Who should attend a Fire Engineering Brief (FEB) meeting with Queensland Fire & Emergency Services?
Your application with the Queensland Fire and Emergency Services is in. It took a lot of work, but you got there.
And now you’re ready for the next stage – for the Fire Engineering Brief (FEB) meeting!
But that’s just presented you with a whole new set of questions, that, believe it or not are very common.
Here's what our clients usually want to know about Fire Engineering BRief meetings:
People want to know specifics like:
- Can our clients come?
- What designers do we need to bring to the meeting?
- How many people should attend?
These are fair questions to ask they aren’t always straight forward to answer.
And as is so often the case, the answer is – it depends on the project.
The four key project stakeholders you need to think about
You want to break it down to look at the four key project stakeholders who are most typically involved:
- Building Certifier
- Fire Engineer
- Architect
- Client Representative
These four project stakeholders are the four pillars that should be at a Fire Engineering Brief meeting with the Queensland Fire and Emergency Services meeting to discuss the proposed building design with the Building Approvals Officers (BAO).
The Building Certifier
The Building Certifier:
- The Building Certifier plays an important role during the meeting of describing building characteristics and the proposed departures from the BCA.
- The Queensland Fire and Emergency Services acts as an advisory agency to the Building Certifier first and foremost.
The Fire Engineer
The Fire Engineer:
- Presents the fire engineered Performance Solutions and supporting fire design requirements.
- Discusses the proposed assessment methodologies and analysis.
- Seeks feedback to understand any concerns and challenges with the intent of progressing towards endorsement of the fire strategy to proceed to Fire Engineering Report (FER) stage.
The architect
The Architect:
- Provides a general overview of the building design.
- Contributes to understanding how the building works architecturally and any nuances.
- Delves into detail where needed to understand the building in the context of the fire strategy.
The Client Representative
The Client Representative:
- Can be a project Manager, Design Manager, actual client etc.
- They attend to understand the outcomes of the meeting and to contribute when specific information is needed.
Who else can provide value at a Fire Engineering Brief Meeting?
There are a variety of other stakeholders that can potentially provide value at a Fire Engineering Brief.
The trick is to figure out which ones you need to bring in and when!
Fire Protection Services Designer (wet/dry fire)
When the fire strategy involves considerable fire safety systems (e.g. fire hydrants, fire sprinklers, detection), the Fire Protection Services Designer plays an important role in talking to the fire brigade infrastructure.
Mechanical Engineer
When the fire strategy involves a complex smoke hazard management strategy (e.g. retail malls, atriums, high rise commercial and the like), the Mechanical Services Designer contributes to the understanding of how the systems will operate.
Structural Engineer
When the fire strategy involves considerable rationalisation/reduction of structural FRLs (e.g. Stadiums with considerable unprotected steel), the Structural Engineer provides an overview of the structural design and how it works. The structural engineer also answers questions with respect to failure mechanisms, load ratios and other important structural considerations.
But wait - there's more!
In some case, there are other fringe specialists that can attend a Fire engineering brief meeting!
For example: Horticulturalists can be required where proposing significant greenery to the facades of buildings.
But for the large majority of buildings, only the four key stakeholders are typically required.
Ultimately, less is more though
Remember the old saying “too many cooks spoil the broth”?
Ideally, the FEB meeting should be limited in number to the key stakeholders only with select optional designers needed to provide additional understanding, with one representative from each as a general rule.
