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Fire Industry
Alarm at fire-related
consent rejections
NZ Fire Service urges fire engineers to lift their game
T
oo many building applications
are being fired back to
consenting authorities by the
New Zealand Fire Service
because fire engineers have done a less
than professional job demonstrating
compliance.
Fire Engineering Manager, Simon
Davis, says changes in the Building Act
are highlighting a lack of professionalism
among fire engineers who aren’t paying
enough attention to emergency access,
venting, water provisioning, new
technology and ensuring fire protection
systems work together.
He says the design work advising
building consent applicants is often so
poor it takes many iterations to get it
right, resulting in wasted time and money. “The idea is to do it once and do it right;
that’s why you employ a professional
Simon Davis, NZ Fire Service head engineer
56
June - July 2012
“We invariably find the fire
engineering fraternity have
got it wrong, have used
poor engineering process
or completely overlooked
things and not been able to
demonstrate compliance,”
NZ Fire Service head
engineer, Simon Davis.
engineer — if you have a dog you
shouldn’t have to do the barking,” he
quips.
“We’ll work with the applicant and
consenting authorities to get the job as
close to complying as possible but if
the application is not done properly in
the first place then its not going to get
through.”
Over the past five years NZ Fire
Service has taken on the role of
reviewing the fire safety aspects of
building consents on behalf of the
New Zealand Fire Service Commission,
processing 20-30 consent applications
every fortnight.
It has nine engineers in its Auckland
offices dealing with applications from the
country’s 75 building consent authorities
(BCAs), mostly relating to commercial
and industrial premises, and has to return
them within 10-days with comments and
memos.
Wrong too often
Davis says three of the 28 clauses in the
Building Act relate to fire protection;
safety, means of escape and operations
and facilities for the use of the fire
service. “We invariably find the fire
engineering fraternity have got it wrong,
have used poor engineering process or
completely overlooked things and not
been able to demonstrate compliance.”
He says fire engineers should be
fully aware of the requirements.
“Unfortunately we often find the
information is rather scant and we have
to provide quite a few comments on
deficiencies.”
Davis says compliance issues have
been considerably tightened since the
1991 Building Act was replaced earlier
this year. “It’s not the responsibility
of the consenting authority to point
out mistakes or offer advice, it’s
the applicant’s job to review all the
requirements and provide all the
information.”
To ensure the NZ Fire Service is on
track and providing the right feedback to
the various building consent authorities,
the NZ Fire Service Commission audited
its work six times over the past five years
and all the reports confirm a high failure
rate in fire compliance.
Although the NZ Fire Service has
published a water code of practice which
has become a New Zealand standard
even those efforts have provided
evidence that the industry needs to lift its
game.
Fire engineers are still not “turning
their mind” to this, says Davis. While
the requirements might not be outlined
NZ Security