Fire safety standards—help or hindrance

✍ Scribed by Geoff Deakin

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1999
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 118 KB
• Volume: 32
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0379-7112
• DOI: 10.1016/s0379-7112(98)00016-2

✦ Synopsis

This paper reviews the various documents which establish the level of safety associated with UK buildings in the absence of explicit safety criteria, considering their nature and derivation. It identifies the significant role played by national standards in support of building regulations, but recognises that the requirements of the different standards are often incompatible. It considers whether they act as a help or hindrance to various users and to what extent they direct the advances in fire safety design in a positive way. It suggests that in order to arrive at a wholly compatible package of national fire safety standards, which will be a help to all and a hindrance to none, a framework for future standardisation activity is needed. This must be supported by all parties, especially the fire safety regulators.