Fire Safety and Fire Prevention
What the exam tests
Fire Safety and Fire Prevention tests risk assessment, means of escape, fire load, detection and suppression, maintenance and enforcement. Expect questions on occupancy, exit widths, travel distance and fire doors.
Core rules
- Fire risk assessment: identify hazards, identify people at risk, evaluate and reduce risk, record findings and review.
- Means of escape must be adequate in number, width, protection and travel distance; exits must open in the direction of travel where large numbers are present and must never be locked against occupants.
- Fire load is the calorific content of contents and construction; higher fire load needs greater separation, detection and suppression.
- Detection: smoke, heat, flame and aspirating systems. Suppression: sprinklers, hydrants, extinguishers, gaseous and foam systems.
- Fire doors must be self-closing and kept closed; hold-open devices must release on alarm. Signage and emergency lighting guide occupants.
Worked example
A hall has 400 occupants and two exits. Using a planning figure of 1.0 m per 100 persons per exit, each exit needs 2.0 m clear width if occupants are evenly loaded. But if one exit is blocked, the remaining exit must carry 400 people, i.e. 4.0 m. Reasoning: design for the loss of one exit, not the ideal case.
Traps
Counting exit width with doors partly open; ignoring the largest exit being unavailable; accepting propped fire doors; confusing fire load with occupant load; forgetting maintenance records.