Steel Buildings in Europe

Part 6: Fire Engineering 6 - 3 2 FIRE SAFETY ENGINEERING This Section describes the basis of fire engineering design with particular reference to structural fire resistance and design approaches for multi-storey building structures to ensure adequate levels of life safety as required by national regulations. 2.1 Definition of fire safety engineering Fire safety engineering is a multi-disciplinary science which applies scientific and engineering principles to protect people, property and the environment from fire. Structural fire engineering or design for fire resistance is a small part of fire safety engineering. 2.2 Objectives of fire safety The objective of fire safety is to limit the risk of loss resulting from fire. Loss may be defined in terms of death or injury to building occupants or fire- fighters, financial loss due to damage of the building contents or disruption to business and environmental loss due to polluted fire fighting water or the release of hazardous substances into the atmosphere. National regulations normally set minimum fire safety requirements to provide an adequate level of life safety, but other stakeholders such as the client, building insurer or the government’s environmental protection agency may also require that the risks of financial or environmental losses are limited. The level of safety required is specified in national regulations. Although these regulations vary between member states, they aim to fulfil the following core objectives, defined by the Construction Products Directive 89/106/EEC [1] : “The construction works must be designed and built in such a way that in the event of an outbreak of fire:  The load bearing resistance of the construction can be assumed for a specified period of time  The generation and spread of fire and smoke within the works are limited  The spread of fire to neighbouring construction works is limited  The occupants can leave the works or can be rescued by other means  The safety of rescue teams is taken into consideration.” While structural fire resistance cannot fulfil all of these core fire safety objectives, it is normally considered to be a key part of the fire safety strategy for a building.