Safety Code E, “Fire Protection”, was published in 1995. Article 3.2.2 of Annex VI concerning “Extinguishing appliances usable by those on the spot” stipulates that: “At least one axial-feed hose reel (referred to as robinet d’incendie armé (RIA) in France and poste incendie in Switzerland) must be fitted in any building with a wall 40 m or more long”.

This requirement is no longer in line with the Host States’ fire safety regulations* and has been subject to repeated requests for clarifications and derogations at CERN. Safety Code E is currently under revision and will be replaced by a fire safety rules cluster in the coming years. In the meantime, article 3.2.2 of Annex VI of Safety Code E has been amended, complete with a descriptive table, as follows: “Axial-feed hose reels shall be installed if required, following a fire risk assessment carried out by the Department or Large Experiment concerned, in accordance with the guidelines below [see table].  Such risk assessments shall be submitted to the HSE Unit for approval.”

This amendment entered into force on 6 December 2022 and can be consulted here. It does not apply to CERN buildings open to the public, for which article 6.2.3 of Safety Code E continues to apply.

For any further clarification, please contact the HSE Fire Safety Engineering team at hse-fset@cern.ch

*Cf. French Décret n° 2008-244 du 7 mars 2008 and, in particular, article R4227-30 of the Code du Travail (https://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/codes/article_lc/LEGIARTI000018532077) and changes made to Swiss AEAI norms and directives in 2015