirements within the ageing property and taking into account the large quantities of different mechanical services to be accommodated into the upgrades, the hospital’s estates department decided to raise the specification for the work from 30 minutes integrity rating to a full two hours. The Site Agent for Ventro, John Roberts, commented: “As a specialist fire contractor working across the whole of the UK and beyond, we have employed FIREFLY™ products on many projects over the years and expect to continue doing so. In the early stages of this contract, which began on site in May 2020, it was thought APOLLO Lite™ 30 minutes would be appropriate, but the hospital then switched this to TITAN Lite™ 120:60. We have been installing the TITAN Lite™ in many parts of the hospital, including most recently in the ceiling voids over the kitchens. This has been done by fixing metal angles across the soffits and then using the special tape and staples to secure the fabric to it. Despite the large number of services making the number of penetrations to be deal with quite challenging, our teams find the FIREFLY™ relatively easy to install.”

FIREFLY™ TITAN Lite™ 120:60 has been developed as a flexible fire barrier to provide compartmentation of larger concealed spaces within different types of buildings including factories, warehouses and railway stations.

By offering 120 minutes integrity and 60 minutes insulation, TITAN Lite™ 120:60 exceeds the minimum requirements relating to Fire Barriers as detailed in the UK Building Regulations: Approved Document B (Fire Safety).  Firefly is manufactured using specially treated woven glass fibre fabrics.