The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) has created EFFECT ™, a tool for comparison of fire risk for outdoor furnaces to assist property owners, facility managers and competent authorities (AHJs) in proactively assessing risks in their high-rise buildings with flammable facades.
Enforcement authorities and those responsible for the management of large portfolios of high buildings lacked an instrument to assess and prioritize decontamination works.
Fires in high-rise buildings with combustible exterior wall constructions have taken place in cities from Berlin to Las Vegas and from Dubai to London. In response to global concern, NFPA sponsored research sponsored by Arup, a global agency of engineering firms, designers and planners working on every aspect of today's built environment to develop a risk assessment methodology that prioritises risk management work.
The Fire Protection Research Foundation facilitated a detailed assessment of the project with input from an international panel, including Jensen Hughes as technical inter-collegiate assessor and Thomas Bell-Wright International Consultants from Dubai as advisers on testing fire systems on façade systems. These high-rise buildings with combustible external wall composition research take into account the building envelope; potential ignition sources; building characteristics; and existing fire safety measures such as warning means, containment and the deaf. The result is the comprehensive tool for prioritization, EFFECT.
"High fires, where flammable facades are present, tend to move quickly and can cause enormous loss of life and property," said Birgitte Messerschmidt, director of NFPA. "We have seen news fragments of fully enclosed high-rise buildings, and heard from concerned stakeholders who are looking outside for fire and security problems in the façade.Arup's thorough research has enabled us to create EFFECT, so that authorities are now doing the inspection and decontamination efforts to prioritize in their jurisdiction. "
"Keeping communities safe is at the core of our work and it is becoming increasingly clear that it is of great importance to help owners and authorities assess buildings with flammable façade systems in their portfolios and, where necessary, give priority to restoration work" Arup Fire Engineering Leader Dr. Susan Lamont added.
EFFECT takes into account the building, the façade and the impact of potential ignition sources, such as the spread of fire from inside the building, or fire from a vehicle, refuse container or balcony outside. The tool uses a two-tier risk assessment process:
- Level 1 means that an AHJ, building owner or facility manager answers a small number of questions with clearly predefined answers to report the ranking of buildings within their portfolio. Some questions relate to the flammability of the insulation and façade cladding; the presence of sprinklers; potential ignition sources; and the type of alarm system.
- Level 2 is where the authorities will carry out a deeper evaluation of the fire risk assessment for buildings that are considered to be at risk in phase 1. Onsite inspection; as-built information; maintenance data; tastings; and laboratory tests of unknown façade materials are covered in this section.
EFFECT, which is accessible free of charge, comes with a user manual that describes the methodology, but is intended to help the user answer any of the questions of EFFECT through words, images and examples.
In some cases EFFECT will emphasize the need for a more detailed risk assessment by a qualified team of façade and fire technicians. The tool can be used in any geographic area; and is currently applicable to homes (hotel, apartments) or company (office) type properties that are over 18m high. This height is measured as the vertical distance from the access level of the fire brigade to the top occupied floor of the building. EFFECT assesses the risk in existing buildings and is not made for use in new buildings.
Notes to editors: NFPA created a different source in 2017 to help designers and architects navigate the code requirements for exterior wall constructions containing flammable parts. Go to nfpa.org/exteriorwalls for more information and information.
NFPA, founded in 1896, is a global non-profit organization dedicated to eliminating death, injury, property and economic loss due to fire, electrical and related hazards. The association provides information and knowledge through more than 300 consensus codes and standards,
