Building Fire Safety and Compliance with IFEG and BCA Standards

This report discusses compliance with the Building Code of Australia (BCA) and International Fire Safety Guidelines (IFEG) for building fire safety. It provides performance solutions for a single storey shopping centre in Western Australia, including provisions for exits, fire hydrants, and smoke and fire dampers. The report emphasizes the importance of following BCA standards for building construction and materials.

Building Fire safety and Compliance
Executive Summary:
International Fire Safety Guidelines (IFEG) is a guideline provided for the sufficient use of fire
safety tools that helps the fire engineers to be highly flexible while dealing with fire. The role
played the fire engineers while dealing with fire occurring at the buildings had been discussed in
these guidelines. These rules could also be used by certain authorities like Authority Having
Jurisdiction (AHJ) so that they could provide an alternate solution for BCA. They may also guide
several AHJ's in dealing with the already existing buildings that offers an upgrade strategy.
Normally building codes are composed of certain requirements that should be satisfied
technically. The main goal of BCA is to follow certain acceptable standards in order to provide
necessary benefits to the society. In our report we have provided detailed performance solution
with IFEG and BCA standards.

Table of Contents
SNO TITLE PGNO
1 Objective 3
2 Building Code of Australia (BCA) 3
3 Performance Solution 1 3
4 Performance Solution 2 4
5 Performance Solution 3 4
6 Performance Solution 4 5
7 Performance Solution 5 6
8 Performance Solution 6 7
9 Performance Solution 7 7
10 Conclusion 7
References 8

Objective:
The sufficient compliance according to the Building code of Australia (BCA2016) has been
presented in this report and the proposed building here is said to be the single storey shopping
centre, which is located at Lot 1 Ruler Highway, Western Australia. Moreover, any inadequate
compliance with the building is also observed and certain amendments are reported according to
the BCA that serves to be consistent with the Fire safety engineering guidelines.
Building Code of Australia (BCA):
Building Code of Australia (BCA) was developed by Australian Building Code Board (ABCD)
by the National Construction Code (NCC). This report has been written regarding the fire safety
rules and regulation that was developed by the Building Code of Australia (BCC). In order to
satisfy the Fire Safety regulatory reform order of 2005 for the basic buildings, type A risk
assessment has been carried out. For the sustainable building it is necessary to utilize maximum
amount of natural resources in order to avoid fire (Babrauskas, 2008).
BCA requirements should be followed based on the type of the building. The types of buildings
are as follows (BSI 2011):
Type A: Group I buildings and mid-rise office along with the Group R building is considered as
Type A where the walls of the building should be non-combustible and resist fire.
Type B: The apartments and the commercial buildings come under this category (Chow, Zou,
2009). The masonry and the concrete should have the load bearing property.
Type C: In this case, the fire protection is not necessary. Timber could be used for this purpose.
Performance Solution 1:
The building is said to have the retail floor area of about 28,011.7 square meters with five anchor
tenancies. This area is said to be greater than 18,000 square meters and hence the rules according
to C2.3 part (b) applies on the building that is extremely massive in size (Brink, Van den V.,
2015). According to this clause, the fire compartment sizing can exceed the specification as per
the table C2.2 where the structure is class 5,6,7,8 or 9 and the area of its entire floor exceeds the
particular area if
 It attains to the specification E1.5 which indicates that there is adequate provisions for the
sprinkler system confirming to E1.5 and
 There is a provision around the perimeter, which could accommodate access of vehicular
units as stated in C2.4
It is not possible to provide the automatic fire detection and alarm system for the larger buildings
that exceeds above 18,000 square meters (Chiti, 2009). According to BCA tale E2.2, smoke
hazard management could be made possible.

Performance solution 2:
It is necessary to have an exit door at a distance of 90 m apart from any tenancy according to
BCA (2016). Vol.1 section D1.5 clearly states that exists necessary as unconventional means of
egress need to be part (c) not beyond:
 45 meter apart for class 2 or class 3 buildings
 For a clinic or hospital that belongs to class 9a, the distance could be 45 meter apart that
serves as a best exit for the patients
 60 meter apart except the above mentioned cases.
For the part (d), it is permitted to be 6m that serves as an alternative which should not converge
with the existing one (Hu, 2017). With the consideration of DP4 and EP2.2, the performance
solution with the particular exit is sufficient.
Performance solution 3:
According to DP4, in order to allow a safe evacuation of residents (Nilsson & van Hees, 2012),
the provisions are to be made for suitable exists with the specific consideration on the size of the
occupants as well as their respective locations and number to be accommodated that should be
appropriate to the following:
 SS-B: the total flexibility and other features of the inhabitants
 SS-D: Building height
 SS-E: the distance of the exit from the basement level.
According to the statement of DP6, the residents could be evacuated safely from the buildings or
apartments from the exit path that have the following:
1. The path should be designed in such a way according to the number of occupants,
movements etc.
2. It is necessary to design the way based of the functionality of the structure.
The specifications in EP2.2 should be considered without any exceptions and any relevant
positions ensured (Oxford English Dictionary, 2013). The proposed width of 25.5 meter is
inadequate pursuant to D1.14 for the projected number of persons at 4990. In compliance with
NSW D1.6 dimension of exits should be at least 32 meter that could be adopted. Section D1.2 (j)
in a class 9B building - (I) the width should be above 2m and additional 500mm is necessary for
50 persons and exceeding 200 requires a part of it
Performance solution 4:
The performance of latch is stated in D2.21. According to this, a door should be opened and it
could be opened in the side of the person facing towards the door by-

