Professional Fire Safety Compliance Consultancy

FIRE SAFETY COMPLIANCE (QLD) a company dedicated to ensuring compliance is met by our clients with regards to their responsibilities as an owner, occupant or managing entity of a commercial property prescribed by the Building Act 1975,

Queensland Development Code MP 6.1, Queensland Fire & Rescue Service Act 1990 and Queensland Building Fire Safety Regulations 2008.

Compliance is accomplished for our clients by means of a number compliance services which are designed around the mandatory building fire safety legislation and dependent on the classification of building, building use and, of course,

the clients requirements. Definitions

Fire Safety Compliance (QLD) does not sell, service and maintain prescribed fire safety installations or fire fighting equipment. We are independent and in no way affiliated with any of fire protection sales and maintenance companies operating in the Queensland market. FSCQLD provides professional consultancy, emergency planning and annual occupiers statement management to our clients to assist them in meeting and maintaining their legislative obligations with regards to the Queensland Building Fire Safety Regulations 2008, Building Act 1975 and Queensland Development Code MP 6.1.

Services

Annual Occupiers Statement Management

Fire Safety Compliance (QLD) Pty Ltd can assist building owners and occupiers each year by contacting engaged prescribed fire safety contractor’s maintenance contractors and requesting, on our clients behalf, the contractors 'Annual Maintenance Statements' which detail the prescribed fire safety installations maintained, the schedule and maintenance standard they were maintained to and whether or not, if there were any critical defects over that period and declaration of rectification if critical defects existed. Clients will need to provide Fire Safety Compliance (QLD) with current fire protection and mechanical maintenance contractors company name and contact details.

Once Fire Safety Compliance (QLD) has received all 'Annual Maintenance Statements' from the engaged maintenance contractors over that 12 monthly period it will provide a completed 'Annual Occupiers Statement' to clients that can be then retained on site with other fire safety records, as well as, forward a copy to the Queensland Fire & Emergency Service.

BFSR 2008 Part 5 and The Queensland Development Code MP 6.1 requires the owner/ occupier to ensure each prescribed fire safety installation is tested by a competent person in accordance with specific Australian Standards (refer to The Queensland Development Code MP 6.1 Schedule 1) or in any other case at intervals and in a way that is considered sufficient in the interest of safety. BFSR 2008 Part 5, Section 55 requires the owner/ occupier to record in a ‘Record of Maintenance’ the details of each test of a prescribed fire safety installation. An ‘Annual Occupiers Statement’ must be lodged with the Chief Commissioner of the QFES annually and within 12 months of the day of the earliest test recorded.

The previously mandatory ‘Certificate of Maintenance’ relating to the performance of maintenance on the special fire services only has now been repealed and replaced with the ‘Annual Occupiers Statement’, QDC MP 6.1 Schedule 2, now encompassing all prescribed fire safety installations including special fire services located within commercial buildings.

The Fire and Emergency Service Act 1990, Division 2 requires an occupier of a building to maintain means of escape from the building, at all times free i.e. free of obstructions and generally BCA compliance door hardware and locking devices. The occupier, manager or owner of a building must maintain, at all times every prescribed fire safety installation to a standard of safety and reliability in the event of fire. Refer to Schedule 2 of the Building Act 1975 for comprehensive list of fire safety installations and special fire services.

Significant financial and imprisonment penalties apply for non-compliance with Fire and Emergency Service Act 1990 and the Queensland Building Fire Safety Regulations 2008 in certain circumstances. Effective 1 January 2009, the Queensland Development Code MP 6.1 and BFSR 2008 requires occupiers of buildings to provide and retain onsite an ‘Annual Occupiers Statement’ as detailed in QDC MP 6.1 Schedule 2.1.

Fire Safety Consultancy

Fire Safety Compliance (QLD) Pty Ltd provides approved online fire safety consultancy and advisory services that can clarify any questions on how you can meet the mandatory requirements for both High Occupancy and Low occupancy Building owners and occupiers. As a part of this fire safety consultancy service Fire Safety Compliance (QLD) Pty Ltd can assist you with the provision of online consultancy and relevant advice on fire safety compliance matters to assist property managers to make informed decisions, relevant to the properties they manage; such as’

1. Review of defect quotations to determine validity of defects, priority of rectification actions in terms of annual maintenance budgeting. etc

2. Review of fit out and minor works to determine effect on prescribed fire safety installations or whether or not building approval is required under the Building Codes of Australia

3. Review of fire safety management plans and relevant fire safety documentation for validity and compliance with the BFSR 2008 and QDC MP 6.1

The Building Fire Safety Regulation 2008 (BFSR) applies to, and refers to, a building as defined by the Fire and Emergency Service Act 1990,

section 104A. Building means a fixed structure that is wholly or partly enclosed by walls and is roofed and includes a floating building and

any part of a building but does not include—

(a) a single dwelling house, being either a detached dwelling house or a town, terrace, row, villa or like house attached to another such

house or other such houses only by a wall on 2 or more of its sides.

Due to different interpretations by some local authorities prior to the introduction of the Building Code of Australia (BCA) on 1 January 1992

some structures, detailed in part (a) of the above definition, may have current approval documents identifying them as Class 2 buildings.

Since the introduction of the BCA these buildings have been classified as Class 1a and therefore are exempt from the requirements of the

BFSR.

High occupancy building means any of the following buildings, other than a building to which section 32 applies—

(a) a class 2 or 3 building more than 25m high;

(b) a class 2, 3, 5, 6, 7b, 8, 9a, or 9b building that is a workplace—

(i) prescribed under the Workplace Health and Safety Regulation 2008, section 56; and

(ii) where 30 or more workers are normally employed within the meaning of the Workplace Health and Safety Act 1995, section 93(5);

(c) a class 6 or 9b building that the commissioner has decided is an at-risk licensed building under section 104KD of the Fire Service Act.