Designing for fire safety in construction can be a complex subject. Successive revisions to the Building Regulations over the past 30 years have tightened up rules and learned lessons from notable fires in public places, such as Summerland (1973), Bradford Football Club (1985), and Eastbourne Pier in 2014.
Although small-scale buildings such as individual dwellings are relatively simple, interpreting the rules for larger developments such as stadia, shopping centres and hospitals can require the services of a specialist consultant. Here we round up some key documentation and other issues that may need to be considered when planning the fire strategy of your next project. While not an exhaustive account, it gives guidance on issues to consider and sources of further information.
The Approved Documents give guidance on how to comply with the Building Regulations. Fire safety is covered by Approved Document B, which in 2006 was split into two separate sections:
The two volumes are broadly similar in coverage and appearance, differing only to draw the distinction between the different building types. Volume 1 includes individual dwellings, and sheltered housing (where each individual unit is self-contained). Volume 2 covers everything else, but is assisted by supplementary guidance for special or complex building types such as healthcare buildings (see HTM 05-02, below). Volume 2 also covers houses in multiple occupation, flats and student accommodation. They both have five parts, covering:
A statutory instrument in England and Wales that obligates those responsible for property (except individual domestic dwellings) to conduct a fire risk assessment and take reasonable steps to mitigate any risks identified. It replaced the fire certification required under the Fire Precautions Act 1971. In addition to the statutory instrument, the government published a set of sixteen guides to assist business owners, including guidance on conducting a fire safety risk assessment for a variety of different types of premises, ranging from transportation to entertainment, industrial to healthcare. The key feature of the Order is that it places responsibility for fire safety of premises on those individuals who are responsible for those premises in some way. Previously, the local fire safety officer would define their requirements for fire safety and firefighting equipment. In practical terms, a business owner will employ a suitably-qualified person to carry out their duties on their behalf; in the case of building design, this will normally involve the architect.
A document published by the government and available on the Planning Portal website, that acts as a guide to the steps needed to gain approval for fire safety aspects of construction work. It also explains how the Building Regulations interact with other statutory fire safety requirements, such as the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order. In addition to the Building Control Body, designers need to satisfy the Fire Safety Enforcing Authority in respect of the Order; this is typically the local Fire and Rescue Authority. The key difference to the previous procedure under the 1971 Act is that the Fire Safety Enforcing Authority now approves the fire safety design of others, rather than carrying out that design themselves.
The British Standard that has dealt with the testing and measurement of combustibility of building materials. It measures the surface spread of flame of a material, grading the results from 1 at best to 4 at worst performance. While still current, it is likely to be withdrawn in future in favour of BS EN 13501-1 (see below).
As an alternative to following the guidance in Approved Document B, compliance can also be demonstrated by adopting a fire engineered solution. This can be particularly useful for very large or multi-use complexes such as shopping centres or airports. In these cases, compartmentation would lead to an excessively enclosed and restrictive layout, which may not be conducive to the light, open nature required to enable e.g. shoppers to navigate between different retailers. Employing a specialist consultant can lead to a more flexible and versatile scheme, where the ‘fire load’ is calculated and offset by measures such as drop-down smoke curtains, sprinkler systems and fire shutters that can isolate and contain a fire when detected.
Installing a sprinkler system can relax the performance requirements of certain aspects of the fire safety design. For example, fire resistance periods of structure can be reduced if a building is sprinklered. Sprinkler systems for residential buildings must comply with the requirements of BS 9251, whereas non-residential sprinkler systems are covered by BS 5306-2 (note that whereas this has been superseded by BS EN 12845, it is still cited in the Building Regulations at the time of writing). In addition to these, however, sprinklers may be demanded by other (non-statutory) sources such as buildings insurance companies. This is becoming more common as US finance companies are investing in the UK construction industry post-recession, and it should be ascertained what specific requirements they may demand – for example, they may or may not be required to comply with the British Standards referred to above.
The Fire Sector Federation is an industry body whose members include representatives from organisations involved in fire and rescue. The Federation takes part in consultation on changes to the Approved Documents in relation to fire safety design. It was formed in 2012 out of a merger between two preceding organizations, in response to the Fire Futures review of July 2010 by the Fire and Rescue Minister. This review changed the perspective from government-led control of fire and rescue services delivery, to industry-led policy shaping.
Part of the Health Technical Memoranda series, which provides guidance on fire safety design for healthcare buildings. Its purpose is to provide specific guidance that relates directly to healthcare premises, in order to demonstrate compliance with Part B of the Building Regulations. Produced by the Department of Health, it acts as a guidance document to assist in applying the requirements of Part B to healthcare premises, and its scope covers all types of healthcare buildings that are under the control and regulation of the Care Quality Commission.