1. The location of the single device from a single hand downwards action at a distance of
900 mm and 1.1 m from the ground. This serves as an area that could be accessible by
Part D3-
 That could be in a way, when a person could not have a grip, could avoid slippage from
the handle during the working of latch, and
 Having a clearance among the black plate and the handle's center (the grip position),
which should be within 35-45 mm; or
2. The location of the single device from a single hand upwards action at a distance of 900
mm and 1.2 m from the ground.
This requirement is partially compiled with the report (Proulx, 2008). The 21 exits provided
are of sufficient widths. Only certain latches operate to roller shutters rendering other
incompetent according to the specified regulations (Rubin, Brewin, Greenberg, Hughes,
Simpson & Wessely, 2007). There is a need to conform all to the standards hence full
compliance to D2.21 for performance solution 4.
In compliance with DP2: In order to have a safe movement within the buildings, the
following provision should be done:
 Proper gradients should be provided in the walking surface
 The door should be promoted in such a way for an easy egress and no one should be
trapped within the compartment.
 Slippery resistant staircases and ramps should be offered
 Sufficient handrails should be provided for the people who use stairways
 Sufficient loading should be made in order to provide ventilation
 Door does not make any obstruction to the ramp or stairways and safe landing should
be possible.
In compliance with DP3:
This is a case where the people could fall-
a) 1m or more
 From the roof or the fall from which a person have a chance to fall out from the
building external wall other than the window
 Change in the level suddenly that is linked with the building.
In compliance with DP4:
To allow safe evacuation of the residents / users, provisions (Winter, Moore, Davis &
Strauss, 2013) are to be made for suitable exists with the specific considerations on the size

of the occupants, as well as their respective locations and the number to be accommodated
with respect to the distance to be covered, total flexibility and other features of the residents,
the intended use of the building, building height and the occurrence of the exit as either
below or above the ground level.
In compliance with DP5:
To ensure the safety of the building residents during evacuation protocols and instances
especially as a result of fire, the exits of the building should be isolated. The degree of
isolation must conform the following:
 Total storey serviceable by exists
 System put in place for fire safety consideration of the buildings
 Purpose of the building
 Number of storey associated with the exit, and
 Intervention of fire brigade
Performance solution 5:
The fire hydrants have been clearly stated in E1.3 The fire hydrants should be placed in the
building by the following manner:
 With an estimated floor area at a distance less than 500 meters
 In instances where a team of fire brigade are accessible in case of fire occurrence in
the buildings
 Installation should be done in compliance with AS 2419.1 that does not include class
8 electricity substation not necessary to confirm the CL4.2 of As 2419 if,
 The connection to the main supply is not offered
 Waste storage for an hour is given to fight against the fire.
Fire hydrants that are located outside should be fixed with two measurements of hose and located
adjacent to each exit is thus suitable (Xin & Khan, 2007). Provisions to guarantee ten spray
provided by the hydrant should reach all points on the floor is adequate. A provision of wall
drenchers at the esoteric of the external walls promotes a shield to the hydrant systems. The
protective area should be at least two meters from each side of the hydrant and at least three
meters from the ground.
Performance solution 6:
In compliance to EP2.2 and DP4 the performance requirements are fulfilled. The model exhaust
system is to rum twice the evacuation time with the assumed fire flash over when the inclusion
temperature hits 750 degree Celsius (Zimmerman & Restrepo, 2009). The use of smoke sensors

and temperature sensors such as thermocouple that is to be placed at a distance of 2 meter
beyond the applicable ground level, in order to permit the smoke and measure the temperature.
Fire-rated systems are categorized into fire barriers, fire walls fire partitions, smoke barriers and
smoke partitions (Utne, Hokstad & Vatn, 2011). Smoke dampers and the fire dampers along
with the combination of HVAC when the fire occurs. They could work as a separate system as
well as combined system. The installation and the functioning of the smoke dampers could vary
with the fire dampers (Dobashi, 2017).
Performance Solution 7:
According to D1.4 part (c) of class 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 dwellings (Winter, Moore, Davis & Strauss,
2013) with the excessive travelling time to the exit subjected to (d), (e), (f)-
 The exit distance from any point of the floor should not exceed a range beyond 20
meters. The point from which various direction from the exit should not exceed 40
meters.
 For certain buildings that belong to class 5 or 6, the distance among the exit and the open
space could be at the maximum distance 30 meters.
Travel distance to some exists of 60 m are in contravention to the required limit of 40 m. This is
not suitable hence in such cases where the travel distance to the exceed the minimum should be
redesigned.
Conclusion:
Thus the single storey shopping centre that is located at Lot 1 Ruler Highway, Western Australia
is completely studied and the necessary amendment has also been explained with the fire safety
rules and BCA. By referring the International Fire Engineering Guidelines with the principles of
BCA the above performance solution has been obtained. The depth knowledge regarding these
guidelines could protect the construction from fire and it also educates the occupants while
dealing with the occurrence of fire. All the building and the materials chosen for their
construction should satisfy the standards of BCA that could the asset from any environmental
situation.
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