Does anyone have any informationn on french fire safety regulations?

[shaunmckeever]

I am looking for information of French fire regulations and the proposed changes to performance based regulations. If anyone has any information on what the changes are I'd be grateful. Also if anyone has a translated copy of the current regs that would be great.

Many thanks
Shaun

[Jim Creak]

Theoretically, as they are a full subscriber to the EC they have exactly the same regulations as we do. However the guidance is different and has never been as prescriptive as ours. surprise surprise

[nearlythere]

Knowing the French they will get around to it sometime - if they want to.

[Paul2886]

Of course there are no french fire regulations between the hours of noon and 14.00 hours as this is their wine tasting period. The reminder of time will be taken up with industrial disputes and ensuring our motorways are kept blocked as a consequence.

[SeaBass]

I've worked in Paris on various fire safety projects. The primary French fire safety code is the Code du travail. It is quite a bit different from UK code and I  didn't come across an English translation.  Although a national standard there are regional differences. For example, just three years ago the use of multi-criteria detectors was  not permitted by the Parisian authorities even though they were acceptable and in use elsewhere in the country. 

Whatever you do, the majority of  works need to be approved by one of a number of commercial bodies that are government approved. ( A bit like our approved inspectors) I worked with two, one was very good, the other was very poor.

A word of warning. Look out for their fire stopping. It's so poor that I had to get a UK based company in to draw up a spec and train a local contractor to install it correctly. Even then it was a nightmare of a job.   

[shaunmckeever]

Ruby thanks for your reply....I also appreciate the other replies, I was reading through them while supping a bordeaux and eating garlic flavoured amphibious limbs.

I did manage to make contact with someone in France, Franck Didieux, who was able to provide me with the following information:-

Dear Shaun,
 
Right now, the fire safety in the ERP (Public Buildings) is ruled by the Fire Safety Regulation for the ERP (1980-06-25 Decree).
All the updated content is available here : http://www.sitesecurite.com/frames.asp unfortunately in french (but this regulation is a frenchy-french one... )
obs : the type O deals with hotels.
 
This is mostly a prescriptive regulation, with lots of obligations and rules to be followed.
There are currently 3 opened areas to fire safety engineering within this regulation :
- smoke control (Article DF1, DF4, and technical instruction IT246 (2004-03-22 decree))
- use of combustible insulating materials (Article AM8, and Guide d'Emploi des Isolants Combustibles (Guide for the use of Combustible Insulating materials / 2004-10-06 Decree))
- control of fire propagation via facade of a building (technical instruction IT249)
 
For these areas, it is written in the regulation that you may either follow the rules, or prove the performance of the system through an engineering study.
The regulation however gives a frame of what should be found in such a a study.
 
There is a national program of study that currently reaches its end. Its name is PN ISI : http://pnisi.cstb.fr/default.aspx
This program currently studies the way to be followed to go from the current situation (partial opening) to the future situation (less partial opening ? full opening ?)
Things are still under discussion, as a consensus is hard to find. I don't think this will lead to any standard, rather decisions from the government through decrees.

Thanks
Shaun

[Tom Sutton]

Shaun you could try http://uk.yahoo.com/ then search for " sitesecurite " and then use the translation option at least the results will be in English.