Modern buildings should be designed to provide an acceptable level of fire safety and to minimize the risks associated with heat and smoke.
The main goal is to minimize the possibility of death or injury to building occupants and others who may be involved, such as fire and rescue services. It is also critical to protect the contents and ensure that the building can continue to function after a fire and that it can be repaired. It is also necessary to take into account the risk to adjacent objects, as well as possible environmental pollution.
There are two types of combustible materials that are affected by constructors: building structures and building contents.
The fire protection of building structures is often expressed in terms of their flammability or combustibility, with particular attention to structural elements that must remain in place to ensure stability. Interior finishes can be a source of fuel and should be carefully defined, while the materials that make up a building also pose various fire hazards such as textiles, furniture and plastics.
The main design options that ensure fire safety are:
Prevention: control of ignition and fuel sources to prevent fires.
Communication: in the event of a fire, ensure that people are informed and any active fire protection systems are activated.
Evacuation: ensuring that people in buildings and surrounding areas can move to safe places.
Containment: Fire should be contained in the smallest possible area, limiting the threat to life safety and the amount of property that can be damaged.
Extinguishing: Ensuring that a fire can be extinguished quickly and with minimal collateral damage.
The fire safety strategy is an integral part of the project and should be integrated from the definition of the building project and will continue within the building's ongoing asset management, providing a golden thread of fire safety information. The most important stage of the strategy is fire protection building structures. A high-level site assessment to determine if fire safety meets customer requirements provides information on the viability of a project through a feasibility study. Fire safety levels are integrated into the project as the project develops, and then built and managed in operation in accordance with the Fire Safety Strategy and maintenance requirements.
