Fire Strategies

Introduction

A fire strategy explains how a building will achieve an appropriate standard of fire safety through its design, construction, management and use.

It should bring together the building's:

Occupancy and use assumptions
Evacuation strategy
Means of warning and escape
Compartmentation and structural fire protection
Active fire protection systems
External fire spread provisions
Firefighting access and facilities
Fire safety management requirements
Interfaces between fire safety systems and other building systems

A fire strategy is not simply a report produced at the end of a design. It should develop with the project, record the basis of important decisions and remain coordinated with the drawings, specifications and specialist designs.

The RIBA Plan of Work identifies the Fire Safety Strategy as a core project strategy that begins with the project brief, develops through design and construction, and continues into the management of the completed building.

Important Terminology

The terms Stage 1, Stage 2, Stage 3 and Stage 4 fire strategy are commonly used to describe the maturity of the fire strategy alongside the corresponding RIBA design stages:

These are project delivery stages, not statutory grades or legally defined classes of fire strategy.

A client, consultant or contractor may use different names, such as:

Fire safety brief
Outline fire strategy
Concept fire strategy
Developed fire strategy
Coordinated fire strategy
Technical fire strategy
Construction fire strategy
As-built fire strategy

The title alone does not establish the quality or completeness of the document. The content must be appropriate to the project stage and sufficiently detailed to support the decisions being made.

Fire Strategy Versus Other Documents

A fire strategy is related to several other documents but is not interchangeable with them.

Document	Primary purpose
Fire strategy	Defines how the building is intended to achieve fire safety and coordinates the design, systems and management assumptions.
Planning fire statement	Provides planning-stage information on fire safety matters relevant to land-use planning, such as site layout, fire appliance access and firefighting water. It is not normally a full Building Regulations fire strategy.
Fire risk assessment	Assesses fire risk in an occupied premises and identifies the general fire precautions required. It is principally an operational document, not a substitute for a design fire strategy.
Fire and emergency file	A submission document required for certain higher-risk building work in England. Government guidance notes that it is often known as a fire strategy.
Building Regulations compliance statement	Explains how proposed higher-risk building work will meet the functional requirements of the Building Regulations and identifies the guidance, standards or design codes used.
Cause-and-effect matrix	Defines how fire alarm inputs and other initiating events operate outputs and connected systems. It is derived from the evacuation strategy and fire strategy; it does not replace them.
Regulation 38 information	Fire safety information handed to the Responsible Person at completion or occupation so the building can be safely operated and maintained.
Fire safety management plan	Defines the management arrangements needed to support the strategy in use, including staffing, testing, maintenance, training and emergency procedures.

Core Principle

The design of the fire alarm and other active systems should support the required fire and evacuation procedures.

The evacuation strategy should not be reverse-engineered around a convenient panel configuration or a pre-selected cause-and-effect arrangement. BS 5839-1:2025 specifically establishes that the fire detection and alarm system should support the building's fire evacuation strategy.

This means the following should normally be established before the final alarm design is completed:

Whether evacuation is simultaneous, phased, progressive horizontal, stay put, delayed or staff-led
Which occupants may require assistance
Whether an investigation period is permitted
Which areas receive alert, evacuate or staff alarm signals
How automatic systems respond to different initiating events
What manual controls are required
Which actions must occur immediately and which may be delayed
How failures, disablements and overrides are managed

How the Strategy Develops

The strategy should become progressively more detailed without losing the original fire safety objectives.

Subject	Stage 1	Stage 2	Stage 3	Stage 4
Primary purpose	Define requirements and constraints	Establish the concept	Coordinate and validate the design	Complete the technical design
Occupancy	Initial use and vulnerability assumptions	Design occupancy and management assumptions	Confirmed occupancy numbers and distribution	Final design values and operational limitations
Evacuation	Required outcomes and likely approach	Concept evacuation philosophy	Coordinated evacuation zones, routes and procedures	Fully specified arrangements and system logic
Means of escape	Key constraints and feasibility	Number and broad arrangement of exits, stairs and cores	Travel distances, capacities and routes coordinated	Final dimensions, details, signage and specifications
Compartmentation	High-level need	Primary compartment principles	Boundaries, ratings and interfaces coordinated	Detailed construction, junction and penetration requirements
Structural fire resistance	Required approach identified	Preliminary periods and structural concept	Fire resistance coordinated with structure	Final specifications and engineering details
Fire alarm	Need, objectives and user requirements	Category and alarm philosophy developed	Detection coverage, zones and interfaces coordinated	Full design, calculations, drawings, specifications and testable cause and effect
Smoke control	Need and objectives identified	System concept selected	Zones, shafts, controls and design basis coordinated	Final calculations, schematics, controls and installation information
Suppression	Need and design objective identified	System type and broad extent selected	Hazard classes, water supplies and interfaces coordinated	Final specialist design and specifications
Firefighting facilities	Site and access constraints identified	Access, shafts, lifts and water concepts developed	Layout and dimensions coordinated	Final technical details and specifications
External walls	Regulatory and site constraints identified	Façade concept reviewed	Materials, cavity strategy and interfaces coordinated	Final build-ups, barriers, fixings and evidence
Cause and effect	Key operating scenarios identified	Principal sequences described	Functional matrix coordinated across systems	Detailed, testable matrix issued for implementation
Management	Client and user requirements identified	Management assumptions recorded	Staffing and procedural dependencies validated	Final operational requirements and handover information

Information That Should Remain Consistent

The following information should agree across the fire strategy, drawings, specifications and specialist system designs:

Building height, storey count and use
Occupancy figures and occupant characteristics
Evacuation strategy
Fire alarm category and extent
Detection, alarm and evacuation zones
Compartment and sub-compartment boundaries
Fire-resistance periods
Fire door ratings and functions
Stair and escape route capacities
Smoke-control zones and design objectives
Sprinkler or suppression assumptions
Firefighting shaft, lift and access arrangements
External-wall and cavity-barrier strategy
Cause-and-effect sequences
Management and staffing assumptions
Variations, departures and fire-engineered solutions

A mismatch between these documents can be more serious than a missing paragraph because different contractors may build different interpretations of the same strategy.

