Will Wigfield, Product Manager – Fire Protection & HVAC at ROCKWOOL UK, looks at the principles in detail and explains the why fire-safety design should go beyond the requirements of statutory guidance or building regulations.
Fire-safety legislation and relevant building regulations focus mainly on the protection of lives by making sure any fire is contained as much as possible until the emergency services arrive. However, legislation is not intended to ensure the viability of a building and its contents post fire. In the event of a fire breaking out in commercial property, this can have a severe impact on business continuity. In order to safeguard the physical assets of a business, fire protection has to be specifically considered during the design of a building or the planning of a refurbishment.
RISCAuthority, an annually funded research scheme supported by UK insurers, and the Fire Protection Association (FPA) developed BDM01 – A to Z of Essential Principles for the protection of buildings as guidance for the protection of buildings and businesses.
BDM01 – The A to Z of Essential Principles for the protection of buildings
BDM01 A to Z of Essential Principles Version 3 – 2023 is first in the Building Design and Management (BDM) series of RISCAuthority guidance documents on the design, construction and management of buildings. The document is a recommendation to investors, on behalf of insurers, not to design and build solely to the ‘life safety before collapse’ objective. Instead, to define and insist upon the resilience their investment requires, beyond statutory guidance or building regulations.
Best applied at the design stage, these principles can still be implemented at a later stage, especially during renovations or refurbishments and always need to be coordinated with facilities management.
Ensuring a building is resilient minimises the risk that its normal function is disrupted by adverse events. Resilience can be broken down into three phases:
- Susceptibility – avoiding fire- and water-related perils being an issue. For example, a building with non-combustible materials.
- Vulnerability – reducing the extent of damage following a fire event by building in passive fire-safety measures.
- Recoverability – improving the recovery to full capability following fire-related events.
BDM01 outlines 26 building protection principles (A to Z). These Essential Principles are split across six decision-making phases:
- Undertake early consultation
- Prevent fire starting
- Lower property loss
- Enhance design robustness
- Check construction achieved
- Improve facilities management
These phases allow decisions to be made on when principles should be considered in building design. However, they are not intended to correspond to the eight Work Stages in the RIBA Plan of Work 2020 – in this way, the Essential Principles have a loose fit to any plan of work.
The Essential Principles cover events involving both fire and water. The following outlines the key principles relating to passive fire protection:
D – Maximise Non-Combustibility
Each product/material has a combustibility rating classified by EN-13501-1:2018, found in the Declaration of Performance (DoP) certificate. Guidance in each nation of the UK considers Euroclass A1 or A2-s1, d0 materials/products to be non-combustible.
A combustible material acts as a fuel source for a fire. Heat and oxygen will start and sustain a fire. Removing any of these three elements will stop a fire. If a fire runs out of combustible material (i.e. fuel) it will smoulder out. For this reason, non-combustible materials are preferred as no fire can ignite in the first instance. With reference to Regulation 7, investors choosing combustible insulation should appreciate that the cost of any offer of insurance may increase as insurers estimate potential losses.
E – Anticipate Arson Attempts
Arson is the criminal act of deliberately setting fire to property. It is the most common cause of fire in the UK, accounting for 50.5% of all fires attended by FRS. Arson caused an estimated economic loss between £5.37bn and £11.46bn over 2017/2018 (Zurich).
Risk of arson can be mitigated with non-combustible insulation, resisting the spread of fire beyond cosmetic damage to paint and render.
F – Monitor Building Services
Building services include heating, lighting and power (including renewable energy).
They need to be designed, constructed and installed in a manner that reduces the potential to ignite. Fitting non-combustible insulation to building services can reduce the fire load and mitigate the risk of fire spread should ignition occur.
H – Extend Structural Stability
It is in everyone’s best interest for a building to remain structurally sound long enough for people to escape.
When steel is exposed to high temperatures it softens and loses strength, affecting the loadbearing capacity of a steel building. Insulating structural steel from the high temperatures experienced in a fire slows the rate at which heat is absorbed, mitigating the risk of building collapse.
I – Reduce Fire Severity
Compartmentation is a vital part of the fire-safety design of a building and seeks to divide large spaces into smaller, more manageable ones should a fire occur. This prevents the spread of fire, smoke and toxic gases and provides time to allow for adequate means of escape.
The key aim when compartmenting a building is to stop fire spread around and through compartment elements. Firestopping reinstates the fire rating of compartment elements through effective measures where service penetrations occur.
