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FIRE SERVICE AND GENERAL FIRE SAFETY TOPICS => Fire Safety => Topic started by: wee brian on November 13, 2015, 11:53:07 AM
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https://www.fire-magazine.com/building-regs-guidance-continues-confound-fire-sector-experts.aspx
Is it that hard?
If it is, what would you change to make it easier?
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https://www.fire-magazine.com/building-regs-guidance-continues-confound-fire-sector-experts.aspx
Is it that hard?
If it is, what would you change to make it easier?
Blimey!
I remember when I first started using it - very daunting. But then we're talking about a document that has to give guidance on how to achieve acceptable fire safety in almost every different type of building you might choose to build (or alter) - how do you make that easy to follow for everyone who might wish to refer to it??? BS 9999 gives an alternative approach, but it's not necessarily 'easier' & it's still B1 - B5 at it's core.
Once you learn your way around it, & especially if you're a designer of buildings (rather than the systems themselves) so you use all of it - no, it isn't that hard & it's quite concise (in comparison NFPA 101 runs to over 500 pages, though it does include whole sections specific to particular types of premises - but you still have to refer back and forth to the 'general' stuff). Is it perfect? No, but if you required every guidance document to be perfect then none would ever get published!
I do wonder how many of these "experts" were people who actually use the guidance in its entirety as part of their day job, rather than people who just know the bits relevant to their own part of the fire industry & who would just like it to be tweaked so that it focusses more on their particular product?
Flexibility? If you don't like it use BS 9999; BS 7974, or there's not actually anything preventing you using NFPA, Australian, IBC or whatever you can find provided that you can demonstrate compliance with the Regulations themselves - how much more flexibility do you want!?
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!00% of Fire Sector Federation members find A practical guide to brain surgery difficult to read. Clearly it should be revised to dumb it down for the common man who wants to undertake brain surgery.
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ADB is a remarkable document in that it is comprehensive yet concise, I have always admired it for this.
I cant see that any change of style would be an improvement. Yes it can be difficult to find some provisions, especially those under the heading of general provisions, but those of us who use it regularly soon get used to this. I have grumbled in the past about some lack of clarity in respect of compartmentation and access for firefighters, but as a working document overall I dont think the approach can be bettered.
I agree that the fire service should be given full jurisdiction over B5 as I have found too many errors and inappropriate decisions being made under the current regime. My greatest concern is the increasing use of drop down fire curtains in lieu of structural fire precautions in the provision of firefighting shafts.