FIRE AND LIFE SAFETY CONSULTANTS

Xeluxe is one of the leading fire and life safety consultants. Our team have the expertise to provide a full range of fire & life safety strategy and plans consultancy services in UAE & Saudi Arabia.

The Fire and Life Safety Strategy aims to set out to employ and develop the fire engineering principles. This is to achieve code compliance with the functional requirements of the Building Regulations relevant to the development.
Xeluxe offers a full range of building and fire code consulting services designed to fit the needs of developers, owners, and architects. We not only cover all applicable codes and design features; we also meet the challenges of aesthetics, functionality, and cost-efficiency.

Traditional code compliance sets the prescriptive criteria for a baseline level of safety. For many clients, it is a perfect fit for their fire protection needs. Through equivalencies, alternate methods, or performance-based analyses and designs, we are able to meet the essential needs of the client and code compliance. Hence, we are one among the expert fire and life safety consultants in KSA and UAE.

Fire and Life Safety Consultants At Xeluxe

Common Code Issues And Resolutions

The codes address a wide range of building and fire safety issues that are commonly misinterpreted or misapplied. XELUXE can clarify the architectural code consulting requirements. we also assist with incorporating the requirements into specific design applications.

• Use and occupancy classification
• Mixed and separated use occupancy conditions
• Construction type and materials
• Exterior fire exposure
• Fire/smoke separations
• Protection of atria and vertical openings
• Fire protection system requirements
• Means of egress requirements
• Fire department access

Occupancy Classification

Classifying a building simply as multiple occupancies is an incomplete classification. Moreover the options for occupancy classification are limited to assembly, educational, day-care, health care, ambulatory health care, residential, residential board and care, mercantile, business, industrial, and storage. Rather, the classification of multiple occupancies needs to include mention of the occupancy types involved.

Usually, we classify a building as multiple occupancies and then we identify occupancy types present. The building code offers the option of protecting multiple occupancies via the mixed occupancy requirements or via the separated occupancy requirements.

Architectural code consulting is extremely important. Hence, the correct occupancy classification has to be made, as the Code requirements differ for each type of occupancy. Improper classification might result in an inadequate level of life safety or overspending on non-required items.

Occupancy Load

Calculation of the Occupant Load is necessary. It ensures the provision of adequate exit capacity for each floor and part of a proposed development or refurbishment. It is important to perform the calculations using the occupant load factors as specified therein for the different occupancy classifications.

Means of Egress

XELUXE reviews and assists in the design of means of egress for all types of facilities. Egress design can be based on code-specified prescriptive requirements, such as the number, capacity, and location of exits. Also, design can be based on performance measures, such as required safe egress time, calculated exiting rates and times, and assessment of potential hazard conditions.

Preparation of Fire and Life Safety Strategy & Plans

To document the egress design, XELUXE prepares to fire and life safety strategy & plans for the project. Additionally, the plans illustrate the relevant egress and life safety features. It also includes a summary of applicable code criteria, exit locations, occupant load calculations, egress capacities, travel distances, dead-ends, and exit discharge routes.

The plans will also include the relevant design criteria if we use performance-based methods. Furthermore, Fire Safety Plans aid the client and code officials by clearly documenting the egress design.

Fire Compartmentation

Compartment walls and floors are specifically intended to ensure that fire is contained in the compartment of origin and is not allowed to spread horizontally or vertically through a building. The objectives are:

• To prevent the rapid spread of fire and products of combustion which may endanger occupants.
• To prevent a small fire from growing to threaten occupants, people in the vicinity of the building, and firefighters who may have to enter a building to extinguish the fire. The compartmented structure provides demarcated lines of safety for fire-fighters and occupants.

Fire Department Access

The faster the fire service can respond, enter, locate the incident, and safely operate in a building, the sooner they can mitigate an incident in a safe manner for themselves as well as occupants.

Minimum building access for fire apparatus is a function of the access road reaching within a certain distance of all portions of the building’s first-floor exterior walls. This limit in NFPA 1 and the IFC is 150 feet for buildings without a complete sprinkler system. However, for fully sprinklered buildings, NFPA 1 permits this distance to be increased to 450 feet. But the IFC leaves this decision up to the discretion of the code official. Further, NFPA 1 requires that the road extends to within 50 feet of an exterior door providing interior access.

Design Flexibility & Equivalency

XELUXE staff has been instrumental in the development of the computational fire models, modelling techniques, and performance-based fire safety design approaches. In fact these are critical to developing and assessing alternative design strategies.

XELUXE will assist in obtaining the agreement of local authorities for proposed fire and life safety design approaches. We have the goal of meeting the intent of the applicable codes while preserving the character of the project design.