Fire engineering is a relatively new science that combines a scientific knowledge of how fires start, spread, are contained and extinguished with a behavioural knowledge of how people react to them. The result is an engineering discipline that exists to protect people, property and the environment from fire. Fire engineering can start with either the codes or with the design. With a codes-driven approach one should expect to compromise elements of the architectural vision in making the design code compliant.
Fire engineering based on real life
With a design approach, which is our approach, fire engineers give themselves the far more difficult task of protecting the vision by creating a bespoke strategy through fire engineering. It is a scientific approach that uses the statistics of real fires, calculation tools and studies of human behaviour. This preserves the architectural design and provides value by reducing over-specification caused by conservative codes and allows the fire protection to be deployed where the risk is.
Safer buildings
Taking this approach means we have to shoulder more of the risk. We believe it is a price worth paying. With every project being a prototype, we push the boundaries and, by doing so, are able to recruit from the brightest people in the industry. This not only equips us to handle the extra risk, but has been central to us being able to continually improve what we offer: better value and safer buildings. In the ten years that our (SAFE) fire team has been in business, we are now acknowledged as one of the foremost fire engineering consultants in the UK and Middle East, and have a fast-growing wider international presence.
Fire engineering services
The following are services that can be provided by our fire engineering team:
Strategic Fire Engineering
Evacuation
Internal and external fire spread
Smoke management
Fire detection and fire protection systems
Fire fighting — internally and site wide
Construction requirements
Fire Systems Design
Concept Design and Specification Development
System Costing and Budget Models
Detailed Design and Integration of Systems
Tendering and Project Management
Commissioning, Functionality Assessments an Technical Support
Fire Risk Assessment
Qualitative Risk Screening
HAZOP and HAZID
What-if Analysis and fault and Event Tree Analysis
Fire and Explosion Damage calculations and Modeling
Structural Fire Engineering
Computer Modelling
Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD Analysis)
Evacuation Modeling (i.e., STEPS software)