Department of the Environment

Design principles of fire safety

HMSO

The need for a comprehensive guide for fire safety in design was identified as a recommendation by the Authors in their Report to the Department of Trade and Industry-titled Fire and Building Regulation-in 1990. In summer 1993 the Department of the Environment commissioned us to produce an illustrated text on the fire safety principles underlying current United Kingdom legislation. The target audience was building designers, fire safety officers and building control officers who, together with students and a wider audience in other disciplines, would find the guide a useful amplification of the principles behind legislative provisions. The current methods of prescribing technical levels for fire safety range from broad functional requirements to detailed technical specifications which, together with the continuing changes in detail occasioned by developments, has led us to concentrate on principles rather than numeric detail. The principal contributors were: Geoff G Connell Hon Dip Arch Roger Jowett BSc MSc Dip Arch RIBA ACIArb Phillip H Thomas PhD(Cantab) FIMechE FIFireE MIFS and 0 Leslie Turner OBE RIBA AIFireE They would like to thank their support team, particularly mentioning John Blew, Lesley Turner Dip Arch RIBA, and Robert Biddulph, who produced the illustrations. Foreword written by: Dr William A Allen CBE BArch LLD RIBA HonFAIA HonFIOA, who was Chairman of the Fire Research Advisory Committee 1975- 1983.

Chapter 9:
Introduction Fire safety plan Fire safety manual

Fire safety management

215 215 216 216 216 217 218 218 219 219 219 220

Fire safety management structure Fire action plan Staff training plan Fire prevention plan Fire precautions maintenance plan Building maintenance work, alterations and partial occupation Independent audit The accruing benefits Degree of application and sources of information

Design principles of fire safety

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Introduction

Fire safety management relates both to hazards to people within and about a building, and to the building and its contents. It is of particular importance in connection with life safety because a common factor in many multi-fatality fires is the failure of the occupants of the building, whether management, staff or others, to take the correct action when a fire is discovered or when an alarm is raised.

As fire engineering and risk management plays an increasing role in establishing life safety arrangements within a building, the significance of fire safety management grows.
Fire safety management involves the provision of management procedures sufficient to ensure that:

there are appropriate fire prevention measures so that the possibility of a fire starting is reduced; in the event of fire the various fire safety facilities, installations and systems which have been provided will be available and will function as intended, and there are appropriate arrangements to ensure that safe evacuation of the occupants will be possible.

Its aim is to plan to reduce the risks to persons by prevention and control of a fire, the maintenance of fire safety facilities installations and systems design to protect the occupants, and by the safety evacuation of occupants.

Fire safety plan

If fire safety management is to be effective, .a plan tailored to the needs of the particular building and its occupants is necessary. Such a fire safety plan needs to identify:
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a management structure to ensure implementation of the plan; the appropriate action to be taken by the various occupants in the event of fire; appropriate staff training arrangements; fire prevention procedures, and

maintenance and testing procedures for the various fire safety features.

Management can only. produce an effective fire safety plan if it has adequate information available to it concerning the function and maintenance of all the active and passive fire protection measures. Such information needs to be supplied by the designer of the building or of the individual fire installations e.g. a sprinkler or automatic fire detection system, usually in the form of as-built drawings, manuals, specifications, and so on.

Fire safety manual

It would be appropriate to record the fire safety plan arrangements in a fire safety manual that would also set out details of the active and passive fire precautions measures in the building, would include operational details of mechanical and electrical systems, and would log inspections, tests, and evacuation drills.

Fire safety management structure

The plan should set out a fire safety management structure that identifies the person or persons responsible for all matters relating to fire safety, and subordinate lines of responsibility. These persons, who should have an appreciation of the fire precautionary measures in the building and their purpose, would be involved in pre-incident planning with the fire service, and would manage evacuation prior to their arrival.
A fire safety manager should have overall control of the premises relating to matters of fire safety supported by the appropriate staff structure to carry out this function.

He should have an appreciation of the fire precautions within the building and their purpose; to this end in large buildings he should liaise with the fire service before an incident as a preventative measure; during an incident to give detailed information and after to learn any lessons and implement any improvements. He will take charge of the evacuation of the building until the arrival of the fire service.

Fire action plan

Responsibilities and actions to be taken in the event of fire need to be set out in a fire action plan. Such a plan would include:
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arrangements for calling the fire service and providing it with relevant information;

procedures about evacuation from the building including arrangements for assistance and guidance especially for people with disabilities where necessary; procedures for shutting down equipment; and arrangements for first aid fire fighting where appropriate.

