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Fire safety in construction

Fire safety risks on a construction site must be assessed and appropriate measures taken to reduce them to a minimum. When construction activities are not adequately controlled there is a risk of harm to construction workers, members of the public, and the properties adjacent to construction sites. Fire safety standards can help construction organizations manage these fire risks effectively.

Reducing the risk of fire harm

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BS 9991: A comprehensive update to the UK’s essential fire safety standard
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BS 9991: A comprehensive update to the UK’s essential fire safety standard

The latest revision of BS 9991 - the UK's key fire safety standard for residential buildings - represents a critical advancement in fire safety regulation.  As fire safety concerns have evolved, the new edition incorporates essential updates designed to enhance safety in the design, management, and use of residential buildings.  Here, we’ll explore the significance of the upcoming BS 9991:2024 Fire safety in the design, management and use of residential buildings - Code of practice, the key changes being introduced, and why adopting this standard is vital for anyone involved in residential building safety. Get your copy of the standard here. What is BS 9991? BS 9991 is a code of practice standard that offers comprehensive guidance and recommendations for ensuring fire safety in residential buildings. First introduced as a British Standard in 2011, it serves as a primary reference for achieving fire protection measures, safeguarding lives, and minimizing property damage in the event of a fire. It covers a wide range of building types, from apartment blocks and flats to residential care homes. The objective of the standard is twofold: To ensure an adequate standard of life safety in the event of a fire, focusing on occupant safety, firefighter safety, and the protection of emergency services. To offer property protection, safeguarding not only the building in question but also adjacent properties, businesses, and the environment. BS 9991 bridges the gaps between different regulatory frameworks in the UK, providing a unified approach to fire safety that can be applied nationally. Explore our library of fire-related standards and the benefits they can bring to your organization by visiting our Fire topic page.  What are the key changes in BS 9991:2024? The upcoming  2024 revision brings significant updates.  These reflect the increasing complexity of modern building designs and the evolving knowledge of fire behaviour, materials, and fire safety systems.  The key changes include: Expanded scope: BS 9991 now covers residential care homes, recognizing the unique evacuation needs and fire safety challenges unique to those properties.  Explicit exclusions on timber have been removed: The scope of the standard has been limited in terms of reaction-to-fire classifications of load-bearing elements of structure to better reflect the available evidence regarding the use of mass timber in medium and high residential buildings. Revised guidance for sprinklers and single-stair buildings: Updates include a new height limit for single-stair buildings and adjustments to sprinkler installation guidelines. European classifications for fire doors: National fire door classifications have been replaced with European classifications to ensure consistency and reliability in fire resistance. Enhanced recommendations for smoke control and evacuation lifts: Improved provisions for smoke control systems and detailed recommendations for evacuation lifts, making tall buildings safer in fire emergencies. Updates on ancillary areas, kitchens, and external wall systems: The recommendations for these areas have been revised to account for the latest safety practices. The 2024 edition offers a robust framework for fire safety in residential buildings, accommodating advancements in building technology while maintaining practicality. For more detailed information on BS 9991:2024, you can download the free executive briefing here. What are the benefits of the revised BS 9991:2024? BS 9991:2024 provides the most comprehensive and up-to-date recommendations for fire safety in residential buildings, ensuring the highest level of protection for both occupants and the building itself.  The revised standard addresses the complexities of modern building design, including mixed-use and high-rise structures, offering solutions for even the most challenging fire safety scenarios.  The 2024 edition integrates the latest advancements in fire safety knowledge, providing a future-proof approach to the design and management of residential buildings. Who should use BS 9991:2024 and why?  BS 9991:2024 is essential for a wide range of professionals involved in the design of new buildings, as well as material alterations, extensions, and changes of use to existing buildings. Users of the standard include:  Designers and Architects: BS 9991 offers a clear and authoritative guide to integrating fire safety into the design process, ensuring that buildings are constructed with the latest fire safety technologies and methods. Fire Safety Engineers and Risk Assessors: The revised standard provides detailed guidance on fire safety risk assessments and offers updated methodologies to tackle emerging fire safety challenges. Building Owners and Managers: Following BS 9991 helps maintain legal compliance, reduce liability, and ensure the protection of residents and properties in the event of a fire. Fire and Rescue Services: BS 9991 helps fire services by providing standardized design and operational procedures that make firefighting and rescue operations more efficient and effective. Whether you are designing a new building or making material changes to an existing one, this standard provides the tools to ensure compliance with fire safety regulations and to mitigate fire risks. Stay informed, stay up to date, and ensure your buildings meet the highest standards of fire safety. Get your copy of BS 9991:2024 today.Read more
Achieving fire safety engineering principles compliance with fire standards
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Achieving fire safety engineering principles compliance with fire standards

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. To learn about occupational health and safety within the built environment, click here. 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. Discover BSI Knowledge Want to access and manage the standards you need to support your management of fire safety engineering - all in one place? With a BSI Knowledge subscription, you will have the flexibility and visibility to manage the essential standards you need in order to work with confidence and comply to fire safety regulations. Build your own custom collection of standards, or opt for access to our GBM08 Fire, Accident & Crime Protection module and keep up-to-date with any relevant changes to your standards strategy. Request to learn more.

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