Fire Safety Design
We work as a key part of the project design team to fulfil our clients’ design aspirations while helping to ensure that the regulatory requirements for fire safety are met.
We provide clear and concise fire safety design advice and report through all the RIBA Stages 1-7. We advise on fire safety designs by applying the appropriate fire safety code guidance (Approved Document B, BS 9999, BS 9991, BB 100, and other international standards) to the Building Regulations, in the first instance.
Meeting design aspirations without compromising fire safety
Where the generic code guidance goes against the client brief or aspirations, we draw on our wide and varied experience to review challenges and apply fire engineering first principles to ‘engineer’ the building to satisfy the functional requirements of the Building Regulations. This is achieved through both quantitative analysis and qualitative risk assessment and is then documented in our fire safety strategy.
We engage with the building control body (local authority or Approved Inspector) and other statutory consultees (local fire and rescue services) as early as possible to agree the design principles and so gain the earliest possible in-principle approval for the designs with these bodies. Ongoing discussions with all relevant stakeholders takes the project forward into, and through, construction with all parties in agreement with the principles of the fire strategy.
We have a dedicated, diligent and highly experienced team of Fire Engineers that work closely to ensure we provide the most up-to-date advice in what is a very fast moving fire engineering world of regulatory and guidance updates.
Fire Safety Statements
In accordance with the requirements of the ‘Town and Country Planning (Development Management Procedure and Section 62A Applications) (England) (Amendment) Order 2021’, a development which shall have one or more relevant buildings shall require a fire statement(s) which shall contain information of the fire safety design principles, concepts and standards that have been applied to the development. All Fire Statements are required to be completed by suitably competent engineers.
Fire safety statements to meet all required regulations
At Ashton Fire, we produce fire statements to satisfy both Town and County planning regulations as well as local authority regulations.
Retrospective Fire Safety Strategies
The existing building stock in the UK and overseas is constantly undergoing layout changes, alterations and extensions with little or no knowledge of the fire safety principles of the existing building and how the proposed works might affect it.
Ensuring existing buildings meet the latest fire safety legislation
We have significant experience in the provision of fire safety advice for existing buildings undergoing these upgrade, extension, alteration and change-of-use works. We review the building as it is, the proposed works and provide a retrospective fire safety strategy to ensure the project aspirations are met while also respecting the existing buildings (particularly if it is a Listed property) fabric and function, all while satisfying the functional requirements of the Building Regulations and progressing through the RIBA Stages and regulatory approvals process.
Specialist Fire Engineering
We provide and facilitate bespoke and specialist fire engineering services, e.g. Structural Fire Engineer, Evacuation Modelling and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) modelling. These services are usually provided as part of a holistic fire safety strategy, although can be standalone projects in some cases. Such quantitative analyses can be used to support and substantiate qualitative risk assessments of proposed designs and demonstrate with an appropriate safety factor that safe conditions are present for life safety in and around a new or existing building.
Modelling and analysis to assist in risk assessment
We have tools that enable us to realise the clients design aspirations while helping ensure we satisfy the functional requirements of the Building Regulations or other statutory documents. We can offer:
- Computational Modelling
- Structural Fire Engineering
- Evacuation Modelling
- Radiation Modelling
Computational Modelling
Our team includes experienced specialists in the delivery of computational modelling to assist in the fire safety design of buildings. Our capabilities cover the use of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) based fire and smoke modelling, zone modelling, evacuation modelling, fire dynamics calculations, and probabilistic assessments. We use these computational methods to quantify fire dynamics and human behaviour to support performance-based design as part of an integrated fire safety strategy. As a result, we can accommodate building situations in which the adoption of prescriptive guidance recommendations may not be appropriate or feasible, ultimately providing our clients with designs that achieve the necessary level of safety while preserving the desired architectural intent.
Members of our team sit at the forefront of research in fire engineering and are regular contributors to the progression of the discipline, ensuring we stay up to date with the latest technical developments and fully understand the range of computational tools available to us. With this expertise available in house, we know when and where it is appropriate to adopt complex methods to assist in the performance-based design of buildings, never advocating for the use of complex modelling when simpler, less costly, and more suitable alternatives are available.
