Milsom Insurance Brokers LLP

18/07/2025

🔥👷‍♂️⚠️🔧 PERMIT TO WORK SYSTEMS🔧⚠️👷‍♂️🔥

Permits to work (PTW), are formal management systems for workers and contractors to perform specific high risk tasks. It is an authorisation document, which risk manages ensuring that all risks have been identified, strict conditions and control measures are in place and safe ex*****on of the task has been adhered to. Permits to work can include;

🔥 Hot Work
❄️ Cold Work
🧪 Chemical Work
💡 Electrical Work
🗼 Height Work
👷‍♂️ Ground Work
🕳️ Confined Spaces
🛢️ Breaking Containment
🛠️ Machinery Maintenance
🏗️ Using of Lifting Cranes

The use of PTW is an essential part of Safe Systems of Work, in compliance with the Health & Safety at Work Act. It supports to minimise not only risk of injury and ensuring compliance with regulations, but also loss to equipment and property. Serving many functions, detailing method of communication between personnel. An example of PTW considerations are;

⚠️Location and operational area
⚠️Dates of work and timeline
⚠️Detailed description of the work and how it will be done, including critical hazards recognised and precautions to be taken.
⚠️ Personnel and their roles and responsibilities, quantifying that they are trained to follow the system
⚠️ Designation of responsible individuals to authorise and supervise the task, for each stage and how it will be monitored and controlled
⚠️Risk Assessments and precautions to be taken, both pre ex*****on, during and completion for each process.
⚠️PPE requirements
⚠️Emergency Procedures
⚠️Isolation Procedures

Outside of and complimentary to PTW, as a Broker, in any circumstance we also recommend collecting any contractors insurance documentation and keeping a diary system in place to reconfirm validity, as and when their policies fall due.

28/06/2025

🔥 ⚠️ To Laundries, we need your help ⚠️🔥

We have started the process at Milsom of producing training materials for Laundry Operators, specific to the risk of spontaneous combustion. This will be available either as a face to face presentation to staff, a webinar, or an online training facility. There are other elements we are also working on to compliment this, which will run along side. Further updates will follow.

We understand how sensitive this subject is and will handle this with grace, we just want to help.

If possible, for any Laundries who have experienced this tragic event, or even smouldering. Would you please be willing to share images or CCTV which shows the process and/or ingnition. It will be dealt with confidently and you will be given the preview before release. Or alternatively, some footage of how you manage the risk. This isn’t for insurance (of course it compliments it) but our priority is risk management and loss prevention.

If you would be willing to share this please email [email protected] or communicate with Lisa Fry. Any experience you feel can assist protect the industry please let us know. We welcome any feedback.

26/11/2024

🔥 🚒 🧑‍🚒 🔥 🚒 🧑‍🚒 🔥 🚒 🧑‍🚒 🔥 🚒 🧑‍🚒 🔥 🚒 🧑‍🚒🔥🚒🧑‍🚒

Dryer fires cause significant losses across the globe every year. One of the biggest causes is lint. It's not just the Laundry industry that's exposed to the risk; it's wherever a dryer can be found, even in your own home! Lint is produced from a collection of the fine fabric fibers that come away from dried linen or garments; making it highly combustible.

The Risks

🔥 Lint Build-Up - Lint Filters/Traps: The heat produced by dryers and constant movement of air brings heat and oxygen, increasing combustibility and risk of ignition.

🔥 Exhausts & Ducts: Dryer fires can spread through exhaust systems and ducts ladened with lint.

🔥 Lint Build-Up - Housekeeping: Lint also poses a risk where it collects in upper areas of the premises, particularly around electrical wires and behind machinery, having a detrimental effect encouraging ignition, as well as spread of fire.

🔥 Spontaneous Combustion: Outside of lint, over-drying loads can cause spontaneous combustion. This is whilst in the dryer and after unloading by tightly packing, stacking, and/or piling without sufficient cooling.

🔥 Improper Use: Overloading dryers and improper ventilation can also cause fires, as well as poor maintenance including electrical components.

How to Stay Safe

🧼 Cleaning Lint Filters/Traps; Cleaning the lint filter after every use, and also vigilantly at the end of each day (particularly important for Laundry in a commercial setting) . Remove the discarded lint outside in metal bin, a safe distance away from the premises and neighboring premises. For insurance purposes please pay particular attention to Conditions regarding External Storage of Combustible Waste and remaining compliant.

🧼 Cleaning of Exhausts/Ducts: It's extremely important to clean exhausts and ducts whenever build up can occur. We recommend formulating a check list and diary system, to ensure they're checked and cleaned periodically and not forgotten.

🛠️ Maintenance/Inspection: Follow manufacturers guidelines on maintenance and inspection schedules, including electrical components. It's also highly recommended that machinery is installed by a professional.

⚠️ Spontaneous Combustion: Items that contain combustible substances (grease, oils, fats), must be washed sufficiently, including the use of emulsifiers, prior to drying. All loads to undergo sufficient cooling, whether that's by a cool down cycle and/or separation once removed to allow heat to dissipate, prior to stacking, packing, piling. Please also be really vigilant not to dry items which are not recommended for a dryer, such as foam or rubber. Always read the care label.

