Introduction to Health and Safety at Work

13.12 
Principles of fi re protection in 
buildings
13.12.1 General
The design of all new buildings and the design of exten-
sions or modifi cations to existing buildings must be 
approved by the local planning authority.
Design data for new and modifi ed buildings must be 
retained throughout the life of the structure.
Building Legislation Standards are concerned mainly 
with safety to life. Therefore, it is necessary to consider 
the early stage of fi re and how it affects the means of 
escape, and also aim to prevent eventual spread to 
other buildings.
Asset protection requires extra precautions that will 
have an effect at both early and later stages of the fi re 
growth by controlling fi re spread through and between 
buildings and preventing structural collapse. However, 
this extra fi re protection will also improve life safety not 
only for those escaping at the early stages of the fi re but 
also for fi re fi ghters who will subsequently enter.
If a building is carefully designed and suitable mater-
ials are used to build it and maintain it, then the risk of 
injury or damage from fi re can be substantially reduced. 
Three objectives must be met:
➤
it must be possible for everyone to leave the build-
ing quickly and safely
➤
the building must remain standing for as long as 
possible
➤
the spread of fi re and smoke must be reduced.
These objectives can be met through the selection of 
materials and design of buildings.
13.12.2 Fire 
loading
The fi re load of a building is used to classify types of build-
ing use. It may be calculated simply by multiplying the 
weight of all combustible materials by their energy values 
and dividing by the fl oor area under consideration. The 
higher the fi re load, the more the effort needed to offset 
this by building to higher standards of fi re resistance.