Given the generally accepted characteristics of warehousing structures, initial planning approvals for their construction are often substantially easier to gain, compared to residential or educational buildings.
Several warehouses at Magna Park had been built in line with initial approvals and KFS were appointed by TSL Projects to expedite some site assessments and provide a retrospective ‘Shell and Core’ Fire Safety Strategy report, that would be submitted to local building control for sign off.
The work needed to meet the client’s urgent deadlines, to prevent delays to any future internal fit outs by building occupants.
Reviewing the individual warehousing sites and applying engineering principles to comply with Part B of the Buildings Regulations, a new fire strategy was produced and tailored to each building.
Our analysis work included zone modelling looked to define the potential size and ferocity of any fire that could occur and how this along with the resulting smoke given off could impact and/or stop occupants from escaping and exiting the building. We also carried out ASET/RSET calculations based on these zone models wherever extended travel distances were present in order to ensure that the non-compliant distances were still safe for occupants.
Despite an initial expectation that the initial architectural designs would be entirely code compliant, KFS did identify and help rectify several key details to ensure complete compliance with fire safety requirements and achieve rapid, straightforward acceptance of the fire strategies for the buildings.
Due to the urgent nature of the project, a draft report was supplied where necessary to achieve provisional sign off by building control.
KFS enabled TSL Projects’ clients and future occupants to start using the buildings in operational capacity without delays.
In addition to the initial scope, KFS made fire safety design recommendations available for use by warehouse tenants if/when they carried out their own construction works to add internal structures.
Recommendations included common solutions (such as the appropriate installation of sprinkler systems) that would cover all potential contingencies regardless of the future use of the buildings.
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