Managing fire safety in commercial buildings: last month's Fire Safety Development Group seminar, sponsored by the All-Party Parliamentary Fire Safety Group, sought to question how fire protection is installed and maintained, what research is underway to enhance buildings' fire performance and structural integrity, and what guidance is available - Seminar Report

Following September 11, there have been several reports on safety in tall and large occupancy buildings, primarily concerning building design, management and emergency response. The seminar saw leading specialists covering proposals to reform statutory fire safety, structural integrity of large occupancy buildings drawn from inquiries into 9/11, the House of Commons Select Committee inquiry into tall buildings, and emergency escape procedures from Canary Wharf.

Sustaining the long-term performance of passive fire protection in commercial buildings was the subject of a paper from CEO Graham Ellicott, Association for Specialist Fire Protection. He pointed out that building regulations on sustaining passive fire protection in commercial buildings required: protection from collapse for a specific period of time; be subdivided into areas of manageable risk; have adequate means of escape; have fire separation between adjacent/adjoining buildings.

Building Regulations also require `all openings for pipes, ducts, conduits or cables to pass through any part of a fire separating element' and should be: `kept as few in number as possible; kept as small as practical; and be fire stopped (allowing for thermal movement in case of pipe or duct)'.

However, he questioned Whether managers knew where the passive fire protection (PFP) is located, and if the PFP is marked in-situ. He recommended inspecting hidden areas, drawing up an action plan to repair deficient PFP, inspecting PFP as part of the risk assessment and planning for the future.

Alastair Brown, Divisional Director, Babtie Rushbrook, spoke on the structural integrity of large occupancy buildings, based on the ISE report examining what can be learned from the events of 9/11 for the future of new buildings and the appraisal of existing ones. He said the recommendations were not "a panacea for dealing with threats to building infrastructure" but an indicator of possibilities for consideration and study.

"It is important to remember that the solutions to reducing the probability of recurrence of extreme events, such as occurred on September 11, 2001, do not lie within the gift of building owners and construction professionals," he suggested, "but the report nevertheless is a contribution to public safety that may enable new buildings to sustain any future malicious attacks with a reduced risk of loss of life." Further work and international collaboration is needed, he stressed, "to optimise safety in extreme events through design and management."

The new code of practice BS7479:2001 Application of Fire Safety Engineering Principles to the Design of Buildings provides a framework for collaboration, Mr Brown said, including building owners, developers, construction professionals, regulatory authorities and emergency services.

He said that by involving qualified and experienced engineers in the design of large occupancy buildings, construction professionals can be guided in the application of materials, fire test data, active and passive fire protection systems and the reality of managing fire safety.

"This approach requires a realistic approach to hazard identification, quantification and risk assessment. It also requires an agreement between stakeholders about the acceptable level of residual risk, before the design proceeds, so that any deviations during a project have some benchmarking for comparison."

In summary, he said the structural integrity of large occupancy buildings is a multi-disciplinary problem, best resolved by involving all stakeholders at an early stage in the process, eg, at conceptual design, in line with the framework set out in BS 7479;

There needs to be a better understanding by construction professionals of fire test data and the in-service performance of fire safety products; and,

Third party review of design, construction and operation of large occupancy buildings would be invaluable, providing an assurance of quality in important life safety and property protection systems.

The aim, he suggested, should be for realistic risk based design that has an agreed level of acceptable risk, rather than an assumption by the user/owner that risk has been eliminated. "The result would be an appropriate level of protection to occupants, property and operations, without the loss of amenity and aesthetic values.

"After all, who wants our important buildings, such as the Palace of Westminster, to be bomb-proof concrete blocks?"

"While it is clear that construction professionals, including the professional fire engineer, can play a significant role in making large occupancy buildings safer through practical and cost effective design, installation and operation, the solutions to reducing the probability of a recurrence of extreme events, do not lie within our gift, nor those of building owners, construction professionals and emergency services."

For more information on this and forthcoming seminars visit: www.fsdg.org.uk

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