Why maintain essential safety measures?
When the construction of a building is complete, the building owner is responsible for its upkeep and maintenance, particularly its safety features or essential safety measures.
The maintenance of essential safety measures will ensure that the safety systems mainly dealing with fire situations within the building, remain at the required operational level throughout the life of the building. The type of maintenance depends on the complexity of the service, equipment or feature and the experience of the person carrying out the inspection or test.
What is an essential safety measure?
Essential safety measures are the fire and life safety items installed or constructed in a building to ensure adequate levels of fire safety over the life of the building.
Essential safety measures include all traditional building fire services such as sprinklers, mechanical services, but also include passive fire safety such as fire doors, fire rated structureand other building infrastructure items such as paths of travel to exits.
As some examples, essential safety measures defined under the Building Regulations include the following safety measures:
| Air conditioning systems * | Fire hydrants |
| Emergency lifts and lighting | Fire windows |
| Ext doors and exit signs | Mechanical ventilation |
| Emergency power supply | Fire isolated stairs, passages ramps |
| Fire control centres | Fire rated materials |
| Fire curtains and doors | Path of travel to exits |
| Emergency warning systems | Smoke alarms |
| Fire detectors and alarm systems | Smoke control systems |
| Fire extinguishers | Sprinkler systems |
Please refer to the Regulations for a full listing of essential services.
* There is a separate process for Registration of Cooling Tower Systems.
