The tragedies at Grenfell Tower in the UK and the Address Hotel and Torch Tower in Dubai attracted a great deal of global attention to the issues of fire safety, particularly in high rises, which present a range of challenges for builders, owners, facility managers and the public. Far from isolated local incidents, the fires highlighted for the US a pressing need for more rigorous and trusted international standards, where aging infrastructure and building stock are prevalent in urban cores.
While local standards make sense in certain areas of the built environment industries, when it comes to safety, inconsistent codes and regulations are a serious hazard for residents and the professionals who build and maintain properties. Though different countries have been able to build and manage buildings to different criteria, fire adheres to a strict set of physical and chemical laws of nature in which geographical and political boundaries hold no sway. Particularly in high rises, where there are many people present with fewer access and exit avenues, the issue is crucial.
An important step toward this has been the International Fire Safety Standards Common Principles (IFSS-CP), an industry-led response developed by a global coalition of built environment organizations in 2020. IFSS establishes overarching, performance-based common principles for fire safety engineering design, construction, occupation and ongoing management, created to be universally applicable throughout the world. Specifically, the standards are aimed at prevention, detection and communication, occupant protection, containment and extinguishing fires.
Gary Strong FRICS, Global Building Standards Director for RICS and Chair of the UN-supported International Fire Safety Standards Coalition, has been instrumental to creating and promoting the IFSS, which was recently recognized by the United Nations. He sees these standards as particularly applicable in the U.S., where in addition to national standards, state and local laws can be divergent between different locations.
“The International Fire Safety Standards Common Principles provide all professionals with a clear set of guidelines to ensure all aspects of buildings, from concept through the whole building life cycle, are equipped to manage fire risk consistently across the world,” said Strong. “With the wave of construction work to upgrade buildings and build new ones that are more sustainable and align with sustainability goals, fire safety is a crucial aspect of tenant and community wellbeing.”
In the US, particularly in cities like New York with aggressive new green mandates, there is an anticipated wave of retrofitting work to go along with ground-up and repositioning work to address drastic new demands for, among others, industrial and logistics facilities and affordable housing. Additionally, the Biden administration’s infrastructure bill is expected to drive a rejuvenated effort to modernize structures across the country.
“The optimism around building activity is an opportunity to implement the latest and best standards in fire safety,” said Strong. “Just like carbon neutrality, which incorporates new globally recognized research, fire safety is about change. Along with how new technology is changing, how we react to fire and surface spread changes with the use of modern materials and products, which can produce different challenges.”
Exterior cladding, for example, has been cited as a significant contributor to the massive size of some of the tragic fires in recent years. Flammable materials may need to be removed from buildings, but cladding is not the sole element that needs to be addressed. As buildings get taller and more complex, they may exceed the reach of some of the firefighters’ aerial platforms. This is especially important in cities like New York and Chicago, where space is limited and fire engines are already built to the maximum size for the road width and vehicle turning circles. Considerations like this are fundamental to the scope of the IFSS.
But technology offers a great deal of new solutions to help protect people, buildings, contents and the environment from the impact of fire. As cities change at rapid pace and societies are seeing the impact of climate change on their local communities, people are more open to new and innovative ways to help look after and improve their local environments in a green but safe way.
Technology bolsters design, specification, products, systems and management of a building, and all of this can include new data practices, fire detection, alarm and suppression systems.
The key, though, as Strong sees it, is in competence. New York building code, for example, identifies site safety managers, site safety plans and tenant protection plans as requirements. All building professionals that touch these streams need the skills, knowledge, experience and behavior to ensure proactive measures to prevent fires and spread. The IFSS brings a globally consistent way of doing that from planning through to demolition.
“Even with the right technology, human competency and industry and public buy-in is essential,” said Strong. “Technology enhances our capabilities, but it can’t necessarily stop people gaming the system by cutting corners or delivering bare minimums. The IFSS is as much about changing the culture and the conversation as much as it is about providing standards.”
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