Structural fire safety
Passive fire protection built into your building: fire compartments, escape routes, fire resistance and materials. We assess your design or existing building against the Building Decree (Bbl) and explain the outcome in clear English.
What is structural fire safety?
Structural fire safety (bouwkundige brandveiligheid) covers everything in the building itself that contains a fire and keeps escape routes usable: walls, floors, doors, the load-bearing structure and the materials used. It needs no power, detection or human action to work. That is why it is also called passive fire protection.
It is one of three disciplines that together make up the fire safety of a building, alongside installation fire safety and organisational fire safety. The three have to fit together. A smart compartment layout can reduce the need for installations, and a well-designed escape route makes the evacuation plan simpler.
What it covers
- Fire compartments and sub-fire compartments. How the building is divided so that a fire stays in the space where it started. See fire compartmentation and WBDBO.
- Resistance to fire penetration and fire spread (WBDBO). How long a fire is kept out of adjacent compartments, both through walls and floors and via the façade or roof.
- Escape routes. The route from every occupied space to a safe place, and how many people it can handle. See escape route and evacuation capacity.
- Fire resistance of the load-bearing structure. How long the structure must hold before it may collapse in a fire.
- Fire behaviour of materials. The fire class and smoke class of walls, ceilings and floors, to NEN-EN 13501-1. The fire resistance of building elements is classified separately, to NEN-EN 13501-2.
- Large fire compartments. Distribution centres, production halls and similar buildings, where a larger fire compartment can be substantiated with NEN 6060.
When you need it
- You are designing a new building or an extension and want the fire safety in your permit application to be right first time.
- You are renovating or changing the use of a building. In principle, the new-build requirements apply to the part you renovate, and a change of use can mean that different requirements apply.
- You want to know whether an existing building meets the requirements for existing buildings, for example before an acquisition or a lease.
- The fire service, the municipality or your insurer has questions about compartmentation or escape routes.
- Your design does not fit the standard rules, and you need an equivalent solution (gelijkwaardige oplossing) that the competent authority will accept.
What we do
Advice and documents
- Programme of requirements (PvE): the fire safety requirements for your project, set out before the design starts.
- Fire safety plan (brandveiligheidsplan) and building plan assessment: the fire safety part of your design, checked and documented for the permit application or the quality assurer. See building plan assessment.
- Basis of design document (UPD): the fire safety starting points for an existing building, agreed in advance with all parties.
- Equivalent solutions: substantiating a different approach that offers at least the same level of safety.
- Consultation with the municipality, the fire service and the safety region (veiligheidsregio).
- Construction support: checking on site that fire-resisting walls, doors and penetrations are built as designed.
- Inspections of structural fire safety in existing buildings. See fire safety inspection.
- Cost estimates for the measures we recommend.
Calculations
- Fire compartmentation and fire spread (WBDBO) to NEN 6068
- Escape route and evacuation capacity, using our own software Vluchtveilig
- Fire controllability of large fire compartments (NEN 6060)
- Fire load
- Determining whether a space is enclosed or non-enclosed
- Smoke filling time calculations
- CFD fire and smoke simulation, where the standard rules do not fit
How we work
- Understand: We study your drawings or visit the building, and discuss how it is or will be used.
- Assess: We check the design or the building against the Bbl and the relevant NEN standards.
- Advise: You receive a clear report in English that separates legal requirements from recommendations.
- Support: We liaise with the municipality, the fire service and contractors until the project is completed.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between structural, installation and organisational fire safety?
Structural fire safety is what is built into the building: compartments, escape routes, fire resistance and materials. Installation fire safety covers technical systems such as fire alarms, emergency lighting and sprinklers. Organisational fire safety is about how the building is used and what people do in an emergency. A good fire safety concept combines all three.
Does an existing building have to meet new-build requirements?
No. Existing buildings have their own, lighter level of requirements. A building does not have to be upgraded to new-build level simply because the rules have changed. Renovations and changes of use are a different matter. See Dutch fire safety rules explained.
What is the difference between fire class and fire resistance?
Fire class (NEN-EN 13501-1) describes how a material behaves in a fire: how easily it ignites, how quickly flames spread over it and how much smoke it produces. Fire resistance (NEN-EN 13501-2) describes how long a wall, floor or door keeps a fire out, expressed in minutes. The Bbl uses both, for different purposes.
Can we deviate from the rules?
Yes, with an equivalent solution. You show that your alternative offers at least the same level of safety as the rules intend, and the competent authority has to agree to it. We prepare the substantiation, often with calculations or a fire simulation.
Questions about the fire safety of your building?
Send us your drawings or tell us about your plans. We will explain what applies and send you a proposal with a clear scope and timeline.