Standards Development

Scope

This document will specify requirements for planning, conducting and reporting performance-based fire safety inspections of buildings and building projects.

It will cover: 

a) classification of inspections as holistic or targeted;

 b) application of the inspection process to the following lifecycle stages: design, construction, commissioning, operation, and renovation/rehabilitation;

c) minimum process requirements, including: definition of scope, functional requirements and deliverables, document review, inspection planning and sampling, site visit activities, evaluation of findings, prioritisation of recommended actions, reporting, and recommendations for follow-up and re-inspection;

d) minimum component categories for structuring findings and reporting, including:

1. means of escape;

2. internal fire spread — internal linings;

3. structural fire resistance;

4. compartmentation (including doors, penetrations and dampers);

5. external fire spread;

6. fire brigade access and facilities;

7. active fire systems;

8. fire safety management;

9. miscellaneous building-specific topics;

10. review of new fire risk;

e) evidence recording, declaration of inspection limitations, and assignment of confidence levels for findings;

f) minimum reporting content, including an executive summary and findings register with evidence references and prioritisation.

This document is first applicable to residential buildings, office building and buildings receiving public. It may be applied to other building types provided that the inspection objectives, scope and evidence requirements are defined accordingly. However it may also concern industrial buildings.

Purpose

In fire safety design, compliance with fire safety regulations can be demonstrated by either using pre-accepted solutions that are defined by the building authorities, or by using fire safety engineering methods.

In many EU countries, legislation on performance-based code has not been implemented. The historical use of prescriptive code allowed developing a set of control and evaluation procedures, relying on the Construction product regulation. The application of prescriptive codes does not need specific assumptions, selection of products and systems is roughly made on predetermined performance.

Fire Safety Engineering is developing in Europe. Guidelines for Fire Safety engineers are developed by ISO TC 92 SC4, but also from different nonprofit organisation like SFPE. However, even if tools are developed and standardized by ISO, Fire safety engineers will define several assumptions related to the type of building and its operation, in order to characterise the fire development, and its consequences.

European Commission would like to improve the use the Fire Safety Engineering by member States. TC127 WG8 is proposing Technical Specifications to support Member States in regulating the use of Fire Safety Engineering.

In consistency with the prTS 18332, the current New Work Item concerns the performance based fire safety inspection in buildings. The NWI consists on a first phase of the work, that should be followed by 2 additional parts dedicated to “competences, skills and qualification of inspectors”’ and to “templates and guidelines for application”.

This TS intends to be a structured, evidence-based process for performance-based fire safety inspection of buildings. It focuses on whether a building, or a defined part of it, can be expected to achieve agreed fire safety objectives or as defined by national regulation, given its declared design intent, installed provisions, operational conditions and fire safety management arrangements. It will specify the inspection workflow, minimum component categories for structuring findings, evidence and confidence requirements, prioritisation of actions, reporting content, and recommendations for follow-up and re-inspection

Even the performance based fire safety inspection may cover the regulatory compliance inspection, the performance based fire safety inspection is not a regulatory compliance inspection.