The need to tailor the fire action plan to a particular building, its uses and mode of operation cannot be over emphasised. The fire safety design concept for the building should have taken this into consideration and where it has, it should be restated. In large or complex buildings or those to which the public are admitted the action plan will require a high level of control as will those for buildings occupied by people with disabilities necessitating a higher level of staff participation and training.

Staff training plan

If fire actions are to be carried out effectively, staff need to be trained so that individually they clearly understand their particular role and responsibilities in the event of a fire. The fire safety plan should therefore include a staff training plan. The failure of persons to take the appropriate action when fire is discovered or the alarm raised is a common factor in fatal fires. Appropriate staff should receive training in:

action to be taken on discovery of a fire; operation details of mechanical and electrical systems; routine testing and maintenance information; logs for records of tests, evacuation drills etc.; record drawings of active and passive protection measures, including smoke control and fire alarm and public address zones; and, the fire action plan.

The frequency of the training will depend on the use of the building and codes relating to specific uses make varying recommendations.

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Fire prevention plan

It is best if fires can be avoided in the first place, and regular checks based on a fire prevention plan can help. This would identify housekeeping and similar measures related to the use and maintenance of items which could be a source of ignition, and to the use and storage of combustible items which could ignite and lead to fire growth and spread. Electrical installations and equipment and heat producing appliances could be ignition sources; building contents generally and waste materials in particular are potential ignitable items.

Fire precautions maintenance plan

In buildings designed on the basis of fire safety engineering principles it is likely that there will be a wide range of active and passive fire safety measures and facilities. Often these will depend one on another for their success, and regular checks and maintenance are necessary if they are to remain effective. A fire precautions maintenance plan would identify appropriate frequencies of checks and maintenance of all fire safety facilities, installations and equipment. These include:
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inspections and repair if necessary of the main fire protecting structure and any openings in it, such as doors; inspections and repair if necessary of protection to escape routes; inspections to ensure that escape routes remain available; this would include ensuring that there were no obstructions, that doors on routes were unlocked, that closing devices on doors operate correctly, and that fire safety signs and notices are maintained and not obscured; inspections and regular maintenance of active measures and installations to ensure that they will operate as intended, these include automatic fire detection and alarm systems, smoke control and heat exhaust equipment, sprinklers and other fire suppression systems, first aid fire fighting equipment, general and escape lighting facilities, close circuit TV monitoring equipment, and hold open devices on doors; inspections to ensure that external and internal fire service access arrangements are free from obstruction; and

inspections to ensure that facilities such as fire fighting lifts, water supply hydrants, inlets, control valves and outlets, and override facilities for smoke control and other relevant equipment are free from obstruction and operable.

Where buildings have a fire certificate or licence the necessary maintenance requirements will normally be specified in the document. An essential aspect of this plan is that defects found are remedied and that persistent bad practices are investigated with a view to their removal, thereby preventing the cause rather than be faced with the consequences.

Building maintenance work, alterations and partial occupation

The dangers arising from fires occurring during maintenance work and alterations should be minimised by appropriate action in relation to the occupied building and the work practices proposed. If part of a building is to be occupied then all fire safety work appertaining to that part needs to be completed, including external access and hydrants, protected escape routes to final exits, fire alarm systems and smoke control methods. Temporary arrangements pending completion of the building may be necessary to safeguard early occupation. Separation between occupied and unoccupied parts should be provided in fire resisting construction of a period commensurate with the greatest risk. Such separation may be of a temporary nature.

Independent audit

'It has to be assumed that management will have procedures to deal with the above points that are appropriate to the design and use of the building. Despite this there is always the possibility that some aspects of the fire precautions, systems, and evacuation procedures may not work as effectively as planned. Where justified by the use or complexity of the building these problems can to some extent be overcome by an independent audit of the procedures carried out regularly.

The accruing benefits

Where there is a reliable audit it could be assumed:

that the number of fire starts is reduced;

that the probability of failure of one or more of the fire safety systems is reduced; that the probability of some shortfall in evacuation procedures or escape route availability is reduced, and that the probability of arrangements for access and facilities for the fire service being obstructed or unable to function is reduced.

The degree of application and sources of information

The degree to which fire safety management needs to be developed in a particular building is dependant upon its size, subdivision, complexity and use. This needs to be established by an assessment of the relevant fire risks and hazards. Various guidance documents address different aspects of fire safety management, in particular the subject is dealt with in detail in some of the British Standard Codes of Practice on fire precautions in the design construction and use of buildings.

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