Northern Ireland · County Antrim · fire protection
Ballymena stair and corridor smoke control
Ballymena (County Antrim, Northern Ireland) has a published usual-resident population of 31,119 in 2021. Source: Northern Ireland settlement population (published Ireland list, NI jurisdiction). That figure is residents, not a count of blocks with smoke vents. Fire safety law and building regulations in Northern Ireland are not the English Approved Document B set. We quote to the strategy and the rules that apply there, and we say so on the visit record. Classification on that source: Settlement.
Air handling is the other half of this service
Some plant rooms contain an AOV panel and an air-handling unit. The AHU’s fire interlock should stop comfort fans fighting a smoke path. We record the two systems on separate lines so a passed stair vent cannot hide a fan that only runs in hand.
Roof hatches fail in the weather
Head-of-stair lids take wind, water and bird mess. A perished cable gland full of water presents as a dead actuator. We look at hinges, the closer and the cable crossing the roof before we condemn the motor. A lid left open after a test is a leak on the top landing as well as a controls fault.
Automatic opening vents are life-safety smoke control, so this sits with fire protection and is quoted across the UK. Population figures are the published resident counts named above. They are not a survey of vents in Ballymena.
