Fire safety engineering (FSE) is about taking the total fire risk management of a building into account and designing accordingly. It’s seen as an alternative approach to fire safety in buildings but is one that is now well established.

For many buildings, the recommendations in existing design standards such as BS 9991 and BS 9999 will suffice.

However, FSE is credited as being an approach that can often offer more fundamental, bespoke, safer, and economical solutions than more generic approaches to fire safety. Also, in some cases where large, complex, and unique buildings are contemplated, it’s seen as the only viable means of achieving a satisfactory standard of fire safety.

FSE applies scientific and engineering principles as well as expert judgment based on an understanding of the phenomena and effects of fire, and the reaction of people. FSE practitioners, therefore, need to have a holistic understanding of how fire systems, structures, and people respond to fire. Fire safety engineers can then create infrastructures that are inherently safe and at the same time meet the needs of clients, architects, and fire safety regulators. This brings us to fire safety engineering design – the subject of the BS 7974 standard.

What are the benefits to your business of standard BS 7974?

BS 7974 was first published in 2001. It provides a framework that lets users apply fire safety engineering principles to building design and is used to develop and assess fire safety engineered proposals.

The standard describes the philosophy that underpins fire safety engineering and outlines the basis involved. It provides a means of establishing acceptable levels of fire safety without imposing unnecessary constraints on aspects of building design. It allows the effect of departures from design codes to be evaluated. The standard also recognizes that functional objectives can be achieved by a range of alternative and complementary fire protection strategies. It aims to facilitate innovation in design without compromising safety. 

For businesses, the standard gives designers a disciplined approach to fire safety design.

It allows safety levels of specific designs to be assessed and quantified where appropriate, and it allows the safety levels for alternative designs to be compared. The standard’s framework also provides a basis for the selection of appropriate fire protection systems and information on the management of fire safety for a building.

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The published document series for fire safety engineering

The standard is supported by the PD 7974 series: currently, seven published documents that contain guidance and information on how to do a detailed analysis of specific aspects of fire safety engineering in buildings.

Fire is a complex phenomenon and there are still gaps in our knowledge of it. However, the intention is that when used by suitably qualified persons experienced in fire safety engineering, this series of Published Documents can provide a means of establishing adequate levels of fire safety economically without imposing unnecessary constraints on aspects of building design.

The intention is that each summarizes the “state-of-the-art” in its area, and is updated as new theories, calculation methods or data become available. The series comprises:

• PD 7974-1:2019 Application of fire safety engineering principles to the design of buildings - Initiation and development of fire within the enclosure of origin

• PD 7974-2:2019 Application of fire safety engineering principles to the design of buildings - Spread of smoke and toxic gases within and beyond the enclosure of origin

• PD 7974-3:2019 Application of fire safety engineering principles to the design of buildings - Structural response to fire and fire spread beyond the enclosure of origin

• PD 7974-4:2003 Application of fire safety engineering principles to the design of buildings - Detection of fire and activation of fire protection systems

• PD 7974-5:2014+A1:2020 Application of fire safety engineering principles to the design of buildings - Fire and rescue service intervention

• PD 7974-6:2019 Application of fire safety engineering principles to the design of buildings - Human factors. Life safety strategies. Occupant evacuation, behaviour and condition

• PD 7974-7:2019+A1:2021 Application of fire safety engineering principles to the design of buildings - Probabilistic risk assessment

Fire safety engineering standard development and key changes

2019 saw the first revision of BS 7974 in 18 years.

BS 7974:2019 Application of fire safety engineering principles to the design of buildings. Code of practice is not a big departure from the 2001 version, but some important changes have nevertheless been made.

First, for ease of handling, the recommendations that were previously found in PD 7974-0 and PD 7974-8 have now been incorporated into the British Standard, meaning that those two PDs are now withdrawn.

Second, and most importantly, this revision puts a greater emphasis on the competence of fire engineers. Also, additional recommendations have been introduced covering quality assurance and verification of fire engineering reports.

Finally, the drafting committee took this opportunity to simplify and consolidate the terminology used in the standard. It’s important to note that the underlying process of fire engineering based on the qualitative design review has not changed, but every effort has been made to ensure the terms used to describe the process are consistent throughout the standard.

In addition, four of the PDs – Parts 1, 2, 6, and 7 – have also been fully revised and updated in line with current thinking, technological advances, and changes to BS 7974 and other parts of the PD 7974 series. The hope is that BS 7974 and its PDs will now provide robust support to FSE practice for many more years to come.

Add the standard BS 7974:2019 to your collection today.

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