Description

The purpose of this guideline is to outline good practice when considering the content that might be included in a Fire Engineering Brief (FEB) document.

Scope

The fire engineering briefing (FEB) document outsoutlines the genersal building characteristics and the scope and intent of the project.

The FEB addresses elements of the fire design where early discussion and clarification of assumptions is important during development of the design – all information that will benefit the progression of the fire design process. This may include:

• Location or legal status of items that affect compliance (e.g. boundaries, shared ownership, easements)
• Design of special-use buildings that require unique consideration (e.g. prisons, hospitals, evacuation to a place of safety inside the building, internal use of open flames or heat sources, theatrical spaces)
• Items that affect future commitment or flexibility for the building affecting owner or tenant (e.g. building classified use, or affecting contractor due to long lead time procurement)
• Items which are known to be subject to interpretation, ambiguity, poorly aligned expectations or extent of application (e.g. choice of design approach and application of Compliance documents; interpretation of Compliance Documents or Code clauses; features not covered by Compliance documents, S112 alteration scope, change of use, application of Act, Gazette Notice No. 49, variables in C/VM2 or other compliance documents where there is a risk depending on use in the context of the project)
• For existing buildings: scope of review, analysis, proposals for ‘as near as reasonably practicable’ that are subjective and require discussion.
• Agreeing scope of engineering analysis and modelling (e.g. for complex projects; challenging fire locations, computational smoke model to be used, occupant load scenarios)