Responsibilities and Information Exchange

Responsibility for the fire strategy and each specialist design should be defined early.

The fire strategy author may define the required performance of a system without taking responsibility for every part of its detailed design. For example:

The fire strategy may define the required alarm category and evacuation sequence.
The fire alarm designer may determine the detector, sounder, loop and circuit design.
The smoke-control designer may calculate fan duty, shaft size and control arrangements.
The sprinkler designer may determine hydraulic design and water supply requirements.
The architect may coordinate compartment lines, doors and penetrations.
The structural engineer may design the structure for the required fire-resistance period.
The principal designer may coordinate the overall Building Regulations design.

A design responsibility matrix should clearly identify:

Who specifies each fire safety measure
Who completes the technical design
Who coordinates interfaces
Who approves changes
Who provides installation information
Who inspects the work
Who commissions and witnesses tests
Who produces as-built information
Who maintains the information after handover

BS 5839-1:2025 also requires responsibilities for fire alarm design, installation, commissioning and handover to be clearly defined and documented.

Cause-and-Effect Development by Stage

A cause-and-effect matrix should mature with the fire strategy.

Stage 1

Normally limited to the key operational scenarios, for example:

Automatic detection initiates evacuation
Manual call point initiates immediate evacuation
Sprinkler flow initiates full alarm and monitoring transmission
Fire alarm releases access-controlled doors
Fire alarm recalls or grounds lifts
Smoke control operates by fire zone

Stage 2

The principal sequences should be defined, including:

Alarm stages
Evacuation philosophy
Broad zoning
Investigation periods
Major connected systems
Automatic and manual escalation principles

Stage 3

A coordinated functional matrix should normally identify:

Input types and functional groups
Fire detection zones and alarm zones
Output groups
Alert and evacuation sequences
Delays and coincidence arrangements
Smoke-control actions
Door, lift, HVAC and access-control actions
Suppression and sprinkler interfaces
Alarm receiving centre transmission
Firefighter and management controls

The Stage 3 matrix should be sufficiently developed to coordinate all disciplines, but it may still use functional groups rather than final device addresses or panel programming references.

Stage 4

The matrix should be detailed enough to implement, commission and witness. It should identify, where applicable:

Exact initiating device or defined input group
Exact output action or defined output group
Alarm zone and evacuation state
Time delays and timer cancellation
Coincidence dependencies
Latching and reset behaviour
Manual overrides and firefighter controls
Disablement and isolation behaviour
Fail-safe or fault response
Interfaces between separate control systems
Required feedback and monitoring
References to drawings, schedules and specifications
Test method and acceptance criteria

BS 5839-1:2025 requires the completed fire alarm documentation to include a cause-and-effect matrix or a text description of how the cause and effect operates.

Existing Buildings

Fire strategy development for an existing building requires particular care.

Existing drawings and previous strategies should not automatically be treated as accurate. The project should identify:

Which information has been verified
Which assumptions remain unverified
What intrusive surveys or opening-up are required
Whether the existing compartmentation is continuous
Whether existing doors, dampers, shafts and penetrations match the records
Whether the existing alarm and smoke-control systems can support the proposed strategy
Whether changes in use, occupancy or layout affect the original design assumptions
Whether temporary measures are required during the works

Unknown existing conditions should be recorded as risks with a clear verification plan.

Higher-Risk Buildings in England

For work within the higher-risk building regime, the fire strategy may form part of a wider controlled information set.

Depending on the work, this may include:

Building Regulations compliance statement
Fire and emergency file
Change control plan
Construction control plan
Competence declaration
Mandatory occurrence reporting plan
Partial completion strategy
Golden thread information

The approved information must remain coordinated throughout the work. Changes affecting the agreed fire strategy, escape routes, stairs, evacuation lifts, external walls, active systems, passive systems or design assumptions may require formal change control.

After Stage 4

Stage 4 is the completion of the technical design, not the end of the fire strategy.

During Stage 5 and Stage 6, the strategy should be:

Updated for accepted design changes
Checked against installed work
Supported by inspection and test evidence
Updated to reflect final cause-and-effect programming
Reconciled with as-built drawings and schedules
Included within the Regulation 38 or equivalent handover information
Transferred to the Responsible Person, Accountable Person or building operator
Used to inform emergency procedures and the fire risk assessment

An as-built strategy should describe the building that was actually constructed, not merely reissue the Stage 4 design report with a new revision number.

Common Failures

Treating the fire strategy as an isolated consultant report
Starting the strategy after the architecture has already fixed the cores and escape routes
Using a planning fire statement as though it were a complete Building Regulations strategy
Carrying unverified assumptions through every revision
Failing to identify design responsibilities
Leaving major interfaces to specialist subcontractors without coordinated requirements
Producing a detailed system design before the evacuation philosophy is agreed
Issuing a Stage 3 strategy that is too vague to coordinate the technical design
Calling a document Stage 4 when it still contains unresolved fundamental design matters
Allowing value engineering or substitutions to change the fire strategy without review
Failing to update the strategy and drawings to the as-built condition

Important: This page provides general technical guidance. The required content and level of detail depend on the building, jurisdiction, occupancy, procurement route and applicable approval process. A competent fire safety professional should determine the project-specific strategy.