Historically, there has been an information breach between the design professionals who design buildings and the fire service personnel that are impacted with the design when they are called to handle an emergency in that building. Fire service personnel that are also fire protection engineers recognized this disparity and have collaborated to develop a course designed to fill the informational gap between the two professions. The goal of this collaboration is to educate the design professional as to why fire service needs building features and systems developed or installed in a certain fashion. This paper will discuss main topics related to this topic: Political perspective, building exterior needs of the fire service, and building interior needs of the fire service.
We don't normally think there is a political perspective to constructing a building, but politics is involved in a grander scheme and is incorporated into the local ordinance that requires (or does not require) the presence of the local fire department during the pre-development and design process. The political perspective is present in the local ordinance that requires (or does not require) the presence of the local fire department during the preliminary meetings and throughout the construction of the building. The political perspective is present in a municipality's advocacy of the importance of constructing a building and site that will make an emergency response result as positive as possible and result in a safer community.
The fine points of a fire service friendly building process are discussed below:
Stakeholders are those people or organizations that are involved in the continued operation, survivability, viability, and function of the building. Stakeholders also include those people or organizations that are affected by the building's presence because they provide a vital service to the building. The local fire department, police departments and even a public works department would be considered stakeholders. Firefighters have the unique job of responding to and entering the building when the building's safety systems have failed. Therefore it is important that the local fire department be involved in the development of the site and the building from the beginning so they can offer assistance in site, systems and building design. The fire department needs to understand not only the physical geometry of the building and its systems, but understand its mission, its processes and the goals the building and its organization has for the community. The Fire Chief should be invited to attend these meetings.
The creation of a community development liaison that represents the owner/developers, as well as creating a fire department liaison improves communications. In the management political scheme of things, the liaisons are generally identified in ordinances as the Fire Chief and the Building Official, but the actual task is generally assigned to a lower level employee more intimate with the local community development process. Familiarity and involvement with the needs of both sides builds trust and cooperation and will result in consistent enforcement.