J – Control Compartment Cavities
Where reasonably practicable, cavities within internal compartments should be designed out. Firestopping products, including intumescent materials, should be installed to prevent unseen routes for passage of flames, heat and smoke, and demonstrate through appropriate certification the ability to provide fire resistance and insulation equal to the relevant compartment line.
As per Principle J.2 of the Essential Principles, intumescent materials must not be used if they fail to activate immediately to prevent the passage of flame, heat and hot or cold smoke.
L – Resist Fire Ingress
Statutory Instrument 2010 No. 2214: Schedule states: ‘The external walls of the building shall adequately resist the spread of fire over the walls and from one building to another, having regard to the height, use and position of the building.’
Approved Document B (ADB) of the Building Regulations, specifically regarding resisting fire spread over external walls, states buildings over 18m require all external wall materials to be A2-s1, d0 or A1 rated (exceptions for gaskets, membranes and similar).
It is important that non-combustible materials are used wherever possible, going above and beyond minimum requirements to futureproof the fire safety of buildings.
N – Minimise Consequential Damage
Building fires have environmental and ecological impacts that affect building surroundings. Short-term fire effects mainly impact the local environment within the fire plume zone – namely air contamination. Water courses are also affected by the water run-off which can contain extinguishing agents.
Long-term effects are more likely to impact the water supply and contaminate soil in the area of the fire. Airborne fallout of fire (ash, chemicals etc.) deposit into the ground, contaminating the soil and water courses. Water should be treated before entering and disrupting nearby water supplies.
T – Procure Quality Materials
Before any fire-protection material, product or system can be placed on the market it must undergo fire testing appropriate to its design. Generally, there are three tiers of evidence used to support products in the market:
| First-party certification | Individual or organisation provides goods or services with an offer of assurance that they meet certain claims |
| Second-party certification | An association which the individual or organisation belongs to provides some assurance by virtue of membership |
| Third-party certification | An independent verification and assessment undertaken by a certification body who are accredited by the UK Accreditation Service (UKAS) to confirm product, person, process or management system meets the requirements as stated. Regularly audited to ensure no changes have occurred that would affect performance or process. |
Third-party approval provides peace of mind to designers/specifiers with systems going through approval processes to be deemed suitable or fit for purpose. It is often necessary to support the use of products with third-party approvals, thus reducing risk when applying products to a specific application.
U – Require Competent Work
It is vital that protection measures are installed by identified specialists, trained and supervised under third-party quality of work schemes accredited by UKAS, with full disclosure of fire-safety information.
Independent third-party certification and accreditation sets a standard for installers and regularly assesses their credentials.
There are various independent schemes available, and a building-control body may accept certification under a scheme of their choice. However, it should be established before the start of building work that a scheme is adequate for the purposes of the building regulations.
V – Verify Recorded Information
It is essential to only accept pertinent and accurate information at handover and insist contractors satisfy statutory and contractual duties.
Regulation 38 puts a statutory requirement on persons carrying out work to provide fire-safety information to the responsible person no later than the date of completion or the date of occupation of the building (whichever is earlier).
Y – Keep Maintenance Commitments
Specialist operatives are responsible for active, passive and procedural fire-risk assessments. Risk assessments should be carried out at the start of a building/business occupancy and then at regular intervals, typically annually.
Inspections should be extensive and ensure systems are working correctly, building users are aware of fire procedures, changes to building use or layout don’t compromise safety, and future repairs lie with the responsible person in line with Regulation 38.
Applying the Essential Principles in practice
BDM01 encourages designers to look beyond and go further than the standards required by legislation. The Essential Principles are most effective when applied to the whole building as a system. This includes the use of non-combustible materials not just where required by law, i.e. the facade, but for the whole building envelope, especially in high-rise buildings.
Importantly, the Essential Principles also stress the role that third-party testing and expertise have to play in making buildings safer for the long term. Observing the guidance given by BDM01 may help insurance premiums, will help manage risk, and potentially save costs and perhaps lives.
To help designers who would like to learn more, ROCKWOOL has developed a CPD seminar on the Essential Principles. To register for the session, please go to https://rockwool.link/ifp-cpd
About the Author
Will Wigfield has worked at ROCKWOOL for over 15 years. He has extensive product, technical and industry experience. In his current role, Will drives forward HVAC and fire-protection product developments, ensuring compliance with the latest standards through third-party testing and certification.
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