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New cladding fire detection system can replace waking watches
Neil Gerrard Associate editor
Intelliclad completes its first installations (Image courtesy of Intelliclad)
A building in West Croydon has become the first in the UK to be fitted with a new cladding fire detection system that removes the need for waking watch patrols.
The Intelliclad system features alarms installed into the combustible external facade of high-risk buildings to detect the early signs of a fire.
Fire Protection Association testing carried out on a specially constructed 10m wide and 9m high cladding rig at the Association’s headquarters showed Intelliclad detectors were activated six minutes and 33 seconds prior to cladding being breached by fire on the first test and 9 minutes, 47 seconds prior on the second.
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The system has been installed at the 38-apartment Interchange building in West Croydon ahead of remediation works to remove combustible cladding on the building.
Further installations of the Intelliclad system are expected to follow at the 33-apartment St Chad’s building in Plymouth and another mixed-use building in Bournemouth.
The installation of the system in Croydon was carried out alongside the implementation of Intelliclad’s internal fire alarm system, which conforms with BS 5839-1 L5 guidance. The new system means that waking watch patrols have been removed, saving residents £460 a month in bills until remediation is carried out. The cost of installation has been covered by the Waking Watch Relief Fund.
Some of the most common causes of cladding fires include discarded cigarettes on balconies, external lighting malfunctions, air conditioning units breaking down and fires in bins.
Darron Brough, Intelliclad’s managing director, said: “Years of hard work and experience has gone into creating Intelliclad and these installations signal the start of a new era of building safety.
“The scope of this tragic scandal is becoming more and more concerning each day. We are proud to be able to play a small part in making people feel more safe in their homes as they await cladding remediation – we need the support of those in power to be able to do this on the scale necessary to facilitate real change.”
The January/February 2026 issue of Construction Management magazine is now available to read in digital format.
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