The Scottish Government

standard
2.15
mandatory

Every building to which this standard applies must be designed and constructed in such a way that, in the event of an outbreak of fire within the building, fire and smoke will be inhibited from spreading through the building by the operation of an automatic life safety fire suppression system.

Limitation

This standard applies only to a building which:-

a. is an enclosed shopping centre;

b. is a residential care building

c. is a domestic building in which there is a floor at a height of more than 18 metres from the ground; or

d. forms part of a sheltered housing complex.

2.15.0 Introduction

The term automatic life safety fire suppression system includes life safety sprinklers, but also provides the opportunity for designers to propose other systems which may be just as effective. The key characteristics of the system are :

- it must be automatic and not require people to initiate its activation,

- it must be designed primarily to protect lives, rather than property, this means it will normally be fitted with quick response sprinkler heads.

- it must be a fire suppression system, one designed specifically to deal with fires rather than other hazards.

Annexes

Due to the special fire precautions within residential care buildings and enclosed shopping centres, additional guidance is grouped in the Annexes. The intention is to help designers and verifiers find the information they require quickly when designing or vetting such buildings. However, it is important to remember that the guidance in the annexes is in addition and supplementary to the guidance to standard 2.1 to 2.15:

• for the additional guidance on residential care buildings, see Annex 2.A;
• for the additional guidance on enclosed shopping centres, see Annex 2.C.

Conversions

In the case of conversions, as specified in Regulation 4, the building as converted must meet the requirements of this standard (Regulation 12).

2.15.1 Automatic life safety fire suppression systems

Automatic life safety fire suppression systems are required in two categories of non-domestic buildings, residential care buildings and enclosed shopping centres.

For a suppression system to be effective it is essential that there is an appropriate and adequate water supply. Therefore designers need to discuss with Scottish Water what supply is likely to be available and what pressure can be expected. It is recognised that pressures will vary during the day, over the year and perhaps in future years. Therefore it is imperative that the system is designed on the basis of what the minimum pressure is likely to be.

Auto-suppression systems require maintenance and it is essential that systems once installed are regularly checked and maintained. It may be that the requirement to provide such maintenance is made a legal obligation on the owner by the addition of a Continuing Requirement when the completion certificate is accepted by the verifier (under Section 22 of the Building (Scotland) Act 2003). Failure to comply with such a continuing requirement could lead to enforcement proceeding being taken and might mean that the premises could not be legally occupied.

2.15.2 Residential care buildings

A residential care building should have an automatic life safety fire suppression system designed and installed in accordance with the guidance set out in Annex 2.A.

2.15.3 Enclosed shopping centres

An enclosed shopping centre should have an automatic life safety fire suppression system designed and installed in accordance with the guidance set out in Annex 2.C.

Annex 2.A Residential care buildings

2.A.0 Introduction
2.A.1 Compartmentation
2.A.4 Cavities
2.A.9 Means of escape
2.A.10 Escape lighting
2.A.11 Communication
2.A.15 Automatic life safety fire suppression systems

Annex 2.C guidance

Additional guidance for enclosed shopping centres

2.C.0 Introduction

The recommendations contained in this Annex are in addition to the guidance to standards 2.1 to 2.15 and are unique to enclosed shopping centres with malls.

Enclosed shopping centres with malls can be extremely complex to design. There are large fire loads and large numbers of people all within a complicated series of spaces where most people only know one way in or out.

For these reasons, additional guidance is provided for compartmentation, separation, means of escape, escape lighting, communication and fire service facilities. To link them directly with the standards, they have been numbered in the same manner as standards 2.1 to 2.15.

However, even this guidance may not be sufficient to cover all enclosed shopping centres with malls and a fire engineered solution (see clause 2.0.5) is normally required to supplement the guidance. An example of this could be an enclosed shopping centre with a mall on 3 or more storeys.

For the purposes of the guidance in this Annex (other than in clause 2.C.9b), reference to a shop includes all building uses (see clause 2.1.1) with a frontage to the mall, for example; cafes, banks or other use tenancies.

2.C.15 Automatic life safety fire suppression systems

An automatic life safety fire suppression system should be installed in all enclosed shopping centres with malls and should cover the entire shopping centre. However the life safety fire suppression system need not be installed in:

• a mall or part of a mall with a ceiling height more than 10 m
• a stairway enclosure
• a car park, and
• every area where sprinklers would prove a hazard (e.g. main electrical switchgear)

In an enclosed shopping centre the level of fire control protection should be appropriate to the occupancies within the shopping centre and should be determined on the basis of risk assessment, with Quick Response Sprinklers (with a response time index of less than 50 (m.s) ^1/2 and comply with the Loss Prevention Council Rules for Automatic Sprinkler Installations (LPC, 1994) (including all additional life safety recommendations).