In the past, building owners, managers and occupants have often had a lack of basic information on how to manage, maintain and live safely in their building.

For some residential apartments, developers and builders have handed over stacks of allegedly “as-built” drawings, large complex reports and other design documentation. Much of this has made little sense to building managers or occupants.

Fortunately, hope of a better deal is on the way.

After the Lacrosse and Neo 200 building fires, the building structural failures in Sydney, and the Grenfell disaster in the UK, the Shergold/Weir inquiry and the resultant Building Confidence Report (BCR) identified significant problems in the regulation and culture of Australia’s construction sector.

Recommendation 20 of the BCR stated that each jurisdiction should require a comprehensive building manual for Class 2 – 9 buildings to be lodged with the building owners and to be made available to successive purchasers. Responding to this, the Australian Building Codes Board (ABCB) developed a consultation paper.

Consistent with this general national policy, the NSW government through the Office of Building Commissioner (OBC) and the Customer Service department have begun to set out in detail the aspects of a fire safety manual which should be included in a comprehensive building manual. This is being led by FPA Australia President Bill Lea. Of necessity, the development of a suitable fire safety manual for any building requires the input of all fire safety design practitioners involved in the design and construction.

There is anecdotal evidence that developers and builders often hand over great folders of design and construction drawings (not always the “as built” drawings), detailed Operation and Maintenance (O&M) manuals, and copies of fire safety engineering reports upon practical completion. Rarely, however, do they provide a clear and simple picture of the package of fire safety measures included in the design which need to be maintained.

In broad terms, such a fire safety manual, or fire safety component of a broader building manual, needs to have two components:

1. A first section for building owners, manager and tenants or occupiers. This should be written in plain English and should explain what they need to know in order to manage, maintain and occupy the building safely through its lifetime.
2. A more detailed technical section. This should provide “as built” drawings, technical specifications, design and construction details and other information that will enable contractors, designers and others to maintain the building and all its services as well as to redesign and repair the building and its fire protection systems on an on-going basis .

For the first section, there needs to be a fire safety schedule. This should set out the fire safety systems (active and passive) which need to be maintained, the relevant standards (such as AS1851), and the frequency of inspections and testing.

Also needed are details of the plan for fire safety management. These should include how occupants need to respond in the event of a fire alarm.

In a residential building, for example, owners and tenants need to understand that they cannot hire a plumber or electrician to come in and punch a hole through a fire rated wall for a cable or pipe without restoring the fire resistance rating of the wall as part of the work. Equally, residents need to know whether they can use the lifts as well as stairs for evacuation and whether or not the lifts have been designed for that purpose. Finally, building managers must understand that they need to maintain a foyer or base of an atrium as “sterile” or free of combustibles if that is part of a performance-based fire safety design for a building.

In major non-residential buildings, owners and managers will have the required expertise (either in-house or through contracted specialists) to manage and operate their building safety and efficiently. Nevertheless, new regulations requiring building manuals will only help them to make their management practices more effective.

Requiring a well-constructed fire safety manual to be provided as part of a broader building manual will deliver significant advantages. This is especially the case for Class 2 buildings and other classes of residential buildings with vulnerable occupants such as aged care and those with disability. Such advantages will be particularly evident in the case of smaller residential buildings which are operated and managed through owners corporations who have limited resources and expertise.

These advantages include:

• A clear understanding of the fire safety strategy and the basis for design and operation of the building which is written in plain English which all occupants can understand.
• A fire safety schedule and simple list of fire safety measures that can form the basis of an ongoing set of maintenance contracts that can be more easily formed and monitored by the property management body.
• A set of fire prevention and housekeeping rules which are easy to follow to minimize the risk of fire ignition.
• The key elements of the fire safety management plan, including clear details of the evacuation or defend in place strategy, and how AS3745 or similar can be used for emergency planning, training and record keeping.
• Details of fire safety and other building systems such as air conditioning, plumbing and other electrical/mechanical systems in terms of their service life and replacement. This can form the basis of a realistic sinking fund to ensure no investment surprises for residents into the future.

In summary, requiring developers, builders and design teams to produce property building manuals which are written in a form suited to owners, managers and occupiers will deliver significant benefits. The fire safety manual will be a key part of this, and will assist in better management, maintenance and safety of buildings throughout the building life-cycle.

This is an important part of restoring community confidence in Australia’s building industry.

By Peter Johnson, Arup Fellow

Peter Johnson is a Principal and Fellow in fire safety engineering at the global consulting firm of Arup and a research leader for the Warren Centre project on “Professionalising Fire Safety Engineering”.

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