Inside the Don’t Fall for Fragile campaign

By Emma Peterson. 

NFRC is calling on roofing companies to pledge their support and give teams the knowledge and resources they need to work safely around fragile roofs. 

Earlier this year, National Federation of Roofing Contractors (NFRC) kicked off a new safety campaign – Don't Fall for Fragile. This campaign began out of the need to raise awareness about the danger of fragile roofs. The Health and Safety Executive reports that “fragile roofs account for 22% of all falls from height fatal injuries in the construction industry.” Through this campaign, NFRC hopes to help lower that statistic. To get a behind-the-scenes look at this new campaign and what it’s doing, we brought Gary Walpole, NFRC's technical safety, health and environment officer, on for an episode of Roofing Road Trips®. 

The core motto of the campaign is Step Back and Plan, which speaks to NFRC’s goal of to getting roofers to assess more carefully before climbing on a roof. As Gary put it, “We’re keeping it simple, it’s not complicated – we don’t want to add another regulation or something, we just want people to take a moment when in the field to plan with safety in mind.”  

What does that planning look like? Gary shared some examples, saying, “You need to plan the work before sending people up on the roof, make sure they have the correct equipment (that includes access to full prevention gear) and ensure they have the training and supervision needed to stay safe.” Another word for all this is risk assessment. Gary elaborated:  

Think about how you’re taught to look both ways to cross the road as a child – that's a risk assessment about whether it's safe to cross. What we’re encouraging companies and contractors to do is the same thing before they go on a roof – recognise the risk and make an assessment about it before doing anything else.  

Want to join NFRC’s campaign and start making a difference? The first step is pledging support and implementing changes in your business! Gary explained, “When you pledge support, we connect you with resources like posters and toolbox talks that you can use to raise awareness in your company.” He went on, “We also will give you the information you need to plan the project in all the stages, from surveying to designing to pricing...Because you have to have all of that in line before you can even start a roof risk assessment.”  

Listen to the whole episode or Watch the recording to learn more about NFRC’s Don’t Fall for Fragile campaign.