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PRINCIPLES TO DEMONSTRATE ADEQUACY OF FIRE SAFETY DESIGN
POTENTIAL BENEFITS
Exposed mass timber structures introduce fire hazards to a building that are not explicitly addressed by traditional design routes involving the application of guidance or design codes. In many cases, a performance-based route will be necessary to demonstrate compliance with the Building Regulations. This will necessitate a Qualitative Design Review (QDR), where the goals are identified with all relevant stakeholders from the outset. The fire safety design of the building should, as a minimum, evidence that reasonable standards of health and safety are achieved for those in or around a building, as per the requirements of the Building Regulations. For the purpose of life safety compliance, this Guidebook presents the following list of 10 Fire Principles, proposed to enable the demonstration that reasonable standards of health and safety can be achieved in the event of a fire in a commercial mass timber building. The fire safety design should always be undertaken by competent professionals with relevant experience. The principles provide a template – they may be adopted by designers in the absence of project-specific alternatives that might otherwise be determined through the QDR process, in dialogue with relevant stakeholders. For this reason, they are necessarily conservative and may not apply in all cases. The principles and approach within the table have been through an iterative process of discussions and consensus within a panel of academics and consultants who are experienced in the development or review of fire safety designs from first principles, including for commercial mass timber buildings. The fire panel was formed from academics/consultants from Design Fire Consultants, Hoare Lea, OFR Consultants, Semper, The University of Edinburgh and University College London. The principles primarily address life safety, but provide potential benefits for business continuity and property protection.
The 10 Fire Principles, which address life safety compliance, are presented on the following page.
Even though it cannot be assumed that designing for life safety automatically addresses property protection or business continuity goals, through addressing the 10 Fire Principles there are potential benefits to these goals as follows: – The development of a comprehensive fire strategy, and undertaking of a Qualitative Design Review, from the onset ensures that stakeholders’ objectives are elicited at the outset of a project. Where appropriate / relevant, this includes insurers’ objectives. – The assured competency of those involved in the design and approval process reduces exposure to risk in the event of a future fire. – A transparent and clear fire safety strategy reduces the prospect of mismanagement and misunderstanding whilst the building is in service. Thus, increasing the effectiveness of the prevention fire safety layer. – The communicated extent or increase in potential fire damage from the choice of structural framing material informs potential implications for property protection, asset protection and insurability. – Potential vulnerabilities and failure modes in the fire safety strategy are explicitly identified and mitigated. – Demonstrating comparable and adequate risk to buildings with non-combustible structures will likely require more widespread use of compartmentation and automatic fire suppression systems. This will likely reduce the extent of fire damage.
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