FIRE STRATEGIES & REVIEWS
The document that defines what your building needs.
A fire strategy sets out how a building is designed to perform in a fire: the principles everything else hangs off. Get it right and every later decision has a reference point. Get it wrong, or never have one, and you're guessing.
When to use this
Sound like your situation?
THE PROBLEM
Most buildings are managed without one
Plenty of buildings have never had a proper fire strategy. Decisions get made off the back of a fire risk assessment instead, which tells you the risks on the day but was never meant to define how the building is supposed to work as a whole.
So assumptions creep in. Nobody's quite sure what the building's evacuation principle actually is, whether the compartmentation strategy is being maintained, or why a past decision was made. Without the strategy, you're managing the building on guesswork.
WHAT WE DO
Define it, or pressure-test what exists
New fire strategies
We commission strategies that define how a building is designed to perform in a fire, from first principles.
Strategy reviews
We review existing strategies to confirm they still hold, or flag where the building has drifted from them.
Evacuation principle
Clarity on how the building is meant to evacuate, stay put, phased, or otherwise, and whether that still stands.
Defines the requirements
Establishes what the building genuinely needs, rather than assumptions inherited from a risk assessment.
A reference for decisions
Gives doors, compartmentation, alarms and works a defined standard to be measured against.
Independently commissioned
We commission the right specialist and review the output, with no stake in what the strategy concludes.
STRATEGY, NOT ASSUMPTION
A reference point everything else hangs off
A proper fire strategy gives every later decision something to measure against. When a question comes up about doors, compartmentation, alarms or evacuation, the answer isn't an opinion, it's checked against the building's defined strategy.
We commission fire strategies that establish the real requirements of the building, and we review existing ones to confirm they still hold, or to flag where the building has drifted away from them.
A new strategy, or a review of one you already have. Either works as a standalone piece.
RELATED SERVICES
What often comes with this
Often paired with
Fire risk assessments
The strategy says what the building should do. The FRA says where it isn't doing it. Both belong together.
See fire risk assessments →Often paired with
Building Safety Act & safety cases
A defensible safety case needs a fire strategy behind it. Without one, you're improvising.
See Building Safety Act work →Worth knowing
Fire strategy work sits across several pieces of guidance and standards. Here are the most relevant references.
Don't have a strategy, or don't trust the one you've got?
We'll commission a new one or review the existing, so you know what your building actually requires.