Fire Safety Engineering

Elev8 specialise in fire safety engineering. From design fire strategies to computation fluid dynamics to evacuation modelling. Our fire engineers have the skills, knowledge and experience to support you through the design stages, through construction and with buildings in occupation.

Our Core Services:

  • Design Fire Strategies
  • Retrospective Fire Strategies
  • Computational Fluid Dynamics
  • Computational Evacuation Modelling
  • Fire Safety Assurance
  • Third Party Peer Review

Get in touch

Fire Engineering

Design Fire Strategies

A fire strategy documents the fire safety measures that has been determined as suitable using design codes and/or fire engineering analysis to be capable of satisfying the functional requirements of the Building Regulations.
Fire strategy reports for new buildings are essential in ensuring the fire safety measures for the building are documented and clear to every interested party throughout design, construction, handover and the management of new developments, particularly complex projects.
Fire strategies are typically formulated during the early design stages of a project, following the RIBA stages. These strategies are continually refined as the building design advances, encompassing the initial concept, detailed design, updates during construction, and culminating in the creation of an as-built fire strategy report upon project completion.
Our fire engineers can support you in ensuring your new build projects are fire safe and compliant throughout design, construction, and handover.

Retrospective Fire Strategies

Many existing buildings do not have the relevant fire safety information available from the time of build, this often includes the original fire strategy report. This can become problematic when trying to manage, operate and make alterations to the buildings design when in use. A fire strategy report should also be the starting point for any suitable and sufficient fire risk assessment.
A retrospective fire strategy can help with these problems, as it will consider how an existing building is likely to have met the functional fire safety requirements of the Building Regulations when it was constructed. This includes the provisions for:
B1: Means of warning and escape
B2: Internal fire spread (linings)
B3: Internal fire spread (structure)
B4: External fire spread
B5: Access and facilities for the fire service

Our experienced fire engineers will visit your building and compile a detailed fire strategy report outlining and documenting the relevant fire safety matters for your building, ensuring you can manage, operate and make alterations to your building in the most effective manner.

Fire Engineering

Computational Fluid Dynamics

Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) modelling is a tool often used in fire safety engineering and offers numerous benefits.
It can allow fire engineers to better understand fire behaviour, analyse smoke movement, and optimize ventilation systems for effective smoke control.
CFD simulations are often used to support the design of efficient fire safety measures allowing fire engineers to test and optimize different fire safety strategies, this often supports architects to deliver their vision while ensuring the safety of the building occupants.

Fire Engineering

Computational Evacuation Modelling

Computational evacuation modelling is employed in fire engineering to simulate and analyse occupant movement during emergency evacuations. Evacuation modelling is often undertaken when there is a shortfall in the means of escape provisions or if the design deviates from standard design codes. Is can also be used to determine if the building occupants can make safe escape in the required timeframe prior to untenable conditions occurring.

Fire Engineering

Fire Safety Assurance

Having competent fire engineers appointed across all stages of a project, throughout design, construction and handover has never been more important. Creating that golden thread of fire safety information and ensuring the fire safety measures that were designed, get implemented in line with the fire strategy requirements, are just two key areas that required greater attention than has previously been given throughout the construction stage.

We offer expert technical support, consultancy and quality assurance throughout the construction stage of projects, providing you the peace of mind that what has been designed gets built and handed over correctly. Ultimately reducing the number and scale of aftercare issues.

This service can be bespoke for your particular project and may include – quality assurance of key fire safety measures at various points throughout the build process, including - façade fire stopping and cavity barriers, structural fire protection, compartmentation and fire stopping, active fire protection systems, internal void cavity barriers, and fire doors to name a few. Each quality assurance visit will be documented, commenting on the workmanship and suitability of each area inspected, allowing any issues to be addressed before they escalate. We can also work with you to review any specialist subcontractor designs to ensure they fully align to the requirements of the fire strategy.

Third Party Peer Review

Effective third-party peer review of fire safety engineering can provide the necessary level of assurance that a building achieves the adequate level of safety. Peer reviews of fire strategies, designs and any fire engineering analysis provides the necessary assurance to developers, client teams, and building control bodies regarding the suitability of the design or analysis for its intended purpose.