Building development applications are often building code focussed however, some generalised advice is provided below that should be considered in association with the building code solutions.
On this page:
- General considerations for operational response and intervention (NACE)
- Unwanted Alarms
- Special hazards
- Independent third party review
- Assessment and inspection fees
General considerations for operational response and intervention (NACE)
The simple acronym NACE can be applied in a design context to giving consideration for how we can respond to design fire scenarios in performance solutions. NACE stands for notification, access, conditions and equipment, and is described below. When designing for operational response and intervention for fire events, NACE should be considered in combination with the objectives and relevant performance requirements of the NCC.
Notification
The initiation of our fire response will be due to how and when we are notified of a fire incident. Notification of a fire incident (automatic or otherwise) is an important consideration for building design and assessment, as it is part of a timed sequence for fire brigade intervention and for fire scenarios. Furthermore, when considering the notification to us, this may involve the connection and communication to and from special fire services/fire safety systems as part of the building design.
Access
Fire incident management activities undertaken by us rely on the accessibility of our resources to the building address, and the accessibility of the installed critical equipment, and for firefighter access to and within a building on fire.
The means of access provided to the property directly impacts the time that we arrive at a fire emergency and the subsequent operations that can be undertaken.
Our operations require the effective placement of critical equipment, vehicles and firefighting personnel around a building on fire.
Access may also need to consider the areas between a building and the property boundaries which dictates the opportunity for external firefighting.
Conditions
The conditions for fire brigade intervention are important for designers in making their determination that the fire safety design has adequate performance. The conditions for fire brigade intervention must be reasonable for the firefighters to carry out their firefighting procedures, and this typically means search and rescue and firefighters, and not having building elements collapsing onto them.
Our Position Statements published in this Guide have the specific section that details the conditions for firefighting as: Tenability criteria for firefighters.
Equipment
The capacity for firefighters to undertake fire incident management activities is directly related to the equipment provided within and around a building to facilitate these activities. Subsequently, firefighters must be able to readily access this equipment to efficiently and effectively undertake these activities. Difficulties introduced by factors such as safety hazards or unsuitable placement can delay or impede fire incident management activities.
Unwanted Alarms
The activations of smoke sensing devices such as devices in a smoke detection system or a smoke alarm system, can clause an ‘Unwanted Alarm”. ‘Unwanted Alarms” occur when the activation is repetitive and caused by a non-fire event, generating a response form us. Stakeholders involved in the design associated to building development applications should also be aware of Guideline for the reduction of unwanted alarms and the process for informing us about the reduction of unwanted alarms in certain types of buildings.
Special hazards
‘Special hazards’ can be a relatively broad term in fire safety design, as it if often applied in meanings for special hazard protection systems, or hazards that are not typical and extremely hazardous fire behaviour, or even hazards that exceed common control measures. Special hazards and hazardous buildings are also terminology that are used in the NCC and the Building Act 1975 and should be considered with this guidance.
To give the contextual meaning of special hazards from our perspective; is that special hazards cases may be either in part or in combination as:
- the burning nature of the combustible items(s) is not typical and therefore special case conditions occur (this could mean, fire development, fire control difficulties, burning durations, delayed combustion, reignitions etc…)
- the combustible materials (whether, stored, processed, installed, attached, connected to or integrated with the building(s)) create a special case of firefighting procedures or tactics or equipment
- the combustible materials products including smoke and run-off effluent are known to exceed the typical design case
- the building classification and its specific use, and the basis of fire safety provisioning under the typical application, does not identify nor address the special hazard of (i), (ii) and (iii) and appears as inadequate building provisioning for necessary fire safety
- the evidence of fire hazard is significant and presents as a hazard to firefighters
- the hazard control measures appear inadequate or are unknown or are unverified by adequate evidence.
Performance solutions are often submitted to us where special hazards are identified by designers and stakeholders. We consider that the performance solution approach is the ideal approach for projects involving special cases and non-typical aspects of building development applications. Furthermore, there is an absence of specific prescriptive provisions available in the NCC to address any particular hazard, and the performance solutions process as identified in Australian Fire Engineering Guidelines 2021 illustrates a methodology to conduct the fire safety design.
Independent third party review
Where we are concerned that a performance solution could produce detrimental outcomes for occupants or firefighters, we may recommend that the assessment manager seeks an independent assessment of the proposal from a suitably qualified and registered professional.
We may recommend this during the stakeholder engagement process, or as a condition to its referral agency advice response, for an independent third party review as per section 56(1)(b)(i) Planning Act 2016. The recommendation would be made with the intention of determining:
- Whether the building’s fire safety system (including proposed performance solutions intends to satisfy our operational requirements in the built environment.
- Whether the assessment methods proposed are appropriate to form a conclusion that our operational requirements in the built environment are, or are not, satisfied.
- Whether the inputs, assumptions and application of the assessment methods are appropriate to be confident in a conclusion that operational requirements in the built environment are, or are not, satisfied.
Assessment and inspection fees
The fees and charges for statutory assessment activities undertaken for our referral advice agency are authorised by Part 6 The Building Fire Safety Regulation 2008.
We have developed a Fees Calculator to assist stakeholders to a performance solution to calculate the statutory fees likely to be incurred based on the characteristics of their referral to us.
The inspection that we undertake for building development applications is discussed in the next section.