Ensuring all provisions satisfy both the Building Regulations and the local fire authority, which includes reviewing external vehicle access; hydrants; and establishing if there is a requirement for rising fire mains, access points, and firefighting lifts for example.
Internal Fire Spread
Analysis of the level of internal protection required along escape routes (including protected routes, fire doors, the treatment of service penetrations and joints in construction) is necessary in order to ensure fire separation is achieved to aid safe evacuation, and meet other fire safety objectives including those required by Building Regulations (such as for maximum compartment size) or those implemented at the behest of the building owner/operator (such as to protect areas of high financial or strategic value) consideration should also be made of specific requirements for linings to ensure that surface flame spread is effectively minimised – is the existing compartmentation satisfactory?
External Fire Spread
Analysing the possible degree of further damage should the fire spread externally via breakout, across roofs, via cladding or other materials used on the external envelope, or through the transfer of heat to adjacent buildings.
This is dependent on what systems are installed within the building. Some examples of these may include the use of sprinkler or other suppression systems, smoke control and ventilation systems and such like the implementation of such systems may be used to compensate in a building with increased risks present, such as extended travel distances, limited means of escape, large compartment sizes or significant life risk (such as in healthcare) etcetera – commonly in such circumstances, an approach in line with BS 9999 or a fire engineered solution will be implemented.
The overall fire safety management includes the adopted evacuation strategy and fire safety training specific to the building staff employed to work there, addressing any specific fire risks within the premises, and detailing particular duties which should be performed during an evacuation for certain staff. Under this heading, it will also include the company policy and procedures to be implemented, such as maintaining compliance with fire risk assessments; maintenance and testing of internal systems; implementing in house fire door checks; arranging planned preventative maintenance (PPM) schedules for the fire protection systems and any other relevant services; management of contractors.
