Public/complex buildings
comprising the glazed East Court and Victorian theatre, is underway, while allowing existing operations to continue. Major stakeholder input was sought from the
Alexandra Park and Palace Charitable Trust, its insurers, Haringey Council Building Control (HCBC) and London Fire Brigade (Barnet, Enfield and Haringey). Working closely with the operational team, a fire risk assessment was done and an approach agreed with HCBC, based on these principles: •
fire risk to occupants in large volume spaces is inherently low
• the impact of high fire loads, producing a large volume of smoke with intense heat on people, is low
• existing functional areas shall be reviewed and made no worse or better, as practical
• non fire threats are not the basis for the design of the fire escape
•
the strategy will assume only one fire in one location at any one time
• existing fire management procedures and policies will be used to inform the new design
BS 9999 and ABTT’s (Association of British Theatre Technicians’) Technical Standards for Places of Entertainment (2015) guidance was applied in the design to satisfy ADB. Crucially, the existing operational management plan already conforms to a Level 1 fire safety management system, in accordance with BS 9999. A managed phased evacuation strategy will be
implemented for the entire establishment – common practice for large public buildings. Where existing walls are required to provide a fire and smoke barrier,
the benefits of extensive smoke reservoirs and control of fire loads adjacent to these walls have been used to justify the reduced fire and smoke spread risk between fire compartments. This has been successfully justified in lieu of full fire upgrade of the featured 6m high glazed windows in these walls. An ASET/RSET assessment was undertaken
to allow up to 1,400 people to evacuate from the theatre stall and balcony level. For a 5MW fire scenario at stall level, computational fluid dynamics modelling was undertaken to assess the tenable conditions in the theatre. The fire size was determined following a review for the need of a sprinkler system from both a risk and code compliance angle (sprinklers are not required by modern code). In addition, the impractical installation of sprinklers to the glazed East Court and their ineffectiveness at 17m above floor level also rules out this option. External site hydrants were found to be operable and these are regularly tested by the local fire services during site drills at the palace. Additional fire mains are required to improve the internal firefighting access, and the fire strategy has been developed aimed at limiting occupant exposure to fire, providing safe protected escape routes and fire resistance to the structure, along with fire protection systems and appropriate facilities for the fire service. In doing so, the existing operational and procedural systems have been applied to allow a seamless integration with the rest of the building
Andy Nicholson is founder and fire engineer, and Lisa Farnell, Yen Luong and Matt Ryan are fire engineers at The Fire Surgery Ltd. For more information, view page 5
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www.frmjournal.com JULY/AUGUST 2018
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