Fire and Risk Engineering

Fire engineering is all about producing successful buildings: designed for maximum comfort, efficiency, safety, and ease of use. Fire engineering produces significant cost and efficiency savings, whilst levels of safety are improved.  To achieve this, the designer must often go well beyond the guidance of regulations and the fire consultant  must bring significant imagination, experience and skill to the design team.

Faber Maunsell Fire & Risk Engineering have a core team of internationally recognised fire consultants supported by fire engineers from varying professional backgrounds, combining detailed knowledge and sound fire engineering principles.

We also have the latest tools at our disposal to provide both analysis and visualisation of fire safety issues, including:

• CFD Modelling
• Evacuation Modelling
• Smoke Modelling
• Risk Analysis Software
• Systems Modelling
• Fire Systems Specification
• Fire System Design

Fire Strategies

The starting point of any professional fire engineering service is to produce an outline fire strategy, agreed with key stakeholders, following an initial design review. This document lays out the general fire engineering strategy applied to the building.

For instance, will the building be designed using fire engineering principles, or will it generally be code-compliant, with trade-offs and equivalency used to enable a practical design solution.

Faber Maunsell Fire Consultants are experts in this field, having many years of experience working with designers and statutory authorities to produce hundreds of imaginative design solutions for all types of transport, public, PFI, and private commercial building projects.

We are experts in the following:

• Transport Infrastructure
• Tall Buildings
• Hospitals
• Schools
• Residential
• Shopping Centres
• Historic Buildings
• Mixed-Use Commercial
• IT Installations
• Government Installations

Fire and Evacuation Analysis

Many clients and authorities wish to understand the processes that lead to fire strategy determination; Faber Maunsell Fire & Risk Engineering are pleased to assist.

We have a resource of dedicated CFD modellers unparalleled in the UK & Europe, and people and movement modellers utilising the latest software.

Our experience ranges from hospitals to historic buildings, residential towers to railway stations and  tunnels to tall buildings.

The product of the analysis and assessment can be:

• Detailed engineering analysis and estimates of fire and smoke development
• Visualisation of fire development
• Tenability analysis
• Evacuation route assessment
• Combined fire, smoke and evacuation models

In addition we offer detailed semi-quantitative assessment for complex built environments and transport infrastructure, and quantitative assessment, cost benefit analysis and ALARP studies.

Fire Risk Assessment

The Faber Maunsell Fire & Risk Engineering Group provides first class fire risk assessment services to clients in the built environment.

Our experience ranges from hospitals to historic buildings, residential towers to railway stations and tunnels to tall buildings.

All our engineers are fully competent to perform risk assessments for the Workplace Regulations and under the Regulatory Reform  (Fire Safety) Order.

We use a combination of EXCEL, @Risk, FT+, Fault Tree Manager and risk contouring software, combined with deterministic fire and smoke models.

To support our assessments we access manufacturer information, insurance statistics and published data to estimate scenario likelihood, failure rates and reliability and maintainability of systems.

In addition, using our detailed risk assessment expertise:

• ALARP Studies
• Cost Benefit Analysis
• Risk and Reliability Assessment
• RAMS studies
• IT Reliability

Smoke Analysis and CFD Modelling

70% of injuries and most property damage is due to smoke.  We have therefore placed a high priority on smoke modelling in our work.

Our smoke modelling specialists also work as project Fire Engineers and have a sound knowledge of fire engineering principles. The modelling work is therefore based on appropriate assumptions and focused on the project aims. We use the latest industry validated Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) software.

We have created models for  atrium designs impulse fan systems, loading bays and tunnels.

The product of CFD analysis can help to:

• Gain a better understanding of smoke behaviour, creating opportunities for open building designs
• Demonstrate the tenability of spaces for fire-fighting
• Simulate interactions between fire detection, suppression and smoke ventilation systems and optimise the engineering services design
• Create pictures and animations of the smoke behaviour to support the approval process
• Assess evacuation arrangements and evaluate available escape times, with opportunities for extended travel distances and escape through connected spaces
• Assess the suitability of linings and fire / smoke control barriers, allowing a wider choice of materials
• Alternatively, we may use simpler methods such as zone models and steady state calculations where appropriate.

Selected UK Clients and Projects

Our landmark projects include:

• Halley VI Antarctic Research Station
• King’s Waterfront, Liverpool
• King Alfred Centre, Brighton
• Denbeigh Stadium Milton Keynes
• Royal Festival Hall Refurbishment
• The Mailbox, Birmingham
• The Cube, Birmingham
• The Belgrade Theatre
• Northwood Headquarters
• Nottingham University
• Victoria and Albert Museum
• Windsor Castle Refurbishment

Architects

• Associated Architects
• Allies & Morrison
• Aukett Fitzroy Robinson
• BDP
• Hopkins Architects
• Glenn Howells
• EPR
• KMP
• John McAslan
• Make

Developers

• Argent Estates Limited
• Land Securities
• Mowlem Government
• Ministry of Defence
• Healthcare Trusts
• Local Education Authorities
• Crown Estates
• LFEPA

Faber Maunsell Fire & Risk Team

We are pleased to introduce the Fire & Risk Team.

Consultants

• Paul Scott: Director, Fire & Risk Engineering
• John Hopkinson: Leader, UK Fire Consultancy
• John Herbison: Leader, Northern Region Fire Consultancy

Fire Engineers

• Alan Farnfield
• Alex Cunningham
• Ian Rogers
• Sam Liptrott
• Lucia Ortega
• Phil Johnston

CFD Modellers

• Ross Bates
• Joseph Berthoud
• Anna Holding
• Pier Bertacche
• Peter Reid

Advanced Design in the Fire Environment

• Garry Palmer 
• Darren Walton

Fire Systems Design

• Chris Dodds
• Alex Pelham

For more information on our experience and capabilities please contact Paul Scott.