Fire Safety Compliance

Building Fire Regulations 2008 mandate certain things including:

• Evacuation signage,
• evacuation plans,
• fire and evacuation training, and 
• putting the onus on the body corporate to submit an Occupiers Statement to the Queensland Fire and Rescue Service every 12 months.

Now that 30th June 2009 has past, which is the end of the grace period,  the QFRS will be doing their inspections on whether buildings are compliant.

If you are unsure on any matter contact your Fire Safety Advisor.

Fire Safety in Queensland – the 2008 Regulations

The Queensland Government evoked, through an act of parliament, the Building Fire Safety Regulation in July 2008.

The legislation applies to all buildings in Queensland except free standing houses, townhouses, sheds and the like.

The emphasis of the legislation is largely focused on the duties and responsibilities of the owner of the building. This article is focused on presenting information to the Body Corporate. The Body Corporate is the owner of the building.

As the body corporate is the collection of all lot owners of the building with a duly appointed committee, the duties, responsibilities (and penalties for non-compliance) under the legislation fall squarely with the body corporate i.e. all lot owners.

 The main objects of the regulations are:

1. To ensure persons can evacuate buildings safely and quickly if a fire or hazardous materials emergency happens; and
2. To ensure that the installed fire safety/fighting equipment for buildings are maintained.

 The following is a simple list of key compliance items for all buildings:

• Building certification must be displayed in the building.
• Evacuation routes and exit doors must be clear of obstructions.
• An evacuation plan must be drafted specifically for the building and be available for all occupants.
• Common areas, and in some instances the inside of lots, must have evacuation signs.
• The building must have all of its installed fire safety/fighting equipment professionally maintained to Australian standards or similar.
• If the building has more than 30 workers or is an accommodation (class 2 or 3) building that is over 25 metres tall, it must appoint a qualified fire safety advisor.
• An annual occupiers statement must be prepared and sent to the Queensland Fire and Rescue Service. This document confirms to them that you have maintained your building correctly.
• Critical defects in fire equipment must be repaired within 30 days.
• All workers in the building must undergo a series of evacuation and fire-fighting training.
• Buildings must perform an annual fire evacuation practice.
• Copies of the above records and activities must be kept on site as well as a copy off site.

You may be asking yourself, “that was a ‘simple’ list?” Yes, it was. Here is a list of the relevant documents to the topic:

• The Queensland Building Fire Safety Regulation 2008
• The Queensland Development Code
• The Queensland Development Code – Mandatory Part 6.1
• Australian Standard 1851 – 2005
• Australian Standard 2293.2
• Australian Standard 1735.2 & 10
• The Building Code of Australia
• The Queensland Fire and Rescue Service – advisory notes for owners / occupiers.

Bodies Corporate may feel that a quick and easy way to deal with what they feel is bureaucratic nonsense is to pass the responsibility onto the building manager. Guess what… you can’t delegate the responsibilities – only the duties.

If the body corporate fails to discharge its responsibilities – it is open to fines and prosecution.

Don’t despair, several companies are well equipped to be able to not only provide a body corporate with and audit report on you buildings situation but to also quote for work needed to comply. Quite a few of the companies that prepare your sinking fund forecasts, insurance valuations and health and safety reports also do fire compliance work. Speak to your body corporate manager. They usually have the contact details.

Fire Doors are installed to Australian Standard (AS) 1905.1. It references fire doors as the complete assembly (fire door-set). A fire door-set includes the frame, door and hardware fitted to the door-set. The Australian Standard requires that all fittings to the fire doorset comply with the fire rating of the doorset. In buildings containing two (2) or more separate units, there is a requirement for each of those units to be fire separated. This fire separation includes the installation of a “Fire Door-set” as the main entrance.

Maintenance: Fire doors must be tested annually in accordance with the Queensland Development Code – Mandatory Part 6.1. Records of maintenance need to be kept and details included in the annual “Occupiers Statement”. Security screens: Security screens do breach the fire door-set. Until the issue of security doors fitted to fire door sets has been resolved, the QFRS will not be requiring unit owner to remove their security doors from the fire doorset. Chocking open: To keep the integrity of unit fire doors, these doors must not be chocked open for any reason. The use of chocks in this fashion is against regulations. Deadbolts: Deadbolts aren’t permitted because they have the ability to render the door non self-latching. Dead-latches (self latching lockset) however are okay (according to AS 1530.4 Section 7.9.7(m) ).

“A surface-mounted self-latching additional lockset may be fitted to the fire-resistant doorset in addition to the tested lockset, for additional security in residential occupancies, provided that— I. the diameter of the hole drilled through the door leaf to accept the locking cylinder is not greater than 32 mm; II. the locking cylinder and its fixing plate are made of brass or metal of higher melting point, and the head diameter of the cylinder or its escutcheon is larger than the cylinder hole in the door leaf; III. the cylinder assembly is fixed to the door leaf by steel screws through a steel mounting plate that effectively covers the hole in the door leaf; and IV. the diameter of the connecting bar clearance hole in the mounting plate is not greater than 15 mm.”