⚠️ Attendance: Never leave a dryer unattended whilst in use, this includes a home setting, especially overnight whilst sleeping! Even whilst attended, we recommend suitable smoke detection.

03/08/2024

🔥Spontaneous Combustion Prevention🔥

At Milsom and beyond incorporation, we have represented Laundries for over 25 years, an industry that we care and are so very passionate about.

As those that are aware, Spontaneous Combustion fires are a threat. It can occur when least expected, in the main due to items containing oils and residual chemicals, coupled with the heat. It's also very difficult for Laundries to spot stray contaminated items in the bags, when they're processing many items a day, some over 1,000,000 a week.

Since COVID the losses are becoming more frequent, subsequently the insurance markets Combined Laundry Conditions are strict. There are very limited policies, even such as Liability and Property Owners that do not equally contain them.

We want to thank Shahzad Hamid of East Anglia Laundry for bringing a new technology to our attention, something of which we are sharing with our clients, and are happy for any Laundry outside of our book to consider.

Quanturi Oy device was originally developed for the Farming Industry, as hay bales suffer fermentation (like linen), which leads to an event of spontaneous combustion. This has become problematic, as when the hay bales ignite, they destroy fields of feed and when they're stored in farm buildings, they sadly burn down too.

They have developed Quanturi Laundry, which is being used by a number of Laundries in the USA. One of which was recently alerted in the early hours to heat rising in the stack (as spontaneous combustion typically does). The probes can be put into the middle of cages, and an alert temperature set. If the heat begins to rise, it will send an alert to 3 key holders such as the image below. Subsequently catching the fermentation, before the spontaneous combustion event. It also provides data on temperatures recorded, to help the Laundry understand their ranges of heat.

For Laundries with a large amount of cages, this might not seem feasible, but even if it's the last cages of the day, we feel this could assist. Another alternative, or addition, are fixed thermographic CCTV cameras, which constantly record and send an alert to a Central Monitoring Station and/or fire alarm to alert of the rise in heat. We have recently carried out a tender of suppliers of the CCTV cameras, to get the best prices and systems for our clients considering them. Contact details available for all if needed.

Please note we do not earn any commission or earnings from this, it's purely because we see the devastation the fires cause first hand, and we desperately want to help the industry protect their investments and all they've worked for.

Laundries are so very important for the economy and to us too 🧺

29/05/2024

Milsom Insurance Brokers are pleased to announce a new facility for Commercial Laundry Risks.

Specifically for Commercial Laundries looking for Commercial Combined Insurance* with the following risk features;

Automatic Fire Detection
Strict Risk Management Against Spontaneous Combustion Risk
Good Housekeeping including against Lint Build Up

With cover exposures of up to £10m within the new facility, complimented by other markets who cover risks over this exposure.

Please contact us on 01425 486520 or email [email protected], for a free no obligation quotation.

* Material Damage/Business Interruption & Liabilities.

Other minor cover contracts are available (but not limited to) such as; Motor Fleet, Directors & Officers, Engineering Inspection & Insurance, Lorega, Cyber and Lorega

14/05/2024

Beautiful flowers sent from a client today, for Lisa our Corporate Account Executive. Well done Lisa for all of your efforts, and an equal thank you to our client. 🌸 It’s very much appreciated ☺️

03/05/2023

Laundry Industry Fire Incident Survey - Share Your Views

It is key for us to understand some of the important trends when it comes to significant fire incidents in the laundry industry. We are collecting this data from a retrospective approach going back to fire incidents for the last twenty years.

The survey has been sent to company nominees, so please do speak to your teams for more information on how to complete the survey.

18/03/2023

Thank you very much to all members who joined us on Thursday. Special thank you to the TSA for everything you do for the industry and inviting us along.

Thank you so much to everyone who joined us for our first TSA webinar yesterday! It was lovely to see so many of you joining us.

A special thank you Lisa Fry & Peter Jackson from Milsom Insurance Brokers LLP for joining us and giving us an insight into insurance within our industry.

09/03/2023

As insurance specialists for the Laundry & Textile Industry, having over 20 years experience. We are hosting a Webinar with the TSA on 16th March, covering fire prevention and how Laundries can protect themselves against losses from Spontaneous Combustion. We will also be covering the current Insurance Market for the industry, including conditions and premiums that are being put forward.

TSA Webinar - Thursday 16th March 10am-11am. The topic covered will be fire and the challenges it is presenting our industry with regards to insurance.

We will be joined by Peter Jackson and Lisa Fry of Milsom Insurance Brokers LLP who are Specialist Insurance Brokers to the Laundry and Textile Industry.

Please register here:
https://lnkd.in/d-WWNXf

For TSA Members Only.

We look forward to seeing you on the webinar!

09/03/2023

Join us on Thursday 16th March 10am-11am when we will be hosting the first TSA Webinar of the year. The topic covered will be fire and the challenges it is presenting our industry with regards to insurance.

We will be joined by Peter Jackson and Lisa Fry of Milsom Insurance Brokers LLP who are Specialist Insurance Brokers to the Laundry and Textile Industry.

Please register here:
https://tsa-uk.org/tsa-training/

For TSA Members Only.

We look forward to seeing you on the webinar!