We deliver impartial advice to building control regulators. Our only interest is in ensuring that best practice is followed, and that high standards of fire engineering are maintained.

Fire safety engineering is a completely unregulated industry. Anyone may call themselves a fire engineer. There are no defined qualifications which a person must hold, and there are no controls on the processes and procedures they should follow in undertaking their work. This compares unfavourably with other “safety critical” building services. For example, gas and electrical installations in buildings must be delivered by qualified people who must follow strict codes of practice. The fire engineer, who may be employed to put together an holistic fire safety package for the whole building, designed from first principles, needs no evidence of competence and is not obliged to follow any kind of code of practice.

There are codes of practice which fire engineers could follow, and these codes of practice provide guidance as to the content of fire engineers' reports. In particular, the FPA’s Third Party Fire Engineering Service assesses proposals against:

• British Standard 7974: 2001: Application of fire safety engineering principles to the design of buildings – Code of practice, and
• CIBSE Guide E: 2003: The Chartered Institute of Building Services Engineers.
 

Many fire engineers submit ‘fire strategies’ with design proposals. Acceptance or rejection of the proposal is often based wholly on the ‘fire strategy’. While the ‘fire strategy’ is described in fire engineering codes (Clause 9 of BS 7974 PD 0 for example) it is only one of ten headings which should be encompassed within a fire engineer’s report.

Only with a full fire engineer’s report can there be any assurance that the fire engineering is robust, and auditable. Without all matters being covered, even if the fire engineering is adequate, it cannot be proved to be so, and adequate ongoing management of the building’s fire safety systems will be difficult.

Fire safety engineering is a complex field. Unsound arguments and inappropriate procedures can be difficult to identify. The only check on the suitability of design proposals which use fire safety engineering is the building regulations approval process.

By using the Fire Engineering Consultancy Service offered by the Fire Protection Association, regulators can receive independent, unbiased guidance based on recognised codes of practice.