Fire strategies for new and existing buildings

What a fire strategy is

A fire strategy is the design document for a building's fire safety. It records the assumptions the building relies on and the measures that deliver them. Building control uses it to check the design against Part B of the Building Regulations. The fire and rescue service uses it to plan how they would fight a fire. Insurers, managing agents and fire risk assessors use it to understand what the building was meant to do.

The five parts of Approved Document B give it its structure.

When a building needs one

• New buildings and material alterations. The fire strategy is how the design shows it meets Part B, and under Regulation 38 the fire safety information must be handed to the Responsible Person when the work is complete.
• Change of use. Turning offices into flats, or a house into an HMO, changes the escape and compartmentation assumptions. The strategy has to change with it.
• Higher-risk buildings. Residential buildings of 18 metres or seven storeys or more must be registered with the Building Safety Regulator, and the Principal Accountable Person has to prepare a safety case report. A current fire strategy is the backbone of that report.
• Existing buildings with no strategy. Many blocks built before the current rules have no fire strategy at all. A retrospective fire strategy records the provisions as built and the assumptions the building now depends on, so everyone works from the same document.
• After a fire risk assessment raises a question. If the assessor cannot tell whether a building was designed for stay put or simultaneous evacuation, or where the compartment lines are, a strategy answers it.

What SeeForth prepares

• Fire strategies for new and refurbished buildings, written to BS 9991 for residential buildings and BS 9999 for offices, shops and other non-residential premises, with drawings marked up for escape routes, compartmentation and fire service access.
• Retrospective fire strategies for existing buildings, based on a survey of the building, the original drawings where they exist, the fire alarm and door records, and the current fire risk assessment.
• Fire strategy reviews when a building changes hands, changes use or registers with the Building Safety Regulator, so the document matches what is on site.
• Alignment with your fire risk assessment. Our assessors are IFSM registered and hold the NSA Level 6 Diploma in Fire Risk Assessment. When we prepare both documents, the assessment tests the building against the strategy's assumptions and the two agree with each other.

How the work runs

1. Information. We ask for the building's drawings, any previous strategy or fire engineering report, the fire risk assessment, alarm and emergency lighting certificates, fire door records and, for taller buildings, the external wall appraisal.
2. Survey. An assessor walks the building to confirm what is there rather than what the drawings say: escape routes, door types, compartment lines, smoke vents, risers and fire service access.
3. Draft strategy. A written strategy following the structure of Approved Document B, with marked-up plans and a clear statement of the evacuation strategy and the management assumptions the building depends on.
4. Review with you. We go through the draft with the managing agent or building owner, and with building control or the Building Safety Regulator where they are involved.
5. Issue and keep current. The final strategy goes into your building file alongside the fire risk assessment, and we recommend reviewing it whenever the building or its use changes.

Buildings and areas

We prepare fire strategies for blocks of flats, student accommodation, HMOs, offices, schools and mixed-use buildings across London, Essex, Hertfordshire and Cambridge. Read our fire risk assessment page for the assessment side of the work, or the explainer on how the two documents differ.