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All new or modified buildings constructed in the UK are required to meet the functional requirements of
the Building Regulations. Guidance for meeting these requirements are outlined in various codes such as
Approved Document B (ADB), supported where applicable by a wide range of British Standards.
For existing buildings the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 applies, with rented residential
properties also being subject to the provisions of the Housing Act 2004. These laws require properties to
maintain reasonable standards of fire safety. Again, publically available guidance has been produced to
outline what are considered to be reasonable standards of safety, with many being more risk assessment
based than the guidance applicable to new buildings.
In the last four to five years fire suppression systems, particularly residential sprinklers, have gained
recognition in the various national guidance documents as one method of improving the level of fire safety
such that the functional requirements of the Building Regulations are met. In August 2011 the draft
British Standard BS9991 proposes further embracement of fire suppression as a means of creating design
flexibility.
Whilst the above guides have focused specifically on residential sprinklers they do not exclude any form of
fire suppression as a potential alternative. Paragraph 0.18 of Approved Document B, Volume 1 2006 states,
“0.18. There are many alternative or innovative fire suppression systems available. Where these are used
it is necessary to ensure that such systems have been designed and tested for use in domestic buildings
and are fit for their intended purpose.”
An identical statement to that above is also included at the end of paragraph 0.16 of Approved Document B,
Volume 2, 2006.
Further to the specific comments above the opening paragraphs in Approved Document B enable
fire engineering to be used as an alternative approach to achieving compliance with the functional
requirements of the Building Regulations. The BS7974 suite of documents provides a structured approach
and methodology for preparing fire engineered solutions. This suite discusses fire engineered solutions
generally in terms of comparative, deterministic and probabilistic approaches. The remaining parts of this
section outline the philosophy and details for why Automist forms an effective and robust means of fire
suppression suitable for life safety applications. These proposals are further explored at a generic concept
level in Section 9.
8
Fire Performance and Regulations Compliance
